[webkit-dev] submit as a bug when browser sniffing is used?

[John Sullivan]

The first thing to try is to see whether Safari can display the page  
by spoofing as another browser (choosing from the User Agent submenu  
in the Debug menu). If this succeeds, then it is presumably a mistake  
on the site's part to block Safari. Apple does try to convince  
webmasters of important sites to make them work better with Safari,  
and this seems like it would fall into this category. We keep track  
of sites like this currently in Radar, so probably the best option  
would be to file a bug at bugreporter.apple.com rather than in the  
Bugzilla database.

On the other hand, if Safari still can't display the page when  
spoofing with a different User Agent, then it is presumably being  
blocked because the site developers couldn't get the site to work  
correctly with Safari. This could be a bug or missing standards  
support in WebKit, in which case a Bugzilla bug would be appropriate.  
Or it could be that the site is using some non-standards-based  
browser-specific technology, in which case there is less chance that  
a fix in WebKit will help. But if you're not sure, it's worthwhile to  
file a bug in Bugzilla and then you or someone else can try to reduce  
the problem down small enough that it's obvious whether it's a WebKit  
problem or a non-standards-based site issue.

John

On Jul 3, 2005, at 10:39 AM, David Storey wrote:

> Should a bug be reported if a site uses browser sniffing?  I wanted  
> to watch the webcasts of  Live 8, but the AOL site that handles  
> them brings up "We're sorry, Safari is not currently available. We  
> recommend AOL Client or  Firefox . Check back for more LIVE 8!"
>
> I has a quick look at the source and there were a number of if (! 
> isSafari) statements in the code.  I'm not sure if they are there  
> cause it wasn't working in safari or for political reasons.  It  
> would be a strange choice to block safari when there is an iTunes +  
> iPod ad on the page and aol has/had a deal with itms.  Its  
> frustrating as it seems to use windows media player, so if you open  
> it in firefox it just says the plug in is missing and so can;t play  
> it (unlike safari that usually opens the standalone player).
>
> If it should be submitted as a bug, i'll try to look further at the  
> source code and do a reduction with what is wrong.
>
> Thanks,
>
> David
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> webkit-dev at opendarwin.org
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>

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