# AOL Web Page Display Problems (built with Yahoo SiteBuilder)



## jenniferj (Jul 25, 2004)

Hello --

We have been experiencing a problem with our Web site (www.jenniferjdesigns.com) when viewed by users on AOL. We have tested the site with IE, Netscape, and Mozilla browsers, but do not have the ability to easily test it with AOL. Regardless, we are not sure if there are any simple fixes that would allow our site to be viewed under AOL.

As a bit of background, we developed our site using Yahoo SiteBuilder (and we are hosting it via Yahoo's web hosting service). While we know our way around basic HTML and Web site design, this is our first real experience in developing a Web site.

In an effort to troubleshoot this, we have tested our site using HTML validation tools. The tool at validator.w3.org indicated several issues with our index page. Specifically, it indicated that no DOCTYPE was found. Since we are using SiteBuilder and not coding directly in HTML, we are not sure what DOCTYPE SiteBuilder is coding as a default nor whether it is really that necessary if we should have one in our pages (any idea on whether that's part of the AOL problem -- if that won't help with AOL and everything is working fine on other browsers, is there any reason to address this?). The validation program defaulted to HTML 4.01 Transitional, but a lot of the code does not seem to be compliant with that DOCTYPE.

Similarly, the validator indicated that no character encoding was found. Once again, we are not sure if that is causing a problem or not.

Anyway, any help in getting our site to display properly on AOL is appreciated. I know that AOL users can use an external browser -- just concerned that they will not know to do this and as a result will not be able to view our page. Just want to do whatever is reasonable within our site to facilitate AOL users viewing our information.

Thanks in advance for any help...

Allen and Jennifer
Jennifer J Designs
www.jenniferjdesigns.com


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## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

ONE: Do you know what a doctype is?
TWO: Do you have any special scripts that you put in?


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## deitza (Jul 25, 2004)

I've done the basic research on doctypes -- basically that they distinguish the specific versions of HTML (and I believe XHTML). That being said, I'm not sure the effect of not having a DOCTYPE in the Web page.

With respect to special scripts -- not that I'm aware of. Once again, I've used the basic SiteBuilder tools. Having done some more research on this since our post yesterday, I see that SiteBuilder tends to use a lot of tables to get the precise layout and I wonder if that's what is causing the embedded AOL browser issues. Our page is fairly straight-forward -- a navigation bar, a mixture of text and graphics, and some PayPal buttons. I'm not sure whether SiteBuilder inserts any scripts as part of its HTML generation. I've looked at the source file a bit, but just not close enough to HTML to be able to troubleshoot it at any great level. I do notice that it attempts to detect whether the browser is IE or Netscape, but it doesn't appear to do anything different based upon that determination.

Thanks again for your help...

Allen
Jennifer J Designs
www.jenniferjdesigns.com


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## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

Im pretty sure the doctype would have nothing to do with it. Its only required in xhtml, so if that was the problem then the aol users would have to be using browsers that support xhtml but not html.


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## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

Looking at the source, im seeing plenty of tables, plenty of div tags, and plenty of javascript. One example of a script your using is the rollover effect you have for the navigation.


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## deitza (Jul 25, 2004)

Thanks -- having researched the AOL embedded browser a bit more, it looks like it has very limited support for JavaScript, so that could be one issue. Unfortunately, SiteBuilder looks like it relies heavily on the use of tables to get exact layouts on a page -- which is probably another issue. Anyway, just may have to accept that some AOL users (who don't use an external browser) will be limited (probably WebTV users as well, from what I've read). At some point, I'll probably need to re-design (probably outside of SiteBuilder) and see if I can eliminate some of the compatibility issues...

Thanks again...

Allen


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## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

I dont think that tables should be a problem...for instance, i rely on tables to make the navigation section on my site as well as others. Many websites do. You'd think that AOL would take that into consideration. Then again it IS aol.


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## acraftylady (Jan 22, 2003)

Just browsing the boards and thought I would tell you that I am on AOL 8.0 one step down for the latest 9.0 and I have no trouble viewing your site, every link works fine I can see all the text and everything. I'd be curious to know what problems other AOL users are having. If they have very old versions of AOL maybe that could be the problem but I am not sure. I have been with AOL 5yrs. and I never have problems viewing any websites with their browser no matter how they are made. One thing they might want to try is to clear their art cache. When you start having viewing problems on websites with the AOL browser it's usually because the art cache is full and clearing it out might fix that. I can only say how to do it on 8.0 but you go to settings, preferences and click on font text and graphics. Where it says maximum disk to use for online art look at that number and remember it. Then take it down to one and sign off and you will get a message about clearing the art cache and then sign back on and take that back to the original number, mine is set at 40. I do this once a month as routine maintenace and a lot of people don't know you should. You have a very nice site and those templates sound great. If you need any help with viewing the page feel free to e-mail me at [email protected].


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## deitza (Jul 25, 2004)

Thanks for the feedback. My understanding is that they are using AOL 9.0 (and using the embedded browser to view the page). Unfortunately, its been a bit hard to troubleshoot as I do not have AOL to test the page with and the test users I have are not local (so its been phone coordination). I've actually tweaked some pages since yesterday (found that I had a font in the page that was not supported on a lot of computers), so that could have been part of the issue. I have not had a chance to have them retest. Once again, thanks for the help...

Allen


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## acraftylady (Jan 22, 2003)

What exactly happens when they try to view the page? Even on 9.0 I believe you still clear out the art cache as part of regular maintenance so that might help. 9.0 could be the whole problem, I refuse to install it because I still here complaints about it and 8.0 works perfectly for me. Are they having trouble viewing any other webpages or just yours? Also if they have an older version of AOL still on the computer they could try and sign on with that and see if the pages loads fine. I keep two versions on here in case something happens to 8.0 I can always go back to 7.0 in a pinch but I have never had to.


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## deitza (Jul 25, 2004)

I'm actually going to be visiting with my AOL testers on Thursday and Friday, so hopefully I'll get to see firsthand what the issue is. Anyway, its certainly possible its an issue with their configuration (and has nothing to do with AOL inherently), so will look into that. Thanks again for your help.


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## acraftylady (Jan 22, 2003)

When you find out post back because I am curious now.


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## deitza (Jul 25, 2004)

Well I visited the people that were testing our site on AOL and everything appears to be working fine. I'm not sure if it was some of the image caching that has aged out or what, but everything seemed fine on both AOL 8 and 9. The one problem they had was that none of the PayPal info came up ok, but that seems to be fine now. Anyway, I appreciate everyone's help -- not sure if we did something specifically that fixed this or it was some temporary AOL issue. Will keep an eye on it as we modify the site over time...

Thanks...

Allen


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