Rein Dolfing

Rein,

> I now work on a scroller-script that uses a (local)RSSfeed as input.
> I choose the "Mikescroll"-script
> because it handles FireFox/Mozilla and IE5+.

but it fails in Opera, making it totally useless for me, since I am an Opera
user :)

[snip]

Now, on to your problem.

> importXML('nieuws-nu.xml','parseRSS');
> alert ("items: " + newsItems.length );

Of course it fails. You haven't let it load yet.
XML files do not load immediately. They load asynchronously in another
thread. Once the parseRSS function has finished, it will be ready (IE will
show the same response over slower connections). You should only attempt to
populate and start the scroller inside the end of the parseRSS function.

Please consult the author of the scroller script for more details on how to
delay starting of the scroller.


Mark 'Tarquin' Wilton-Jones - author of http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/

Rein,

> I moved the code that adds the Scroller-items into the "RSSscroll"
> routine.

hmm, still seems to be heading for problems. the RSSscroll() command is
being called as soon as the main page has loaded, but that might be before
the XML document has loaded.

If the XML file loads too slowly, or the main page loads too fast, all you
will get is the word "undefined" in the scroller.

You should not run RSSscroll() onload, you should run it at the end of the
parseRSS function (since that is only called after the XML file has loaded).
That is the only way to guarentee that the XML file has loaded.

Also, you should not try importing the XML until after you have created the
scroller, or you risk the XML file loading so fast that it has loaded before
the RSSscroll() function has been defined.

> I attached the working code, so you can try it in Opera if you like.

You can try it too - Opera is free and cross platform, available from
http://www.opera.com/download/

Ah, I forgot to mention, you also have to remove the stupid browser sniff in
the scroller code that stupidly stops Opera from running it. Honestly that
script is dumb. It still deliberately blocks Opera. Looks like it was trying
to protect Opera 6, but Opera is now at version 8 and has been capable of
running that script since Opera 7 was released in January 2003.

DynamicDrive (and the original author of the script) should be ashamed of
themselves for not keeping their scripts up to date [Ed. I have contacted
them and sent them details of the mistaken blocking]. Oh well, such is life.
Anyway, the fix is to change:
var dom=document.getElementById&&!ie&&navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Opera")==-1
to:
var dom=document.getElementById&&!ie&&document.childNodes&&document.createElement
in the file dhtmllib.js


I have attached a zip file with all the required modifications to make it
run reliably in everything.


Tarquin