Originally Posted by
hyperoctave 
Hello..
I musy apoligize in advance for this, since this thread will be pretty much dedicated to my website, but hopefully if anyone has any tips or solutions on how to debug HTML, Javascript and CSS, others will find useful information here.
My problem is simple. My website does not run on all browsers. It works fine on firefox, internet explorer USED to show it, but since using more scripts, now you can't even view it at all.
Currently it utilizes HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, XML, and Flash. HTML and CSS are used for the layout, PHP for the subcontent of each page, Javascript for text effects and the date/time, Flash for music players and image viewers.
Image formats used are .gif, .jpg and .png, the latter of which I prefer over the others for it's high resolution and uncompressed colour.
I am a little disappointed, since the website looks great, and I have learned a lot developing it, but I have obviously not designed it to WC3 standards. I have used dreamweaver for the entire project, with the assistance of many web developer sites.
If anyone would like to view the website and have a look at my (sloppy?) code to make some constructive criticism, the website is the same as my username (+ .org)
Some questions first though:
1) With such a complex website, is it better to stick to one dynamic language, such as PHP, instead of using a mish mash of code? if so then...
2) are there any programs that can make converting a website entirely into PHP possible?
3) Is it unadvisable to use multiple javascript codes? Is is possible to merge scripts within <script></script> tags?
3) Can anyone suggest programs that I can use to debug my website?
Hello,
You have a very nice website.
I believe the reason your site isn't showing up in IE is that you have nested <html> tags in side your HTML. There should only be one set of <html> tags, they should be the opening and closing <html> tags.
It may be that you are including files in PHP, using the
include(), or
require() functions and the files being included have <html> tags in them.
Another common reason for IE to abort() the display of a site is if you have JavaScript that makes changes to the DOM (Document Object Model) while the DOM is still loading, or right after it has loaded.
1) With such a complex website, is it better to stick to one dynamic language, such as PHP, instead of using a mish mash of code? if so then...
PHP is server-side code. The other code on your website is client-side code, which runs in the browser.
The server side code generates the browser side "code" such as HTML, JavaScript, Flash, etc.
I don't think there is anything wrong with the mix of languages you're using right now. They serve their different purposes well. Flash streams audio/video best, JavaScript is great for non-obtrusive user interface design, and HTML is the standard markup language of the web that binds all the client side scripting together.
2) are there any programs that can make converting a website entirely into PHP possible?
I believe your website is entirely PHP on the server side. You cannot have PHP as your client side language (for the browser).
3) Is it unadvisable to use multiple javascript codes? Is is possible to merge scripts within <script></script> tags?
There is nothing wrong with having a few <script> tags in your HTML. If you have a bloated number of <script> tags then it is good to move it to a separate file.
I usually keep the following in mind when adding <script> tags to HTML:
a) Separation of design and logic (unobtrusive scripting)
b) Optimized pages (faster loading pages).
These two in themselves are quite broad topics and there are a lot of variables, arguments involved.
In general, having your javascript in separate files (or a single separate file) increases code reuse, and makes it easier to understand and maintain your website as well as speed up your site download times.
4) Can anyone suggest programs that I can use to debug my website?
If you're debugging the server side PHP, then its good to turn on all error reporting in PHP. This is done in your PHP.ini file, or in your PHP code with:
error_reporting(E_ALL);
show_errors(1);
If you're debugging your JavaScript on the client side, then you should try installing the Firebug Extension for Firefox.
