Dramatic Table Malfunction in IE vs Firefox

[asherf]

Hi Everyone,

This sort of issue must be raised pretty often, but:

I just uploaded a website for a friend of mine. I'm a firefox 1.5 user, but believed i had tested in IE also. I was dismayed this morning though to discover on of my pages looks completely ridiculous in IE 6.

If you have facility, check the page out with both IE and firefox at http://www.bayonetrecords.com/records/bluedayrequiem.html

I'm using a repeating region to add tracks to an album template. Apart form misusing the template, i have no idea what could cause such a divergance in IE. I'm by no means an advanced HTML user, but at very least thought i knew how to insert a table!

Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated, as would any pointers on how to keep IE in check

thanks in anticipation,
asher.

[vinyl-junkie]

I don't know what's wrong in IE6 but it's still screwed up in IE7.

The first thing you should do is make sure your code validates. That might very well fix what's wrong with that page. If you need help with the validation or help with the rendering after you've validated your code, let us know.

[asherf]

Hey, thanks for getting back to me so fast.

I've performed that check and (OUCH!) so many errors. I'm not as pristine as i thought

But, i think i've traced this particular malfunction down to this piece of code:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
data="../musicplayer.swf?&song_url=http://www.bayonetrecords.com/music/drinkingthedregs.mp3&b_bgcolor=000000&b_fgcolor=ffffff&" 
width="17" height="17">
<param name="movie" 
value="../musicplayer.swf?&song_url=http://www.bayonetrecords.com/music/drinkingthedregs.mp3&b_bgcolor=000000&b_fgcolor=ffffff&" />
<img src="blank.gif" 
width="17" height="17" alt="" />

It's a little flash gismo for listening to sound files.

From what i understand, the problem is with my ampersans - correct me if i'm wrong. Do i actually need to change the ampersans in my code to be read as &? I've tried this and it seems not to make any difference - but that is what all information is pointing to...

Any thoughts?

thanks in advance!

[vinyl-junkie]

I'm not sure if that is your problem. What I would do is make your track listing part of one table, not have each track in its own table. For example, instead of this (two track entries):

                <table width="55%" align="center">
                  <tr>
                    <td width="19%"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="trackno" -->1.<!-- InstanceEndEditable --></td>
                    <td width="68%"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="trackname" -->Drinking the Dregs <!-- InstanceEndEditable --></td>
                    <td width="13%"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="tracklisten" --><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
data="../musicplayer.swf?&song_url=http://www.bayonetrecords.com/music/drinkingthedregs.mp3&b_bgcolor=000000&b_fgcolor=ffffff&" 
width="17" height="17">
<param name="movie" 
value="../musicplayer.swf?&song_url=http://www.bayonetrecords.com/music/drinkingthedregs.mp3&b_bgcolor=000000&b_fgcolor=ffffff&" />
<img src="blank.gif" 
width="17" height="17" alt="" />
</object><!-- InstanceEndEditable --></td>
                  </tr>
                </table>
                <!-- InstanceEndRepeatEntry --><!-- InstanceBeginRepeatEntry -->
                <table width="55%" align="center">
                  <tr>
                    <td width="19%"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="trackno" -->2.<!-- InstanceEndEditable --></td>
                    <td width="68%"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="trackname" -->Reminding Me of You <!-- InstanceEndEditable --></td>
                    <td width="13%"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="tracklisten" --><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
data="../musicplayer.swf?&song_url=http://www.bayonetrecords.com/music/remindingmeofyou.mp3&b_bgcolor=000000&b_fgcolor=ffffff&" 
width="17" height="17">
<param name="movie" 
value="../musicplayer.swf?&song_url=http://www.bayonetrecords.com/music/remindingmeofyou.mp3&b_bgcolor=000000&b_fgcolor=ffffff&" />
<img src="blank.gif" 
width="17" height="17" alt="" /><!-- InstanceEndEditable --></td>
                  </tr>
                </table>

do this instead:

                <table width="55%" align="center">
                  <tr>
                    <td width="19%"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="trackno" -->1.<!-- InstanceEndEditable --></td>
                    <td width="68%"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="trackname" -->Drinking the Dregs <!-- InstanceEndEditable --></td>
                    <td width="13%"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="tracklisten" --><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
data="../musicplayer.swf?&song_url=http://www.bayonetrecords.com/music/drinkingthedregs.mp3&b_bgcolor=000000&b_fgcolor=ffffff&" 
width="17" height="17">
<param name="movie" 
value="../musicplayer.swf?&song_url=http://www.bayonetrecords.com/music/drinkingthedregs.mp3&b_bgcolor=000000&b_fgcolor=ffffff&" />
<img src="blank.gif" 
width="17" height="17" alt="" />
</object><!-- InstanceEndEditable --></td>
                  </tr>
                <!-- InstanceEndRepeatEntry --><!-- InstanceBeginRepeatEntry -->
                  <tr>
                    <td width="19%"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="trackno" -->2.<!-- InstanceEndEditable --></td>
                    <td width="68%"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="trackname" -->Reminding Me of You <!-- InstanceEndEditable --></td>
                    <td width="13%"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="tracklisten" --><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
data="../musicplayer.swf?&song_url=http://www.bayonetrecords.com/music/remindingmeofyou.mp3&b_bgcolor=000000&b_fgcolor=ffffff&" 
width="17" height="17">
<param name="movie" 
value="../musicplayer.swf?&song_url=http://www.bayonetrecords.com/music/remindingmeofyou.mp3&b_bgcolor=000000&b_fgcolor=ffffff&" />
<img src="blank.gif" 
width="17" height="17" alt="" /><!-- InstanceEndEditable --></td>
                  </tr>
                </table>

That is only two table entries, not the whole thing. You'll have to edit the rest yourself, but hopefully this will help your rendering problem. Let us know how it goes.

[asherf]

That's probably a good idea. Although, i'm not sure how to engineer that with dreamweaver's template/repeating region setup. (lazy of me, in a way - but i need to be able to hand this to a non-"user" for him to edit. so i kinda need the templates.)

But, I did just try removing that flash code (just having a list without the players) and it did fix the problem. So it seems the problem is within that flash object code i posted back there.

Can anyone comment on my possible misuse of ampersans there? Not that that is neccesarily the problem...but i'm speculating.