News Article

Training Tip - Dealing with 'Browser Botheration'

5th Sep 14

Ever wondered why something that worked yesterday is suddenly behaving strangely, or not working at all today? You may be a victim of Bothersome Browser Blight!

Learn about the factors that contribute to this issue, as well as steps you can take to avoid it happening to you.

What is Bothersome Browser Blight?

Bothersome Browser Blight is a nonsense term I use to describe the problems that arise due to a normal part of life in the modern world.

All the IT Software companies out there, including IVT, are constantly working on improving the software they create. These improvements usually happen behind the scenes without causing a ripple to our day to day activities. Unfortunately, sometimes an update is not so benign, as it interrupts the way your other software works. The way that you discover this is by performing a task and getting an unexpected result.

As an example, recently I came to work and, using Chrome, tried to extract some data from Association Online. Normally the result of the action is an Excel spreadsheet with all the data in it, however on this occasion the data appeared in plain text format on a new tab in Chrome. It was both unexpected and unhelpful! Obviously the makers of Chrome had released an update which impacted negatively on Association Online’s code.

Other examples of this may be:

The page displaying differently - for example, a missing button.
Loss of function - for example, a button not working, screens freezing or other unexpected behaviour.

So how do I deal with Bothersome Browser Blight?

There are a few things you can do to address Bothersome Browser Blight:

Short Term Solution	Before you contact Helpdesk, test it in another browser! You may find that a different browser will work as expected, for example, until the problem with exporting data in Chrome is fixed, I’m using Firefox. Ensure you have both of these installed on your computer.
Long Term Solution	Report the problem in IVT’s Online Helpdesk. The issue will be assigned a priority, and our Development Team will then examine the issue and build a fix for it.

To Report the Problem

To report the issue you will need a login & password to IVT’s Online Helpdesk. If you don’t have this, please phone our Helpdesk team on (03) 9723 9399.

See the attached Quick Reference Guide (QRG) for details on how to use IVT's Online Helpdesk. The QRG includes instructions on accessing IVT's Online Helpdesk, raising an issue, monitoring progress, and adding comments.

To maximise the effectiveness of the issue you raise, ensure that you include as much relevant information as possible when you log the issue. This will help our Developent Team to reproduce the issue, identify the cause and develop a solution. To assist you do do this we have created a template. Download and save the template, then complete it each time you report an issue.

Using the template will ensure the greatest chance of a prompt fix.

An Interesting Fact

At the top of ‘IVT’s Most Wanted List’ of repeat offenders for Browser Botheration Blight is Internet Explorer – expect drama in your life if you are using this! We recommend you use Firefox and Chrome – particularly when working in the back end.

One Final Tip

When adding attachments to your articles, if you load them via the Attachments Tab there is no option for them to open in a new window. For a superior user experience, load documents into your Document Repository and use the link function within the WYSIWYG Editor to attach them; the link pop-up box has the option to open the document in a new window on the Target Tab - see pages 3 & 4 of the WYSIWYG Editor QRG for detailed instructions.

Training Tip - Browser Botheration, (Printable copy).

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