Bizarre radio button behaviour

  • Thread starter Thread starter Swifty
  • Start date Start date
S

Swifty

I have a webpage where one user (just one from tens of thousands)
reports a strange behaviour of my radio buttons. The empty radio buttons
respond as the mouse passes over them, but they do not get selected when
you click the button. This is with IE 6.0.2900.2189 under Windows XP
SP2. With the identical level I cannot reproduce the problem; it may be
a timing issue.

We have a bypass - wait 20 seconds. I plan on putting up some music for
this one user, and a message: "Hi, Chris, some music whilst you wait".

I've reproduced the webpage as faithfully as I can, obscuring URL's and
other identifiable data, at http://swiftys.org.uk/radio.html (note, no
"www" - it matters).

Can anyone suggest what might be causing this, and a remedy?
Why does it work after waiting 20 seconds (this is where the "Bizarre"
in my subject comes from)
 
Swifty said:
I have a webpage where one user (just one from tens of thousands)
reports a strange behaviour of my radio buttons. The empty radio buttons
respond as the mouse passes over them, but they do not get selected when
you click the button. This is with IE 6.0.2900.2189 under Windows XP
SP2. With the identical level I cannot reproduce the problem; it may be
a timing issue.

We have a bypass - wait 20 seconds. I plan on putting up some music for
this one user, and a message: "Hi, Chris, some music whilst you wait".

I've reproduced the webpage as faithfully as I can, obscuring URL's and
other identifiable data, at http://swiftys.org.uk/radio.html (note, no
"www" - it matters).

Can anyone suggest what might be causing this, and a remedy?
Why does it work after waiting 20 seconds (this is where the "Bizarre"
in my subject comes from)
Click to expand...

You might start by fixing the HTML errors, assuming that your real page
has errors as your sample page does.
 
Swifty said:
I have a webpage where one user (just one from tens of thousands)
reports a strange behaviour of my radio buttons. The empty radio
buttons respond as the mouse passes over them, but they do not get
selected when you click the button. This is with IE 6.0.2900.2189
under Windows XP SP2. With the identical level I cannot reproduce the
problem; it may be a timing issue.

We have a bypass - wait 20 seconds. I plan on putting up some music
for this one user, and a message: "Hi, Chris, some music whilst you
wait".
I've reproduced the webpage as faithfully as I can, obscuring URL's
and other identifiable data, at http://swiftys.org.uk/radio.html
(note, no "www" - it matters).

Can anyone suggest what might be causing this, and a remedy?
Why does it work after waiting 20 seconds (this is where the "Bizarre"
in my subject comes from)
Click to expand...

XP Pro, IE7, 1024 x 768:
Works from here, but ... when I click a radio button the page jumps upwards
to reveal the dialog box below the buttons. That's unexpected and mildly
annoying if it was intended.

You should find out what browser the other guy has, and "test" using that
browser. Every browser has slightly different reactions to things and that
might be the problem. Pages all display slightly differently in different
browsers too.

HTH
Pop`
 
Works from here, but ... when I click a radio button the page jumps upwards
to reveal the dialog box below the buttons. That's unexpected and mildly
annoying if it was intended.
Click to expand...

After selecting a radio button, the next action expected from the user
is typing something in the text input box, so I give that the focus.
I'd never realised that this would cause the page to move, as I've never
seen that happen before. Out of interest, do you use an unusually large
font, or a small browser window, causing the text box to be out of view?
You should find out what browser the other guy has, and "test" using that
browser. Every browser has slightly different reactions to things and that
might be the problem. Pages all display slightly differently in different
browsers too.
Click to expand...

We both have exactly the same systems and browsers, based on cloned
business systems, but I'd guess that he's keeping up to date with
Microsoft Update, like me, since we still match a few months down the
road. That's why I thought about a timing issue; it's possible that he's
got his hands on a much faster system. We blocked the automatic update
to IE7 until all our corporate applications are shown to work with it.
 
Swifty said:
After selecting a radio button, the next action expected from the user
is typing something in the text input box, so I give that the focus.
I'd never realised that this would cause the page to move, as I've
never seen that happen before. Out of interest, do you use an
unusually large font, or a small browser window, causing the text box
to be out of view?
Click to expand...

Ah, makes sense. Yes, I have problems reading small type on many sites so
I've set the DPI settings about 15% higher; thus only the very top of the
input box is visible. It makes sense that it'd "jump" up into view, in that
case. Remember, I'm an outsider looking in here.
We both have exactly the same systems and browsers, based on cloned
business systems, but I'd guess that he's keeping up to date with
Microsoft Update, like me, since we still match a few months down the
road. That's why I thought about a timing issue; it's possible that
he's got his hands on a much faster system. We blocked the automatic
update to IE7 until all our corporate applications are shown to work
with it.
Click to expand...

Hmm, guess I can't be any help other than what I've already said. I'd tend
to doubt system speeds having much to do with it, though. If anything
should occur, I'll pipe back in.

Luck,

Pop`
 
Swifty said:
I have a webpage where one user (just one from tens of thousands)
reports a strange behaviour of my radio buttons. The empty radio buttons
respond as the mouse passes over them, but they do not get selected when
you click the button.
Click to expand...


What happens if they avoid the mouse?
E.g. do a Ctrl-f Find for satisfied, press Backtab
then press CursorDown to make the selection.
Then what? Press Enter? Tab to the Record your Satisfaction button?
Etc.


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---
 
What happens if they avoid the mouse?
E.g. do a Ctrl-f Find for satisfied, press Backtab
then press CursorDown to make the selection.
Then what? Press Enter? Tab to the Record your Satisfaction button?
Click to expand...

What happens is very interesting. Thank you for your insight!
The radio buttons cannot be reached.
I think this is because of some strange (to me, even though I coded the
page aeons ago) JavaScript.

Each of the radio buttons has associated:
onClick="document.Form.Reason.focus();return true;"
onFocus="document.Form.Reason.focus();return true;"

"Reason" is the text input field below the Radio buttons.
The *intention* was to transfer focus to the input field as soon as one
of the radio buttons has been selected, thus helping the user avoid the
need to click in the "Reasons" box. That javaScript was developed before
I had any idea what I was doing (still don't, really, for JavaScript)
and was put together by experimenting with fragments found elsewhere.

I'm wondering if the "onFocus" event is stealing focus away from the
radio button and preventing its getting selected? If so, then its an
obscure timing issue, as I've never seen it causing any problems across
years of use and tens of thousands different users/systems/browsers.
Until now, that is.

I do recall a problem with being unable to click the radio buttons
during development of this page, caused by JavaScript, but until today
thought I'd got around it.
 
Swifty said:
What happens is very interesting. Thank you for your insight!
The radio buttons cannot be reached.
Click to expand...


Oops. I just realized I had the Internet zone in High level.
That would have disabled Active Scripting anyway. ; }

Well, if you do the Find does it change the timing on the problem machine
anyway? <eg> Note that the word found is within the first radio button's
label so keyboard focus would be within the radio button itself. Pressing
Backtab then normally would make the button selected such that pressing
Spacebar would be equivalent to clicking on it.

BTW this is not the best forum for diagnosing coding problems.
Try the MSDN forum for IE Web Development

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=923&SiteID=1


Good luck

Robert
---
 
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