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Issues and Workarounds
Biology Labs Online was created in the late 1990's using Java, a technology that is no longer supported in modern browsers. To make these activities newly available, we have implemented CheerpJ, a Java Virtual Machine created by Leaning Technologies that converts Java applets to Javascript. We are grateful to the developers who have made these tools available without cost for noncommercial use.
Five browsers have been tested: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari (Mac only), Opera, and Brave on both Windows and the Mac platforms. Because these applets were designed in the late 1990’s, they assume a mouse. They do not work well on mobile devices.
There a few minor quirks created by the conversion from Java to Javascript. Listed below are the known issues and some workarounds. Some are common to all the of the activities, and some are specific to particular applets.
General
| Known Issues | Workarounds |
|---|---|
| Can't select options in drop-down menus because the menu won't remain open. (This is not an issue on Safari.) | Firefox: Hold down mouse cursor over drop-down menu and drag down to the desired option.
Other Browsers: Right-click and press the Enter to open the menu (PC) or Control-click (Mac). Use the mouse or arrow keys to select the desired option. |
| Upon launching the app, the initial slider position may not reflect the true slider value. | Click on the slider side buttons or move the slider to a desired value. The slider will subsequently be positioned correctly. |
TranslationLab:
| Known Issue | Workaround |
|---|---|
| Graphics in left panel are cut off slightly on the right side. | No workaround. However, all the controls are reachable and the applet can still be used. |
HemogloginLab:
| Known Issue | Workaround |
|---|---|
| Applet becomes temporarily unresponsive, especially in Firefox and Chrome. | No workaround. If you wait for a short time, the applet will respond again. |
MitochondriaLab:
| Known Issues | Workarounds |
|---|---|
| The Pause/Resume button does not stop/restart the strip chart animation. | No workaround. The applet simulation will continue. You can set the speed to 1x to slow the strip chart down. |
| The Clean and Reset Chamber button does not reset the simulation. | No workaround. Export any notes you may have, then close and reload the applet to conduct a new experiment. (If the Start Lab button doesn’t appear, you may need to close and relaunch the browser.) |
PopEcoLab:
| Known Issues | Workarounds |
|---|---|
| For Firefox and Safari, when inputting initial population numbers in the multiple run mode, thick borders do not highlight the enabled text fields. | No workaround. However, the number of runs can still be selected, and the number of enabled text fields will correspond to the desired number of runs. Only the visual cue is absent. |
| When using the multiple run mode, the spinner for selecting the run number to be plotted does not appear in the Phase Space view. | The run number that is plotted in the Phase Space view is the same as selected in the Population Size view. Switch to the Population Size view, select the desired run, and switch to Phase Space view to see the plot for that run. |
If you encounter an issue not listed above, please let us know at BLOL@ScienceCourseware.org. Include the name of the applet you are using and describe the problem in as much detail as possible.