> -----Original Message-----
> From: cctalk-bounces_at_classiccmp.org
> [mailto:cctalk-bounces_at_classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Jules Richardson
> Sent: Monday, August 16, 2004 6:46 PM
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
> Subject: Re: [OT] Help with question about web page access
>
>
> On Mon, 2004-08-16 at 22:27, O. Sharp wrote:
> > Jerome H. Fine wrote, in part:
>
> > Hard to say without seeing the web-site in question, but at the least
> > (from your description) it sound like they haven't got their various
> > "what-browsers-are-acceptable" pages in sync. I'd be annoyed if I were
> > you. :)
>
> I'd be annoyed if I were me, too. Wait - I *am* me! :-)
>
> > We're moving our library around, so my relevant books are hiding; but
> > from memory, yes, it's possible. HTTP requests are sent with a
> handful of
> > environmental variables, including brand and version of the browser
> > making the request.
>
> USER_AGENT rings a bell for some reason, but I could be making that up.
> Somewhere on the web exists a site where when you visit the page it just
> dumps out all the data sent by your browser to the server. Unfortunately
> I never ever bookmark it because each time I need it I never think I'll
> need it again - d'oh! Anyone?
The ServerVariables collection is part of the Request object that is sent
from the web browser client to the web server. It contains a number of
variables that supply information about the user. Here are a few sites
that supply a little intormation on the ServerVariables. I've used these
variables frequently on commercial sites that I've built for companies
like Ford, Sears, Schwab, etc., where they had much commercial red tape
and corporate rules about how to build a web site and what browsers
were to be supported, etc. These things come in handy when you need to
know the browser type, referring URL, client's IP address, etc. There
are also ways to tell the client's screen resolution, color depth,
whether they can run java script, use cookies, etc.
Take a look at the following sites, which explain in a little more
detail.....
http://www.newobjects.com/pages/alpdocs/ref-Request-ServerVariables.htm
http://www.w3schools.com/asp/coll_servervariables.asp
http://www.asp-help.com/objects/intr5vsj.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/en/server/iis/default.asp?url=/windows2
000/en/server/iis/htm/asp/vbob5vsj.htm
http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/webtech/092298-3.shtml
This link will display the current ServerVariables collection, as
sent by your browser:
http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/demos/servervariables.asp
..... Ashley
> > <rant>
> > O'course, I've long held the opinion that - except in the cases of
> > multimedia-bells-and-whistles websites, which are by their
> nature heavily
> > dependent on what the receiving browser can handle - designing a site
> > that requires "Browser X" to be readable is both counterproductive and
> > against the site's own interest. Why put together a web presence at all
> > if you're going to bar a bunch of potential readers from seeing it at
> > the outset? Why make an effort to communicate your message to
> the world if
> > you're simultaneously going to put up a technology barrier to make sure
> > half the people you're trying to reach can't access it? If
> you're going to
> > write something, don't you want people to _read_ it?
> > </rant>
>
> Yep, you and a huge amount of other people - unfortunately it hasn't
> filtered through to the moron brigade it seems (who typically code for
> and test on IE, probably using Frontpage in the process... ugh)
>
> > Anyway, it may be simplest to just bite the damnable lead
> bullet and get
> > a browser upgrade. Mozilla's Firefox may be the way to go:
>
> Didn't Jerome imply that he couldn't upgrade or install anything
> different on this platform?
>
> Otherwise, yes I agree. My personal favourite's Opera as the download is
> tiny compared to other modern browsers, plus you can tell it to identify
> itself to a remote server as a few different browsers which can help
> access broken sites. And it's incredibly fast at page rendering.
>
> By the way Jerome, are you sure that you haven't just got some junk left
> in your browser's cache (cookies or content) that are causing problems?
> The fact that you said you can authenticate against the site and bring
> the initial page up but then not see any content beyond that could also
> be down to a cache problem. Try shift-reload on an offending page and
> see what it does if you haven't already; from memory with that version
> of Netscape it should force a reload of the page from the server.
>
> cheers
>
> Jules
>
>
>
Received on Mon Aug 16 2004 - 18:26:09 BST