I am a bit surprised that no search results returned anything on the eola patent debacle on any of the VM forums.

A few months ago, Microsoft lost a courtcase against a filer of a frivolous lawsuit, pertaining to a patent on browser plugins. That means that all IE browser updates from now on (untill the patent is invallidated) will block the automatic playing of a plugin.

There are various workarounds, but they are a major headache to implement. SiteSPinner is no help here, because one cannot edit html from within SiteSpinner, so every time you make a change to a page in SS, you have to re-edit the html.

Are there any plans to incorporate a workaround in SiteSpinner? My un-educated guess is that it should be easy, because it only involves the foreign object modules, but what do I know.

Carel

Here's a free website converter that promises to make the needed changes for you: Setsquare Design Eolas Patch

This thread discusses a code fix ('Amara') that you can include in your SS code before you publish.

If I understand that thread, it means that you first have to publish locally, edit the html and then upload it by ftp. Administratively that is a bit of a potential nightmare, because each time you make a change to a page in SS, you have to re-edit the html as a separate step.

BTW, Aldo Hoeben has the shortest fix here.

But again, it is a two step process every time you update .

No, not for the Amara fix -- it's code you add to your project before you publish.

Thank's Paradisi for the good and useful link !

Concerning IE, it's almost every month they have a new problem or something wrong.
No need to ask why so many people already moved to Firefox (Hi Bruceee!) and Opera (Hi Phil!) and with the 'the eola patent debacle' it should raised even more

Reading the amara post a second time I see that one can include the line of code in the right place with the z-order and therefore internally in SS. Thanks Bruceee for emphasizing that.

The Setsquare design seems an interessting solution for updating a whole website in one go, but the temptation is to use a number of different techniques in different situations and ending up with a website that has a mix of all. If MS is forced to make their browser immune to such fixes by the frivolous suitor, one will then have to sift throught the affected pages once more and remember which patch was used on which page.

I switched to Firefox early on and only use EI under duress. But the fact remains that most people browse with IE.

Here is an interesting indication that the eolas suitor knew of prior art. It is piece of evidence that for some very mysterious reason was not allowed to be revealed in court.

quote:

...and only use IE under duress

Well Carel, unfortunately it seems that you're not the only one !

quote:

the fact remains that most people browse with IE

Probably as it is shipped with Windows. You might be surprised, even puzzled but many end users still ignore there are other browsers on the market...

Thanks for the interesting link and below is DVORAK's (PC Mag) not very optimistic point of view on the subject:
Internet Explorer is a dead albatross

I hate installing microsoft updates, because they usually add another few GBs to the HD (or so it seems), but I finally broke down and installed IE 7beta2 on one of my PCs.

The only fix that I got to work so far involves an extensive re-write of the page. Not one of the "quick fixes" I tried got rid of the "click to activate" message. For the fix that I got to work, one has to replace the <object> with a <SCRIPT> that has an external .js script write the object on the page. From what I understand, this is also the safest way to fix eolas, because there remains no object on the page, so it should be safe if microsoft is forced by Eolas to make IE more "fix-proof" for tampering with objects.

Carel