Calling all Firefox users

[annathepiper]

Trying to repro a problem with our site--the Autos part of it, specifically. Anybody got Firefox handy and want to pop over to here and tell me if the various drop down controls are grayed out for you? If you can repro the problem, drop a comment and let me know 1) what time of day you're checking, 2) what version of Firefox you're running, and 3) what OS. Thanks in advance for any help, folks!

ETA 1:48pm: Actually, turns out a user's reproed the problem on IE 6 as well. So let me know if you can repro it on any browser.

ETA 2:12pm: To be clearer, the specific issue is that some users are seeing all the drop down controls grayed out, not only on the main page but also on the Find a Vehicle page. So they can't do a search of any kind for vehicles.

Comments

[boxer-ferret.livejournal.com]

Well, I can tell that you have to select a manufacturer first before you can select a model. Secondary pull-down menus are appropriately grayed out until the top choice is made, then they become available. So it's working correctly for me on Firefox 2.0.0.3 on Windows XP (1:59 pm pdt).

[annathepiper]

Cool, thanks for looking. It sounds like you're seeing the correct behavior indeed. The problem that's getting reported to us is that all of the drop down controls are showing up grayed out for some users.

[keethrax.livejournal.com]

Do you mean that some people are seeing *all* the boxes grayed out?

Or just that someone missed this and is trying to "start in the middle" (if that makes sense)

Because some of them certainly are, but it's just the secondary options until you pick something for thee first choice.

[annathepiper]

The issue is specifically that some users are seeing all the drop down boxes grayed out, either on the main page or on the Find a Vehicle page. So they can't do any kind of a search at all. Apologies for the lack of clarity!

[keethrax.livejournal.com]

OK. In that case it all works here on all of the following:

Under XP Professional (SP2) (fully up top date as far as I know):
Firefox 2.0
Opera 8.02
IE 6.0.something (I can check if you really need it)

Under Vista Premium (fully up to date as far as I know):
IE 7.something (how do you check version #s here?)
Firefox 2.0.0.5

[annathepiper]

Cool, thanks for looking on all of those. I've got most of those browsers on those same platforms at work, but it's good to have that doublechecked. :)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Works right for me, Firefox 1.5.0.8 on Red Hat 4...

[annathepiper]

Cool, thank you very much for looking. :)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Something you might want to do is load Ubuntu (or even Puppy) into VMWare Player on your work machine, and then run Firefox, Amaya, Opera, and Konqueror against your stuff... Opera is particularly useful as it will merrily spoof the user agent and let you see what your fiddly bits actually do... (I think Konqueror will too, but it's not as easy...)

Just a thought.

[annathepiper]

Oh, I've got Opera handy on both the Mac and XP, and checked it there already as well. And we've got a dev that uses Ubuntu as his default working platform, but we don't have a virtual machine for it yet in QA. Mostly because I haven't had time to set one up. But it is on the queue. :)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

(If you did the VM thingy then you'd have an excuse to cheese Bill off put a little bitty logo somewhere on the site, "Linux-compatible too!" or something...

No, I'm not evil. I'm just drawn that way.

[annathepiper]

*snork* I can't go throwing logos around the site anyway, it's not my job. ;)

And unfortunately Linux of any stripe is far enough down in percentage of our traffic that it's not on the radar of platforms we officially support. So while we do periodically glance Linux-ward if we get in specific user-reported errors, it's not a platform we regularly test against.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Also works right on Firefox 2.0.0.4, Windows XP with full updates.

[annathepiper]

That matches my own findings; we have that setup in QA. Thanks for checking there too. :)

[starsongky.livejournal.com]

Firefox 2.0.0.5, Windows XP, full updates as far as I know, 5:50pm Eastern. Some of the dropdowns for sub-categories were greyed out at first, but only until I chose a main category, then the subcategory dropdown filled in and worked fine.

[annathepiper]

*nods* That means you're seeing the way it's supposed to work--for example, you have to choose a Make before you can choose a Model. Thanks for looking!

[waysofseeing.livejournal.com]

No repro with Firefox 2.0.0.5 on OSX 10.4.

I can repro the problem with Javascript turned off (either via the NoScript extension, which I use, or via FireFox itself.) I get no repro if Javascript is enabled.

[waysofseeing.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry: ...at 3:02 PM PDT. Also, in the you-didn't-ask-but-I'm-telling-you-anyway department, no repro in Safari 2.0.4 (419.3).

[annathepiper]

Heh, cool. Thanks for checking there as well. :)

[annathepiper]

Thank you kindly! I was glancing at it in latest and greatest Firefox on OSX myself, and couldn't repro it there either--but I hadn't thought to turn off Javascript. Good thought there. I'm pretty sure that isn't actually the issue at hand, but I'll doublecheck the expected behavior there.

[firni.livejournal.com]

Time of day: 3:35pm
OS: OSX 10.4.10
Browser: Firefox 2.0.0.4

No problems.

[annathepiper]

Thanks for checking!

[annathepiper]

I've already relayed the Javascript question to the dude in charge of handling this part of the site; we'll see if that goes anywhere. Thanks for looking!

[annathepiper]

Gabriels is our vendor, not an actual dev. ;)

I've noticed some oddity myself with all the controls seeming to come up disabled by default, and then some of them enabling themselves as soon as the page finishes loading.

[howlinhobbit.livejournal.com]

Everything seems to be working well with FireFox 1.5.0.12 on Ubuntu Linux (can't remember the exact version... latest kernel upgrade for "Dapper Drake"). It's the latest FF upgrade (for Linux) as well, it came in the same batch as the kernel upgrade.

[annathepiper]

Cool, thanks for looking. :)