Internet Explorer - strange behaviour

[Budfudder]

I have an application that runs happily in Firefox - no problems. It similarly runs happily in Internet Explorer - except for one problem. In Internet Explorer, as soon as I mouse over any of the 3 Buttons I have on the UI, the UI disappears entirely. The IE screen just goes entirely blank.

Has anyone had this problem, or a similar one? Any suggestions as to how I could tackle the issue?

Thanks for any help.

[Budfudder]

A bit more information - if I put a mouseoverhandler into my code, then the problem doesn't occur on mouse over. Instead, it occurs on mouse click (I already have a clickhandler).

[Budfudder]

I've investigated further by progressively deleting chunks of my application in an attempt to narrow down the issue. I've got to the point where the entire app is as follows:

public class MainEntryPoint implements EntryPoint
{
    public void onModuleLoad()
    {
        // Initialise the toolstrip to be added to the layout.
        ToolStrip toolStrip = new ToolStrip();
        toolStrip.setHeight("25px");
        toolStrip.setWidth("*");

        // Create the New button and add it to the toolstrip.
        ToolStripButton newButton = new ToolStripButton();
        newButton.setTitle("New");
        toolStrip.addButton(newButton);

        // Add the toolstrip to the root layout.
        RootLayoutPanel.get().add(toolStrip);
    }
}

When I run that in Firefox, I get what I'd expect - a small toolstrip in the top left-hand corner of the browser, with a single 'New' button on it. Clicking the 'New' button does nothing (of course), but the button works (that is, I can see it get highlighted on mouseover and see it 'press' when clicked).

When I run it in Internet Explorer, I get the same thing - a small toolstrip in the top left-hand corner of the browser, with a single 'New' button on it. However, as soon as I mouseover the button (not the toolstrip, but the button), the toolstrip and the button disappear entirely. Reloading brings them back, and then mouseover again makes them disappear.

I'm using:

- version 3.6.10 of Firefox
- version 7.0.6001.18000 of Internet Explorer
- version 2.2 of SmartGWT
- version 2.0.3 of GWT
- Java EE 1.5
- Glassfish 2.1.1


running Windows 7 (32-bit).

For what it's worth, here's my gwt.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE module PUBLIC "-//Google Inc.//DTD Google Web Toolkit 1.7.0//EN" "http://google-web-toolkit.googlecode.com/svn/tags/1.7.0/distro-source/core/src/gwt-module.dtd">

<module>
    <inherits name="com.smartgwt.SmartGwt"/>
    <entry-point class="com.ericsson.sib.client.MainEntryPoint"/>
</module>

Any help or suggestions will be gratefully received.

[Isomorphic]

This is truly bizarre and we've never had a similar report.

Clearly your test case won't reproduce the problem or all the toolstrip samples should be broken - are they broken for you in the Showcase?

Most likely this is due to some IE extension or possibly even a video driver issue on your machine. Can you reproduce this on another machine, and if so, can you reproduce it with a clean installation of IE7 (eg, a machine that isn't pre-configured with standard software and extensions that may be in use at your company).

[smartgwt.dev]

Can you try replacing

RootLayoutPanel.get().add(toolStrip);

with

toolStrip.draw();


Using Canvas.draw() is the preferred and more efficient way of rendering SmartGWT components.

[Budfudder]

This is truly bizarre and we've never had a similar report.

Clearly your test case won't reproduce the problem or all the toolstrip samples should be broken - are they broken for you in the Showcase?

Most likely this is due to some IE extension or possibly even a video driver issue on your machine. Can you reproduce this on another machine, and if so, can you reproduce it with a clean installation of IE7 (eg, a machine that isn't pre-configured with standard software and extensions that may be in use at your company).

Well, I'm glad I could come up with a unique problem :)

No, all the toolstrip samples in the showcase work fine for me, on IE7 and FF.

I'm bearing in mind your suggestion that something peculiar to our environment could be the (or a) cause - but I haven't investigated that further because of what I've written in my reply to smargwt.dev in my next post.

Thanks for your comments and thoughts.

[Budfudder]

Can you try replacing

RootLayoutPanel.get().add(toolStrip);

with

toolStrip.draw();


Using Canvas.draw() is the preferred and more efficient way of rendering SmartGWT components.

Tried that - and it worked. So thanks a lot for that.

Exactly what is the difference between the two? I've seen a number of examples (none in the showcase) that use the first method, rather than the second, so I'm curious to know just what is wrong with it.

But again, thanks heaps for your suggestion.

[kevboy]

I'm having a similar problem. See:
http://forums.smartclient.com/showthread.php?p=57354

I was wondering if you had experience positioning the toolstrip using Canvas.draw().

Thanks!

[kevboy]

We fixed it! I found out that the initial Canvas (which contained the toolstrip) was getting added using RootLayoutPanel.get().add(initialCanvas). After changing it to intialCanvas.draw(), everything worked fine. Thanks!