Diseases Database Web Front End: Technical Introduction

Moose Pic

Index for this page

Browser requirements

Testing and validation

Known bugs and browser issues

Cookies

Frames version (Now dropped)

Browser requirements:

Diseases Database web pages are designed for speed, simplicity, clarity and browser compatibility. The sole caveat is that screen resolutions of less than 800 by 600 pixels are a little cramped! Pages may be less pretty without masses of dynamic HTML, Flash and Java applets etc. However browser roulette is avoided and pages render quicker once downloaded. Pages are also small (mostly smaller than the modest moose graphic above).

The Diseases Database 'web front end' consists of both Microsoft Active Server Pages and plain HTML pages and forms. 'Client-side' JavaScript is used very sparingly. A minimal cascading style sheet is used. Pages are as back compatible with early browsers as we can make them (see next paragraph) and all client side validation is duplicated on the server.

Testing and validation:

This site has been tested in detail on the following operating system/browser combinations: for known defects see known bugs and browser issues below).

Windows 95/ Spry Mosaic 4.0; Netscape 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0; Internet Explorer 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0; Opera 3.51, 3.6 and 4.0
Redhat Linux 5.0 (Intel platform)/Lynx 2.7
Macintosh OS 7.53/ NCSA Mosaic 2.0.1; Netscape 2.0 and 3.0; Lynx 2.8 beta
Windows NT 4.0/ Spry Mosaic 4.0, Netscape 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 4.6; Internet Explorer 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 5.5; Opera 3.51, 3.6, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0; Lynx/2.8.1 rel.1
Windows 2000/ Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.0, Opera 3.51, 3.6, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.21 and Mozilla 1.4
Windows XP/ Internet Explorer 6.0 and 7.0

We made extensive use of the W3C HTML Validation Service to check these pages. W3C respect due :-) Thank you for this free service!

Very Old Browser Issues:

HTML tables were not supported by early Mosaics or Nutscape prior to Version 1.1. Tables are included in some of these pages. Use of very primitive browsers may be just about possible but is not recommended. Since we moved to XHTML 1.0 Transitional certain features have become inaccessible to browsers earlier than Netscape 2.0.

Cookies:

'Cookies' need not be enabled to use this site! Cookies are being experimented with to 'enrich the user's experience' and audit revisits :-)

Frames Version:

The frames version of the Diseases Database web front end has been dropped. While it looked more fashionable, there was no functional advantage.

Disadvantages to frames include:

Bookmarking (or other hyperlink referencing) of individual pages within a frames based site is impossible
Browser 'Reload' or 'Refresh' buttons work unpredictably on frames
Frames based pages often print in a perverse manner (depending on browser)
Following links out to frames based external sites may result in a displeasing 'Russian doll' effect
Frames based pages are slower to render on the client machine
Saving a frames based page to your local disc often requires more ingenuity with the frames version (depending on the browser)
Netscape 2.0 implemented the function of 'forward' and 'backward' navigation buttons, such that users find the behaviour of the frames sites infuriating. [Back returns the user to the previous 'parent' HTML document, NOT the last child within the same parent.] Later Netscape versions are fine in this respect
Browsers earlier than Netscape 2.0 or Internet Explorer 3.0 do not support frames.