Re: [MACCAWS] The great gecko swtich begins - AOL for OS X released

Hello, below is an excerpt from a newsletter Netscape sent out today
with some technical info about the AOL for Mac OS X release and
compatibility testing. Thought this group might be interested. Here's
a link to the full newsletter:

http://devedge.netscape.com/community/news/5.txt

You can sign up for Netscape's DevEdge News at
http://devedge.netscape.com/community (This is not intended to be a
shameless plug, just informational in an effort to spread the word on
 cross-browser coding. :-)


AOL for Mac OS X with Netscape Gecko Released
------------------------------------------------

AOL for Mac OS X has shipped, with Netscape Gecko as its embedded
browser. This is not a beta. All AOL members downloading AOL software
for Mac OS X 10.1+ will use this version. 
http://media.aoltimewarner.com/media/cb_press_view
.cfm?release_num=55252689

You can download AOL for Mac OS X at http://www.aol.com. 

<---------------TECH NOTES SNAPSHOT-------------->
Even if your site works on Netscape 6, please review the testing
section below to ensure your site is fully compatible with AOL for Mac
OS X.

- Netscape Gecko is the name of the layout engine embedded in Netscape
6 and 7 (in beta), Mozilla, AOL for Mac OS X, CompuServe 7, a PC
version of AOL (in beta), as well as other browsers. 
Details: http://devedge.netscape.com/central/gecko

- Sites compatible with AOL for Mac OS X 10.1+ should work equally as
well across platforms on the other browsers mentioned above --
provided your browser detection is set up correctly.

- This announcement pertains to a US English version only. No other
languages or platforms were announced.

- AOL for Mac OSX is based on Mozilla 1.0.1.

- The user agent string is: 
 Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.0.1)
Gecko/20020730 AOL/7.0

- Plugins that are now scriptable with Netscape Gecko browsers, so
your players can "talk" to web pages, include: Apple QuickTime 6,
Macromedia Flash 6 r47, RealPlayer 8 and RealOne. 
  Details: http://devedge.netscape.com/central/plugins


<---DEVELOPMENT, TESTING & CUSTOMER SUPPORT------>

IMPORTANT: We strongly suggest you download AOL for Mac OS X at
http://free.aol.com/tryaolfree/cdt.adp?139331 (or click from
http://www.aol.com) to verify the following:

  1) that your site loads correctly 
  2) that your site's secure areas function correctly

Some sites have had issues due to inadequate browser sniffing. 

***If for some reason you're not able to run AOL at your company
please reply to this message to ask Netscape's team for help.

TESTING ON AOL FROM WITHIN A FIREWALL

You need Internet access to test AOL; a LAN connection is not
sufficient.

If you need to connect to AOL via a corporate firewall, America Online
has registered TCP/IP ports 5190 and 11523 so you can communicate with
the AOL client software. This way you can test your site on the AOL
client from behind your firewall, provided that your network
administrators will open these ports. 

SITE COMPATIBILITY INFORMATION

If you have not actively begun testing with Netscape 6+ browsers, and
your site is DHTML and/or plugin heavy, the Netscape Gecko
Compatibility Handbook is a good introduction:
http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2002/gecko-compatibility/

The Netscape Gecko Central home page has useful tips as well:
http://devedge.netscape.com/central/gecko

Want to see right away how your site works with AOL for Mac OS X? If
you're using user-agent detection, try the User-Agent Toolbar:

- Launch the Netscape 7 preview release or Mozilla 1.0 for OSX
   (The benefit of using Mozilla is that if you're 
   only detecting "Netscape" you'll see the issues right away.)
   
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla/nightly/latest-1
.0/mozilla-macosX-1.0.smi.bin
   http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/7/download.jsp

- Go to http://uabar.mozdev.org/source.html

- Click "Install xpi here"

- Restart the browser

- Select this ua string from the toolbar dropdown list:
 Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.0.1)
Gecko/20020730 AOL/7.0

- Hit Enter -> click Shift-Reload to reload the page  
(You can verify the string got changed by looking under Help | About)

About Your Results:
-------------------
a) Site look funny?  If your site is already Netscape 6 compatible,
then try switching back to a Netscape 6 ua string. Drop down the list,
pick the string, and hit Enter -> click Shift-Reload. If it looks ok,
you're probably detecting only "Netscape" or "Netscape6." Detecting
"Gecko" instead is the easy way to fix this.
More browser detection info:
http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2002/browser-detection/

NOTE: Detecting "Gecko" will also "fix" your site for CompuServe 7
users.

b) Still look funny? Try picking the IE 6 string. If this works, set
up your detection to serve IE 6 content to visitors with "Gecko" in
their ua strings.

c) Give up? Please take a look at the Netscape Gecko Compatibility
Handbook: http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2
002/gecko-compatibility/


PREPARING CUSTOMER SUPPORT INFORMATION

If your site lists system requirements or caveats, because your
visitors will not know what "Netscape Gecko" is, we recommend that you
use specific browser names as needed:

 -AOL for Mac OS X 
 -CompuServe 7
 -Netscape 6+
 -Mozilla

-- 

Susie Wyshak
[email protected]
Netscape Technology Evangelism
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Developers: Check out http://devedge.netscape.com