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- <head>
- <title>ArcWeb User Manual</title>
- <body>
- <h1><img src="#!arcweb">ArcWeb User Manual</h1>
-
- This document constitutes a brief user manual for ArcWeb. It assumes that
- you have read the instructions file supplied and the Problems file for
- troubleshooting etc. When reporting bugs to me, please read the <a
- href="bugreports">bug report</a> instructions.
- <p>
- These instructions will help you get more out of ArcWeb, as they explain
- features which may not be mentioned elsewhere. You should have read the
- ReadMe file and the Instruct file that came with ArcWeb.
-
- <ul compact>
- <li><a href="#access">Blocking sites from being accessed</a>
- <li><a href="#abor">Aborting a fetch/render</a>
- <li><a href="#import">Sending ArcWeb URLs from external applications</a>
- <li><a href="#auth">User authentication</a>
- <li><a href="#ka9q">Usage with KA9Q</a>
- </ul>
-
- You can configure the various aspects of ArcWeb's configuration at run-time
- by using the Configure menu on the ArcWeb icon bar menu. When you make
- these changes, they last for <em>that session only</em> and you need to
- choose <em>Save options</em> in order to make the changes permanent. The
- only exception is the <strong>Font</strong> configuration, and those changes
- only take effect after a save, and reloading the browser.
-
- <hr>
-
- <h3 id=access>Blocking sites from being accessed</h3>
-
- ArcWeb will allow you to set up simple blocks on specific sites so that
- people using it cannot access these. The access controls are specified
- by two files, one called <em>Block</em> and one called <em>Allow</em>.
- These can be found inside the <img src="#!arcweb" align=middle> !ArcWeb
- directory. These files use the same format as each other, which is:
- a # signifies the start of a comment which lasts under the end of the line;
- comments, lines containing only whitespace and blank lines are ignored; all
- other lines contain either a single asterix (*) character, or a domain name
- with no wildcards in it. domains are matched as end matched substrings,
- so if there is a line in the file:<bq>sex.org</bq>then this would match
- any URL with a hostname ending in sex.org eg. www.sex.org sex.org
- ftp.sex.org would all be covered by this, but sex.org.uk wouldn't,
- because it doesn't end with the match string. NOTE that the example given
- would also block www.essex.org because of the match. To defeat this, you
- need to give the separator too, ie.<bq>.sex.org</bq> which will be the
- same except it won't trap essex.org <strong>OR</strong>sex.org itself.
- A line containing a single asterix character will match anything, thus a
- Block file containing a line with a * on it will not allow through anything.
- This would be useless, except that the Allow file overrides the Block file.
- So, you can block everything, and then list the exceptions to that in the
- Allow file. Since it is the target site which is matched, you don't have
- to allow access to the proxy (since access to that is assumed) which means
- that requests cannot be bounced off the proxy indirectly.
- <p>
- This is not a totally secure way of doing things. For example, the files
- can be edited (changes don't take affect until ArcWeb is reloaded), but
- it is better than nothing.
- <p><strong>NOTE:</strong> the <em>Allow</em> file overrides the <em>Block</em>
- file so if you use an Allow file containing the single asterix wildcard, then
- no block entries will be used.
-
- <h3 id=abor>Aborting a fetch or render</h3>
-
- You may abort a document fetch, image fetch or document render at any time
- by double-clicking the left mouse button on the web icon at the top of the
- page. The response may not be immediate for several reasons, but you should
- regain control fairly quickly. Note that all ArcWeb does, is to abort the
- render and broadcast a message to all applications that current fetches
- should be aborted and no completion messages sent.
-
- <h3 id=import>Sending URLs from external applications</h3>
-
- There are several ways of entering URLs into ArcWeb's dialogue boxes or
- windows:
- <ol>
-
- <li>On the icon bar menu, use the <em>Open</em> dialogue to type in a URL, and
- then press RETURN or click on the button to open the URL.
-
- <li>Use the same dialogue box on the page menus on
- the menu as <em>Navigate-->Open</em>.
-
- <li>Drag a text file from a Filer window and drop it on the icon bar icon or
- on the URL icon at the top of a page.
-
- <li>Use a <em>Save</em> or <em>Save Selection</em> dialogue box from another
- application and drag the text file to the icon bar icon or on to the URL icon
- at the top of a page.
-
- </ol>
-
- Note that this does mean that you cannot drag text files to the icon bar icon
- to have them rendered by ArcWeb. Any text file which doesn't look as if it
- contains a URL will be ignored. There must be no leading spaces.
-
- <h3 id=auth>User Authentication</h3>
-
- Some pages you attempt to access may be protected by password. For more
- information on how this is done and how it is handled by ArcWeb,
- look at the <a href="authorise">explanation of authentication</a> which
- was posted to demon.ip.support.archimedes by me on July 13th 1995.
-
- <h3 id="ka9q">Usage with KA9Q (!TCPIP)</h3>
-
- Usage over KA9Q is not supported in this version of ArcWeb, although it
- may work. I cannot provide any support for this type of usage.
-
-
- <hr>
- Stewart Brodie<br>
- 20th February 1996
-