**DD** IE menu drop down problem not just me!

In an effort to try and isolate the problems with the drop downs in the menu not showing in IE6 I've been re-reading
Peterned's site where he says under his Feb 2006 update:

Aldo's Blog says (last para):

So could this be the problem perhaps? How/where do I specify the mime-type for the .htc file please?

I don't believe you can in the file itself. Its part of your server/webserver configuration. Some webservers may allow you to add in extra mime-types in a local configuration file. Apache allows this with its .htaccess file and AddType directive, e.g.

AddType text/x-component .htc

Note, the use of .htaccess files and the directives allowed in them is governed by the webserver's global configuration (and the virtual host's configuration). For this to work "fileinfo" overrides must be allowed.

Thanks for the response Chris. I guess I'll have to go and hunt around FreeHostia and see what's what - unless Phreestyle happens to read this and can point me in the right direction up there

Try it and see. Put that line above in a file called ".htaccess" and upload it to your website and see what happens - it won't break anything.

Sorry for being dense - is that "anyname.htaccess"? If so, that's what I did , and there's no change.

no its ".htaccess", there is nothing before the dot.

I had this funny feeling it was but don't think I've ever created a file with no name before. But I just changed it and I'm afraid that too made no difference.

Well, seeing that .htaccess made no difference, I went off on another tangent...and discovered that there appears to be a hiccup in my menu specs.

There is no css spec for the class .sub which is the sub menu -

Link

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I've just checked the original thread and it never was there - could this be it? If some kind soul figure out for me what the .sub class should look like I would appreciate it. This is the css -

#wrapper { width:100%; margin:0; padding:0; background: #514774; } a {text-decoration:none;}

ul {
position:relative;
list-style:none;
margin:0;
padding:0;
}

#nav {
position:relative;
margin-left:153px;
z-index:10;
}

#nav li {
position:relative;
width:80px;
float:left;
margin-right:.2em;
text-align:center;
font-size: 0.9em;
background:#ccc;
}

#nav li.parent {
margin-right:0.2em;
}

#nav li a {
display:block;
height:100%;
}

#nav li ul {
position:absolute;
left:-999em;
width:100px;
background:transparent;
}

#nav li.parent:hover {
}

#nav li:hover ul {
left:0;
display:block;
}

#nav ul li {
}

#nav li ul li:hover {
background: #eee;
}

/** == curved corner styles == **/
.rtop, .rbottom{
display:block;
background:#fff;
}

.rtop *, .rbottom * {
display: block;
height: 1px;
overflow: hidden;
background:#ccc;
}

.r1{margin: 0 5px}
.r2{margin: 0 3px}
.r3{margin: 0 2px}
.r4{margin: 0 1px; height: 2px}

.rtop {background:#514774;}

Just because a class or ID is described in markup does not mean there has to be an associated ruleset for it, a lot of dynamic stuff can require elements to be 'identified' in order to target them. I probably added that class as it's a hook that 'could' be used for further styling.

Hello Hugo

I didn't know that obviously, I thought everything had to come in "pairs", and I know you were so busy at the time and there were so many other problems, I just wondered if it was an oversight. I should have known better

The odd thing was that as I was trying some things to get it to show last night, the drop downs did appear momentarily in IE but when I went to the newsletter page (which has the #info1 dropping down) they disappeared again and haven't come back.

I'm at my wits end here Hugo...any ideas please?

I simply can't think what the problem is at the moment I see the dropdowns and have done for a while , it wasn't likely a problem with the mime type as I would have experienced problems originally.

Trouble is with this type of problem is that so much information is required to debug it.

Did you try removing the classes that are not being used? might help it might possibly be a problem the script is having with identifying the elements that need a hover applied to but then again why is it working smoothly for me?

You could try revising the calling of the file placing the body call to the htc file in the external sheet ensuring that the path to file is relative to the html page rather than the stylesheet i,e if styles were in /css and scripts in /scripts the psth from stylesheet wouldn't be ../scripts/hover2.htc just scripts/hover2.htc if that is the html document was in the top level doc root.

Hello Hugo - thank you for this.

Well we really can cross off the .htaccess then.

No I didn't, but I shall.

When I first realised that the difference seems to be between a home computer and a business computer( i.e. standalone vs networked?), I thought maybe you saw it because your system is no doubt tweaked to the nth degree and emulates a business setup more closely. Does this make sense?

I'll try this first and if it doesn't work, I'll try removing the unused classes.

The other thing I wondered about was that the newsletter page has this problem in that the entire page drops below the boxes on the left...as though it's a float clearing problem, I wondered if it might be something to do with the table since that was the only page with a table (but I know you don't see that either and it's the same thing. It shows up in IE on home computers and not on business ones). However last week I added the Activities page with a table and there doesn't seem to be a problem with that.

I tend to think the menu and the newsletter page problem are linked somehow - if I can fix one, the other will fall into line, but I can't see anything out of line on the newsletter page either.

So is the stylesheet call -

* html>body {behavior: url(csshover.htc);}

It's in the root dir e.g. the same dir as the index.php.

Thanks Hugo I'll check out your suggestions and report back.

Although my system is tweaked! and networked there should in theory be no difference, 'Business' or 'home' should not really be an issue, at least not that I can think of, if anything a 'business'/network would be likely to demonstrate problems.

The path to the htc file should be fine if the htc file and page is in the root docs directory(if not play around with it), however you don't want the child combinator '>' in the selectors as IE6 will not read the rules; that combination of star selector hack and child selector targets IEMac only as it understands both the star selector and child selector combined in that manner, no other browser will though.

You might not remember but an age ago you had me put a border on something to check that .htc was actually working and I had to adjust it then, so it should still work since I haven't changed the dir setup since that time.

Yes, the hacks confuddle me no end so when the first (above) didn't work, I took out the gte - still no difference tho'

Well I just tried stage 2 - took out

- only on the first Home tab, just to try it - and replaced it with just ul and guess what?

Absolutely no difference.

Smee,

on how many elements do you require the use of the htc?

It would probably be faster to add a simple js to do the trick (add and remove a className on mouseover/out) and then double the selector in css to do the trick with the class (eg #menu li:hover, #menu li.hover { do stuff for submenu }

Hello k3liutZu...

Well, it would appear from the test above that I don't need the htc at all.

This was a straw I grasped at hoping it might make a difference, only to discover that it doesn't.

This menu works as it should in IE6 & 7 and FF2 when I view it at work. However the problem is that a friend and I can not see the drop down menus on our computers at home (though I can see them using FF2 at home).

Thanks for your interest though.

I've made a bit of progress guys!

Last night I was building the Library page (it was always intended that you click the tab to go to a page of choices) and while struggling with containing floats - I put height: 100% on the body.

Lo! I have drop down menus in IE6! Mostly. With a few hiccups. It also appears to have fixed the newsletter 'drop'.

However...there are no DDs if you are on the Knoll-opening or Knoll-closing pages from the Library tab, either of the mediums (Anne and David) pages, or the photos page. You can however click the Home tab and start again from there. Note that the DDs are okay on any other page accessible from the Library tab.

Can you complete the picture for me now?

I'll just keep adding dribs and drabs here as I come across something that might trigger a penny drop with someone.

The photos page has suddenly gained an unnecessary vertical scroll bar as well

The current status is that -

1. There are DDs on Home, About and Mediums. The library tab now takes you to a page of options.
   
2. The About and Mediums tabs do not link to anything as their DD contents are on different pages, so they have a # specified in the menu-inc.php file thus:

Mediums The Home tab links home and the photos tab links to the gallery page.

The DDs appear to work in IE when you are anywhere except 5 particular pages. Two are reached from Library>addresses - the Endings & Beginings and the Life, Death & Afterlife articles. When you select a page from "Mediums" and are on either Anne or David's page or when you are on the Photos page.