Discussion: RouteGadget under Safari/Macos X

Recently, some routegadget sites have stopped working under Safari/Macos X (I do not have Firefox so didn't test it), for example:
http://www.matrace.fr/rg.php

others still work fine,
http://rg.orienteering.ca/cgi-bin/reitti.pl

My first guess is that since Macos X is still stuck with the 1.5 Java version, there is a version problem. What can be done to solve that?

1.5 should work just fine. Maybe it's charset / language issue. Will it work if you change language to English in RG?

Good guess! I didn't know applets were so sensitive to charsets (the problem also comes from Safari, as it works out of the box with Firefox)

Hm, I just tried both of those (Safari 3.1, MacOS X) and neither of them worked, English or no English. The message on the bottom says, "Applet reitti notinited". They both work just fine in Firefox. Maybe the new version of Safari has some issues?

I use Safari on OSX at work and home. RG at home works fine; at work it does not seem to work: ie I get a red X when I want a map loaded. However, if I click on the GPS button as though I am going to download gps, and then once that page loads, I use the back-browse command, then everything works fine from that point on.

I've seen FF (2.0) show a red X on occasion - right click the X and selecting "Open Java console" shows the cause (usually OutOfMemoryError). Restarting FF reinits the plugin and all is well. I'm not sure it works the same with the red X in Safari, but worth a try if the Java plugins are even remotely similar. FWIW, I have Safari 3.1/OSX at home and never had a problem with RG.

Even if it's not the same memory problem, I'm sure any console output would be helpful to Jagge.

Damn, I had it again! Apparently it is a bit more complicated than that: try playing with the text encoding AND the language switcher in the top right corner of RG. Or do like dersu.

Also looking for the Java Console (Macos is great except when it tries to hide all the geeky stuff): control click on the red cross if the applet does not start. Or open the Utilities/Java/Java Preferences app and toggle 'show console' in Advanced.

Currently I have:
java.lang.NullPointerException
at reitti.init(Unknown Source)
at sun.applet.AppletPanel.run(AppletPanel.java:380)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:613)

I'm sure it helps Jagge a lot ;)
Well I should probably download the code to run a test on the source, but I'm a bit lazy for that right now.

I tried all those things and still no dice on those two sites above. I know it works for some (like this one). But for those two (and others), no messages on the console, nothing changes when I closed and re-opened Safari... weird.

Same problem with Safari, but dersu's GPS trick worked for me. Thanks for the tip!

Sounds like a case for javac -g. Jagge, do you share source code for the applet, or prefer to distribute only the compiled version?

Click on the link to the routegadget page and wait for the red "X". Then hit the back button on safari and then the forward button. It works for the second site simon posted, and for the RMOC site (haven't tried any others). It won't work for the first site simon posted as that opens routegadget in a new window.

Works for Safari 3.1, Mac OS 10.4.11 at least.

I've been having the same problems as described above. I tried dersu's gps link and back, and johncrowther's back and forward navigation, and both methods worked for me. Thanks.

Back/forward trick helps? it shouldn't make any difference. I guess it works because it has applet or something in cache in second time, or because java virtual machinne is already running and has already some memory for appelts waiting.

As far as I can see simon's NullPointerException shows java fails to start before my applet is executed, so changing my code will likely not change anything. All those sites are running the very same applet version, so it should work in the same way in all cases.

I don't think I can do anything about, it may start working better in future with less buggy browser / java plugin version.

If you think have memory issues, you can always try opening RG with a small browser window and makeing it larder when it has started. Less pixels = less memory needed. If you have full screen, it will need lots of memory right from the beginning and you may more easily get OutOfMemory stuff.

Please use Internet Explorer :) *

*Any affiliation or connection with IE and Microsoft of the person claiming this is coincidential and was not intentional.... Not liable for any missuse due to improper following of product's manual pages.

;)

Not liable for any missuse due to improper following of product's manual pages.

You need a manual to use software????

You need a manual to use software????

... what do you think the thing that comes up when you press F1 is? :P

Wow, am I ever glad I just use Firefox...

Zero problems with Leopard 10.5.2 on a 2.4 GHz Blackbook with 2 GB, running Firefox 2.0.0.14

But Safari 3.1.1 gives me the red X on my machine - although the GPS trick and/or the back/forward trick does get the map up on the sites mentioned above. What a pain that would be.

Go Mozilla!