CalendarPopup.htc only works sometimes for IE7?

Crow555 · Mar 14th, 2008, 14:34

I've been asked to look at a problem with a calendar control on a content driven website we maintain.
Here's the code from the top of the page when it is included.

Code: Select all

html xmlns:astutemedia>
<head>
  <?import namespace="astutemedia" implementation="../../../includes/clientside/calendar/CalendarPopup.htc">
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">

We have 2 servers, one is for live usages by our clients and the other is for testing by ourselves.
The problem is that on the test box this control works in IE6 and IE7 but on the live box, the control works in IE6 and not in IE7. What happens in IE7 is a box appears with a red x in the corner (like that of a missing image). I managed to get the source from this but all that's displayed is

Code: Select all

<html><body></body></html>

Should I be looking at IIS settings or is there some specific reason IE7 won't display on one but will on the other?
Many thanks for any suggestions in advance.

CloudedVision · Mar 14th, 2008, 16:38

most likely on the live server the directories are different than the testing server. Double check all your image paths match up.

Crow555 · Mar 14th, 2008, 16:50

Already after doing that and checked and compared all IIS settings. Also IE6 wouldn't display the calendar if the paths weren't tallying up surely?

Thanks for responding though. I'm having awful trouble finding any information on .htc files and IE7 conflicts.

CloudedVision · Mar 15th, 2008, 00:07

true, forgot about EI6 working. What about firefox? You can get some good debugging info from that. Maybe a link?

Crow555 · Mar 16th, 2008, 10:55

Sadly the website was developed for IE only and there are checks for other browsers at the log in stage so a Firefox check is out the window.

I'm beginning to think it might be firewall or security software dependent but unfortunately given we don't host the live site ourselves, I'll have to contact the hosts and ask them their opinion.

I'll update this thread on my progress if I get anywhere.

If it helps, I can post up more code but I feel it will not help as I've checked it against the test server files and they match exactly.

CloudedVision · Mar 16th, 2008, 14:39

Firefox is used by nearly half of all internet users. I wouldn't just chuck it out the window.

Crow555 · Mar 16th, 2008, 22:35

Unfortunately as much as I would love this bespoke application to work with Firefox amongst other browsers, the original spec did stipulate it had to be IE compatible only, hence the reason for browser checks at the log in stage.

Crow555 · Mar 19th, 2008, 14:52

Mystery Solved, sadly problem isn't.

IE7 apparently doesn't allow scriptlets to work by default when the site you're visiting is part of the internet security zone. It does however when accessing sites on the intranet zone (hence why our test box works).

The calendarpopup.htc encapsulates the calendar.htc file and using the calendar.htm file as it's content source. It using 'text/x-scriptlet' as the mime type so you need scriptlets enabled to use it. IE6 apparently uses this still and it's being phased out as of IE7.

Anyway, the shortterm fix is

Go to Tools -> IE Options -> Click on Internet Zone -> custom level... button -> Scroll down to ActiveX controls and Plugins -> Turn 'Allow Scriptlets' to enable.

Our problem is telling 4000+ plus users to change this so it unforunately doesn't help us. I hope the above information helps someone else.

Crow555 · Mar 19th, 2008, 15:03

PS. Thanks to CloudedVision for their attempts to help, they pointed me roughly in the right direction.