History exercise: Mac IE and XMLHttpRequest

[Patrick Nolan]

I'm working on cross-platform portability of some javascript.
My Macintosh testing platform is rather old. It has Safari
1.3.2 and Internet Explorer 5.2. I got Safari working, but
now IE is causing trouble. It chokes on this:

if (window.XMLHttp Request)
nameReq = new XMLHttpRequest( );
else if (window.ActiveX Object)
nameReq = new ActiveXObject(" Microsoft.XMLHT TP");

The error message on the last line is "Object doesn't support
this action".

I can't pretend to understand much of this. I'm copying
patterns that I find in various places.

Is it possible that this browser is just too old to support
XMLHttpRequest? If so, does anyone know the earliest version
for which this would work?

[David Mark]

On Dec 28, 8:52*pm, Patrick Nolan <[e-mail] anford.EDUwrote :

I'm working on cross-platform portability of some javascript.
My Macintosh testing platform is rather old. *It has Safari
1.3.2 and Internet Explorer 5.2. *I got Safari working, but
now IE is causing trouble. *It chokes on this:

* if (window.XMLHttp Request)
* * * nameReq = new XMLHttpRequest( );
* else if (window.ActiveX Object)
* * * nameReq = new ActiveXObject(" Microsoft.XMLHT TP");

The error message on the last line is "Object doesn't support
this action".

I can't pretend to understand much of this. *I'm copying
patterns that I find in various places.

Is it possible that this browser is just too old to support
XMLHttpRequest? *If so, does anyone know the earliest version
for which this would work?

It is too old to have XMLHttpRequest and certainly won't create and
ActiveX object. However, should safely exclude it from using Ajax,
rather than throw an error. Try this:

else if (typeof window.ActiveXO bject == 'function' || (typeof
window.ActiveXO bject == 'object' && window.ActiveXO bject))

If that fails, do this:

alert(typeof window.ActiveXO bject);

(and post the result.)

I would be interested to know just what window.ActiveXO bject is in Mac
IE. It can't possibly be a useful constructor.

[Patrick Nolan]

On 2007-12-29, David Mark <dm***********@ gmail.comwrote:

On Dec 28, 8:52*pm, Patrick Nolan <[e-mail] anford.EDUwrote :

>I'm working on cross-platform portability of some javascript.
My Macintosh testing platform is rather old. *It has Safari
1.3.2 and Internet Explorer 5.2. *I got Safari working, but
now IE is causing trouble. *It chokes on this:

* if (window.XMLHttp Request)
* * * nameReq = new XMLHttpRequest( );
* else if (window.ActiveX Object)
* * * nameReq = new ActiveXObject(" Microsoft.XMLHT TP");

The error message on the last line is "Object doesn't support
this action".

Is it possible that this browser is just too old to support
XMLHttpRequest ? *If so, does anyone know the earliest version
for which this would work?

It is too old to have XMLHttpRequest and certainly won't create and
ActiveX object. However, should safely exclude it from using Ajax,
rather than throw an error. Try this:

else if (typeof window.ActiveXO bject == 'function' || (typeof
window.ActiveXO bject == 'object' && window.ActiveXO bject))

If that fails, do this:

alert(typeof window.ActiveXO bject);

(and post the result.)

It says "undefined" . This looks hopeless.

>
I would be interested to know just what window.ActiveXO bject is in Mac
IE. It can't possibly be a useful constructor.

[David Mark]

On Dec 29, 7:58*pm, Patrick Nolan <[e-mail] anford.EDUwrote :

On 2007-12-29, David Mark <dmark.cins...@ gmail.comwrote:

On Dec 28, 8:52*pm, Patrick Nolan <[e-mail] anford.EDUwrote :

I'm working on cross-platform portability of some javascript.
My Macintosh testing platform is rather old. *It has Safari
1.3.2 and Internet Explorer 5.2. *I got Safari working, but
now IE is causing trouble. *It chokes on this:

* if (window.XMLHttp Request)
* * * nameReq = new XMLHttpRequest( );
* else if (window.ActiveX Object)
* * * nameReq = new ActiveXObject(" Microsoft.XMLHT TP");

The error message on the last line is "Object doesn't support
this action".

Is it possible that this browser is just too old to support
XMLHttpRequest? *If so, does anyone know the earliest version
for which this would work?

It is too old to have XMLHttpRequest and certainly won't create and
ActiveX object. *However, should safely exclude it from using Ajax,
rather than throw an error. *Try this:

else if (typeof window.ActiveXO bject == 'function' || (typeof
window.ActiveXO bject == 'object' && window.ActiveXO bject))

If that fails, do this:

alert(typeof window.ActiveXO bject);

(and post the result.)

It says "undefined" . *This looks hopeless. *

Not really. Looking at your feature test:
if (window.XMLHttp Request)
nameReq = new XMLHttpRequest( );
else if (window.ActiveX Object)
nameReq = new ActiveXObject(" Microsoft.XMLHT TP");

The last line should not execute if window.ActiveXO bject is
undefined. Are you sure that is the line that errors?

I seem to remember having some weird problems like this with a very
old Mac AOL browser that was based on IE. Try this cleaned up version
as a test case:

if (typeof window.XMLHttpR equest != 'undefined') {
alert('Creating XMLHttpRequest' );
nameReq = new window.XMLHttpR equest();
}
else {
if (typeof window.ActiveXO bject != 'undefined') {
alert('Creating ActiveX');
nameReq = new window.ActiveXO bject("Microsof t.XMLHTTP");
}
}

You shouldn't get any alerts or errors. If you do get an error, it
should be apparent which line caused it.

[Patrick Nolan]

On 2007-12-30, David Mark <dm***********@ gmail.comwrote:

On Dec 29, 7:58*pm, Patrick Nolan <[e-mail] anford.EDUwrote :

>On 2007-12-29, David Mark <dmark.cins...@ gmail.comwrote:

Not really. Looking at your feature test:
if (window.XMLHttp Request)
nameReq = new XMLHttpRequest( );
else if (window.ActiveX Object)
nameReq = new ActiveXObject(" Microsoft.XMLHT TP");

The last line should not execute if window.ActiveXO bject is
undefined. Are you sure that is the line that errors?

I seem to remember having some weird problems like this with a very
old Mac AOL browser that was based on IE. Try this cleaned up version
as a test case:

if (typeof window.XMLHttpR equest != 'undefined') {
alert('Creating XMLHttpRequest' );
nameReq = new window.XMLHttpR equest();
}
else {
if (typeof window.ActiveXO bject != 'undefined') {
alert('Creating ActiveX');
nameReq = new window.ActiveXO bject("Microsof t.XMLHTTP");
}
}

I get the alert "Creating ActiveX". Then it gets an error on the
next line: nameReq = new window.ActiveXO bject("Microsof t.XMLHTTP");
The error is "Object doesn't support this action".
This is the same place the error occurred before. (I'm depending on
the IE error popup and its source code display to show the correct
line number. So far I have no reason to doubt it.)

I'm beginning to believe that the ActiveXObject doesn't support the
Microsoft.XMLHT TP action in this antique browser. Maybe I should
not try to support this version. It's fairly unlikely that many
people will use it.

>
You shouldn't get any alerts or errors. If you do get an error, it
should be apparent which line caused it.

[David Mark]

On Dec 29, 11:47*pm, Patrick Nolan <[e-mail] anford.EDUwrote :

On 2007-12-30, David Mark <dmark.cins...@ gmail.comwrote:

On Dec 29, 7:58*pm, Patrick Nolan <[e-mail] anford.EDUwrote :

On 2007-12-29, David Mark <dmark.cins...@ gmail.comwrote:

Not really. *Looking at your feature test:

*if (window.XMLHttp Request)
* *nameReq = new XMLHttpRequest( );
*else if (window.ActiveX Object)
* *nameReq = new ActiveXObject(" Microsoft.XMLHT TP");

The last line should not execute if window.ActiveXO bject is
undefined. *Are you sure that is the line that errors?

I seem to remember having some weird problems like this with a very
old Mac AOL browser that was based on IE. *Try this cleaned up version
as a test case:

*if (typeof window.XMLHttpR equest != 'undefined') {
* *alert('Creatin g XMLHttpRequest' );
* *nameReq = new window.XMLHttpR equest();
*}
*else {
* *if (typeof window.ActiveXO bject != 'undefined') {
* * *alert('Creatin g ActiveX');
* * *nameReq = new window.ActiveXO bject("Microsof t.XMLHTTP");
* *}
*}

I get the alert "Creating ActiveX". *Then it gets an error on the
next line: nameReq = new window.ActiveXO bject("Microsof t.XMLHTTP");

That doesn't make any sense. What does these show:

alert(typeof window.ActiveXO bject == 'undefined');

alert(typeof window.ActiveXO bject != 'undefined');

The error is "Object doesn't support this action".

It should never get there if window.ActiveXO bject is undefined.

This is the same place the error occurred before. *(I'm depending on
the IE error popup and its source code display to show the correct
line number. *So far I have no reason to doubt it.)

I'm beginning to believe that the ActiveXObject doesn't support the
Microsoft.XMLHT TP action in this antique browser. *Maybe I should

ActiveX doesn't do anything on a Mac. That is why
window.ActiveXO bject is undefined. It should be trivial to detect
that and skip the of creation the object.

not try to support this version. *It's fairly unlikely that many
people will use it.

Yes, it is basically a waste of time.

[Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn]

Patrick Nolan wrote:

I'm beginning to believe that the ActiveXObject doesn't support the
Microsoft.XMLHT TP action in this antique browser [IE 5.2 for Mac]. [...]

Have you read <news:47******* *******@Pointed Ears.defully? (Unlike you, I
quote properly, so where there is a quote block there is a response below it.)
PointedEars
--
realism: HTML 4.01 Strict
evangelism: XHTML 1.0 Strict
madness: XHTML 1.1 as application/xhtml+xml
-- Bjoern Hoehrmann