How to emulate IE?
 

I downloaded Omniweb after reading that it could be used to log into the back offices of sites such as MLS Board listings sites that only allow access vis Internet Explorer/Windows. I can't figure out how to do that, and am getting "wrong browser" error messages when I try to access my site back offices. How exactly can I make this work?

With the site open you want to make the change for -
Site Preferences: Other: Identify to web servers...

Forrest, are we talking about the same version of OmniWeb -- v5.7? I don't see any "Other" under either Application or Site Preferences. I've browsed through all the preferences several times and haven't seen "identify to web servers".

Once you're on the site in question, go to View -> Show Page Info, click on the Preferences tab in the panel that appears, and therein click the Other tab.

Just realize that a lot of these sites block non-IE browsers because they actually require IE-specific features. ActiveX, VBScript, whatever. Not that that's excusable or remotely reasonable... I just wanted to point out that all this will do is make the server think you're running IE so it won't block you. Beyond that, it won't "emulate IE".

I've attached a screenshot of what it looks like.

OK, got it. Thanks folks!

ie specific websites
 

Just a quick question here. Similary to suzstephens, I need to access the mls website, which they say needs ie 6 or higher. Do we know that the fix discussed in the earlier posts will make the mls website accessible through omniweb? I haven't downloaded it yet to try it, but I thought I would make sure before buying the license.

It all depends on the site. If they are just forcing users to use IE so they don't have to field calls from people with other browsers, it should work. If they have poorly coded their site and used proprietary and non-standard methods to build the site, it probably wont work.

You can always download OW as a trial and give it a go. If it works, then you can buy.

Alright cool, thanks.

So steps wise. Once I log into the website in question, follow the steps "ata" mentioned in the 5-4-8 post?

Yeah. You may have to delete your cookies for the site as well. (Some sites set a cookie telling the site you've been rejected so changing your browser settings still yields a rejected attempt.)

one last thing. can you download omniweb on a pc running xp? i'm at work and I thought I might try it here before trying it with the mac..

You can download it, but not install it on XP.

so even with the preferences changed the mls site is not working. there is an error box that pops up when the site first opens with safari or omniweb that reads: "hiJavascript is not enabled". any thoughts?

Sounds like the site is poorly coded.

Or has JavaScript to determine if they're running MSIE. You can determine if the browser supports certain methods (like innerHTML) and if it doesn't, you can be reasonably sure you're on one platform or another. Most javascript libraries like jquery and mootools do this for you.

Though, not using standard, clean JS is just poor coding :p