Hi all,
I am in the process of setting up a new Moodle using the "Collapsed topic" course format.
The courses look great and work flawlessly in firefox, opera, safari and IE8+ but In IE7 only the header, footer and nav bar regions of the page load.
Has anyone else come across this problem?
An example course with guest enrollment activated can be viewed at http://www.inxtraining.com/course/view.php?id=3
Thanks,
Peter Ivison
Dear Peter,
I notice from a firebug inspection of the page that you have performed some css customisations:
<a onclick="toggle_topic(this,1); return false;" href="#" id="sectionatag-1" style="background-image: url("http://www.inxtraining.com/course/format/topcoll/bg_INX_Main.gif");"><span>Add and Edit Personal Profiles</span> </a>
I've tested in IE9 and with compatibility mode on (Odd as this is IE8) and confirmed the issue. The format does work with IE7- normally. So I suspect it is something to do with IE's css compatibility (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc351024%28v=vs.85%29.aspx) - as a view source of the html in compatibility mode reveals that the HTML is the same as in IE9.
Does the issue manifest itself when you use one of the default themes? If not, then something is happening with the additional css that copes with IE and the display of those elements. Could you install Firebug Lite (http://getfirebug.com/firebuglite) and see what is going on in IE?
Cheers,
Gareth
Developer of Collapsed Topics.
Peter,
Additionally a Google search results are interesting... http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ie7+background-image
Cheers,
Gareth
Additionally I notice that the image is a replacement for the up arrow. Still I suspect a css display issue.
Dear Peter,
This has been bugging me, so I had another look and noticed from the css file that you have added the unreleased (in terms of inclusion in the main distribution) IE 7 content fix:
.collapsed_topic *
This then lead me to look at your lib_min.js file which reveals that you have altered this - but the one you altered was from the main distriution and not the one that went with the fix in the post of this forum. The latter contains code that properly facilitates the correct operation of the css selector.
Because of this hybrid it is not surprising that your code does not work and therefore would not affect anybody else. So, everybody else, please do not panic!!!
If you were to attach the image you want as a down arrow and state for what version of Moodle, I would produce a quick special for you as soon as I could incorporating the IE fix.
Regards,
Gareth
Creator of Collapsed Topics.
Hi Gareth,
Thanks for your prompt and comprehensive response-it is much appreciated!
The image that I am using for the up arrow state is loacted at 
- I am using a transparent version of the standard image for the down arrow state. My Moodle version is 2.1.1+ (Build: 20110826)
Thanks and regards,
Peter Ivison
Dear Peter,
No worries. Thanks for the image, please give me a little while to sort out the version for you as I'm finishing my MSc project at the moment.
In the mean time, I thought you could get someway there by downloading the latest Moodle 2 version and convert your image to the png format and save as arrow_up.png to replace the original. But IE being IE!! That's not the entire story as you then need TweekPNG (http://entropymine.com/jason/tweakpng/) to remove the 'gAMA' component of the file because IE makes a mess of that too when matching colours to that stated in css.
Cheers,
Gareth
Hi Gareth,
I have downloaded and installed the latest stable moodle 2.1 release and installed the latest version of the collapsed topics course format. I also took your advice above and converted my replacement gif for the up arrow to a png named arrow_up.png, but the course content is still not loading in IE6 or IE7.
The current version of the sample course above includes my modified css, which displays fine in firefox, IE8+, safari and opera, but is still not loading the course content in IE 6 or IE 7 - this didn't work with the standard collapsed topics style sheet either.
Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers,
Peter Ivison
Dear Peter,
I've been able to see on your site the problem happening. When I compare the html source from both IE9 (shows) and compatibility mode (does not) show, the content is the same (well the character count which is a good indication). Therefore the issue must be CSS related in controlling what is hidden and what is not hidden. I am unable to replicate with the same software with my installation. Therefore the issue must be with the theme or something that had been changed.
Do you have the same issue if you change the theme temporarily to a standard one? If not then this would be an indicator of where to look.
As an assistance, could you install Firebug Lite (http://getfirebug.com/firebuglite#Stable) by either adding it to your theme or in 'format.php' just after the ie-7-hacks.css include after the 'endif' which would help in trying to work out what is going on and why. If this is a problem, I can provide a 'format.php' with this in.
Looking at your copy of my collapsed_topics.css you do not have the latest version, please see 'http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=format_topcoll' which contains additional new functionality.
Cheers,
Gareth
Hi Gareth,
Thanks for the tips - you were absoloutly right. I finally traced this back to an error I had made in editing a style sheet for the course theme which had the effect of hiding the topics content for IE6 and 7.
It's now resolved - thanks so much for your kind assistance.
Cheers,
Peter Ivison
Dear Peter,
No worries, I'm glad I could help.
Cheers,
Gareth