Version 1.1 release (10 September 98)
©Copyright George Eleftheriou 1998
Contents
License Agreement |
You may use this program free of charge only for Non Commercial purposes. Please read the license agreement for non commercial sites. If your site is commercial you need to purchase a license. Please read the license agreement for commercial sites. The license also comes with a disclaimer of warranty which is mentioned at the end of this page.
Applet Overview |
Menu Applet is a small and fast loading applet that can help you create easily and quickly either horizontal or vertical menus for your web pages. NO need to create images. The combinations that Menu Applet offers you are equivalent with the creation of hundreds of images. When the mouse is over a text message, each font size, font style, font color and background color can change. URL links can be associated with each menu item and of course there is support for pages with frames.Added on 10/09/98 the ability to align text as you like.
Applet files |
Applet Parameters |
"_self"
: Show in the window and frame that contain the
applet."_parent"
" Show in the applet's parent frame. If the
applet's frame has no parent frame, acts the same
as "_self"."_top"
: Show in the top-level frame of the applet's
window. If the applet's frame is the top-level
frame, acts the same as "_self"."_blank"
: Show in a new, unnamed top-level window. Important note: The width and height of the applet must also be changed, depending on how many menu items exist.
Explanation of Applet Tags |
Each applet is characterised by a pair of tags: "<applet>" and "</applet>". The applet must be contained in the body section of the html document. The applet tag must at least specify the "CODE", "WIDTH", and "HEIGHT" modifieres. In addition it can have other modifiers like "CODEBASE" and parameters. For example
<APPLET CODE="MyApplet.class" CODEBASE="." WIDTH="100" HEIGHT="100">
<PARAM NAME="FileName" VALUE="message.txt">
Your browser doesn't support Java or Java is not enabled.
</APPLET>
CODE tells the browser which is the main class (An applet can comprise many class files)
CODEBASE tells the browser in which directory are the class files. In this example we have a dot, which means the current directory. We could also have stated CODEBASE="classes/" which means that the class files are located in a directory called classes relative to the directory of your html document. The URL of your html document is called documentbase. If CODEBASE="../classes/" this means that the class files are in a directory named classes relative to the parent directory of your html document.If CODEBASE and DOCUMENTBASE are the same, that is the class files exist in the same directory with the html doucument, then CODEBASE can be omitted.
WIDTH and HEIGHT specify in Pixels the amount of space the browser will devote to the applet.
PARAM, short for parameters, is used to pass information to applets. This information can be the text you want to appear in the applet, the URL links, the colors etc. Each parameter has a name and a value. Names are not case sensitive but Values are. This means that "FileName" is the same as "FILENAME" but "message.txt" is Not the same as "MESSAGE.txt". It is always a good practise and some times necessary to include the name and value of parameters in quotes
The line "Your browser doesn't support Java or Java is not enabled." will appear in the place of the applet if java is not enabled or the browser doesn't support Java.
Other things to note: Class names are case sensitive. "MyApplet.class" is different from "MyAPPLET.class". Class files are binary files and should be uploaded in binary mode. The applet tags can be written in lower or uppercase characters. CODE is the same as code or Code.
Examples |
The best way of learning how applets work is to see at the examples.
Browser compatibilty |
This applet requires a java 1.1 fully compatible browser. Internet Explorer 4 is one. Netscape Communicator 4.04 requires a java patch available from netscape .
Future Enhancements |
Ability to align text as you like has been accomplished and there no other plans for the time being.
©Copyright 1998 by George Eleftheriou