ActiveWebMenu (version 1.1)

About The Applet:

ActiveWebMenu is © Copyright Chris Rodgers, February - April, 1999. All rights reserved.

It may be used on personal web pages in exchange for a link to http://rodgers.org.uk/ on the page in question.

Corporate users should e-mail "chris at rodgers dot org dot uk" for licensing information.

ActiveWebMenu is a Java applet which displays an interactive menu-style navigation bar.

It is only 13kb - hence it offers a low-resource method of providing platform-independent, animated menus.

HTML Instructions:

ActiveWebMenu is embedded into an HTML document by using the applet tag.

<applet code=ActiveWebMenu.class codebase=http://yourserver.com/your-directory/ name="ActiveWebMenu" width=width height=height alt="ActiveWebMenu Applet" align=alignment vspace=verticalspace hspace=horizontalspace>
Parameters
Alternative HTML
</applet>

alignment can be one of the following: left, right, top, texttop, middle, absmiddle, baseline, bottom, absbottom

height must be decided based on what fits your webpage - be aware that an applet cannot resize itself while it is running - therefore, you must make this size large enough to display the applet even when the biggest subitem is dropped down.

width must be decided based on what fits your webpage.

Parameters must be specified within the <applet>...</applet> tag as follows:

<param name="name" value="value">

name and value are taken from the list below.

Alternative HTML may be included here - it will be displayed by browsers which do not understand Java applets.

Button Images:

Button images should be as wide as your applet and can be any height (although 30 pixels is recommended).

Buttons must be .gif files - with a transparent background.

They must have a 1 pixel border all around the edge, which is transparent. (This will be replaced with the 3-D effect.)

Bullet Images:

Bullet images may be any size, although if the indent settings are incorrect they will be overlaid by the text of the subitem.

Bullets must be .gif files. They may have a transparent background, but this is not required.

Supported Parameters:

Name Value Default Effect
AltColorx_R 0 to 255. 255 Changes the RED component of the alternative text colour.
AltColorx_G 0 to 255. 255 Changes the GREEN component of the alternative text colour.
AltColorx_B 0 to 255. 0 Changes the BLUE component of the alternative text colour.
AltTextx Text Image Error! The text which will be displayed in place of the button in the event of a failure to load the required image file.
bgColour_R 0 to 255 192 Changes the RED component of the Background colour.
bgColour_G 0 to 255 0 Changes the GREEN component of the Background colour.
bgColour_B 0 to 255 0 Changes the BLUE component of the Background colour.
BulletImagez Image URL. REQ.* A URL (relative to the path of the document containing the applet) which contains the bullet.

*If you do not want to supply images, then use an impossible URL e.g. .gif (where .gif does not exist). This will cause the button to be generated by the applet according to the AltText, etc. parameters.

See NumBullets...

BulletIndentx,y

0 to width

DefaultBulletIndent

 Specifies the position of the bullet for the item (x,y) given.

See DefaultBulletIndent for more information...

BulletSizex,y

0 to item height

DefaultSize

 Specifies the size of the internally-drawn bullets that will be drawn onto this item (x,y).

See DefaultSize for more information...

BulletTypex,y

0 to 4+

DefaultBulletType

 Specifies a bullet type for the item (x,y) given.

See DefaultBulletType for types...
Captionx,y Text Blank. The text displayed in the sub menu item.

DefaultBulletType

0 to 4+

1

 The bullet type used for subitems which do not explicitly specify a bullet type.

Bullet types:
0 - no bullet.
1 - Solid circle.
2 - Solid square.
3 - Hollow circle.
4 - Hollow square.

DefaultBulletIndent

0 to width

8

 The number of pixels to leave between the left-hand-edge of the applet and the left of the bullet when there is no explicit positioning information.

DefaultIndent

0 to width

24

 The number of pixels to leave between the left-hand-edge of the applet and the left of the text when there is no explicit positioning information. This should be greater than DefaultBulletIndent + DefaultSize.

DefaultSize

0 to height of item.

8

 The number of pixels across the internal bullets when there is no explicit bullet-sizing information.
DefaultStatus TEXT Done The status message displayed when the mouse leaves the applet controlled area.
Fontx Font Name Helvetica The EXACT name of one of the Java standard fonts. (This applet does not make use of Windows-only fonts.)

Used to draw the text onto a button in the event of a failure to load its image.

If the font you request is unavailable on the client machine, the results could be unpredictable. (But SHOULD involve a substitution with the closest of these fonts - probably by name.)

It is best to stick to the following list of fonts which will always be available:

  • Dialog
  • Helvetica
  • TimesRoman (note NO space)
  • Courier

Show samples...
hiLite_R 0 to 255 255 Changes the RED component of the button hi-lite colour.
hiLite_G 0 to 255 64 Changes the GREEN component of the button hi-lite colour.
hiLite_B 0 to 255 64 Changes the BLUE component of the button hi-lite colour.
Imagex Image URL. REQ.* A URL (relative to the path of the document containing the applet) which contains the button face.

*If you do not want to supply images, then use an impossible URL e.g. .gif (where .gif does not exist). This will cause the button to be generated by the applet according to the AltText, etc. parameters.

ImgHeightx

1 to

30

 The height in pixels of the text-only button created in case of an error loading button x.

Indentx,y

0 to width

DefaultIndent

 The position of the left edge of the text in the subitem (x,y) given.

See DefaultIndent for more information...
lowLite_R 0 to 255 64 Changes the RED component of the button low-lite colour.
lowLite_G 0 to 255 0 Changes the GREEN component of the button low-lite colour.
lowLite_B 0 to 255 0 Changes the BLUE component of the button low-lite colour.

NumBullets

0 to

0

 Specifies the number of user-defined bullet types to be displayed by the applet. These become bullet types 5, 6, ...
NumButtons 1 to REQ. The 1-based count of the number of buttons which will be displayed (include static spacer images in this count).
NumSubCaptionsx 0 or 1 to REQ. Either 0 - which means that the button is actually just a static image with no 3D effect and cannot be clicked.

OR: -1 - which means that the button executes URLx,0 immediately (without a drop-down menu).

OR: Specifies the 1-based count of the number of items in the drop-down menu.

ReplaceWithBulletz

0 to 4

0

If the image associated with bullet x fails to load, then substitute this internal bullet.

Bullet types:
0 - no bullet.
1 - Solid circle.
2 - Solid square.
3 - Hollow circle.
4 - Hollow square.
Sizex 5 to 11 The point size of the font to use when drawing the alternative text on the button.
Statusx Text DefaultStatus The text to display in the browser's status area while the user has the mouse pointer over the button.
Statusx,y Text DefaultStatus The status message displayed when the mouse is over the menu item.
subitem_font Font Name Helvetica The EXACT name of one of the Java standard fonts. (This applet does not make use of Windows-only fonts.)

If the font you request is unavailable on the client machine, the results could be unpredictable. (But SHOULD involve a substitution with the closest of these fonts - probably by name.)

It is best to stick to the following list of fonts which will always be available:

  • Dialog
  • Helvetica
  • TimesRoman (note NO space)
  • Courier

Show samples...
subitem_fontbold ANY YES Whatever the value of the parameter (or even no value), its presence will cause the font to become bold. ONLY CHECKED IF subitem_font is specified.
subitem_fontitalic ANY Not Present Whatever the value of the parameter (or even no value), its presence will cause the font to become italic. ONLY CHECKED IF subitem_font is specified.
subitem_fontsize 5 to 13 The point size of the subitem font.
subMenu_bgColour_R 0 to 255. 0 Changes the RED component of the submenu area's background colour.
subMenu_bgColour_G 0 to 255. 0 Changes the GREEN component of the submenu area's background colour.
subMenu_bgColour_B 0 to 255. 0 Changes the BLUE component of the submenu area's background colour.
subMenu_bullet_R 0 to 255. 0 Changes the RED component of the bullet next to each link.
subMenu_bullet_G 0 to 255. 255 Changes the GREEN component of the bullet next to each link.
subMenu_bullet_B 0 to 255. 0 Changes the BLUE component of the bullet next to each link.
subMenu_link_R 0 to 255. 255 Changes the RED component of the colour of the links in the submenu when they are inactive.
subMenu_link_G 0 to 255. 255 Changes the GREEN component of the colour of the links in the submenu when they are inactive.
subMenu_link_B 0 to 255. 0 Changes the BLUE component of the colour of the links in the submenu when they are inactive.
subMenu_mousedownlink_R 0 to 255. 0 Changes the RED component of the colour of the links in the submenu when they are being clicked.
subMenu_mousedownlink_G 0 to 255. 255 Changes the GREEN component of the colour of the links in the submenu when they are being clicked.
subMenu_mousedownlink_B 0 to 255. 0 Changes the BLUE component of the colour of the links in the submenu when they are being clicked.
subMenu_mouseoverlink_R 0 to 255. 255 Changes the RED component of the colour of the links in the submenu when the mouse is over them - but they haven't been clicked.
subMenu_mouseoverlink_G 0 to 255. 0 Changes the GREEN component of the colour of the links in the submenu when the mouse is over them - but they haven't been clicked.
subMenu_mouseoverlink_B 0 to 255. 0 Changes the BLUE component of the colour of the links in the submenu when the mouse is over them - but they haven't been clicked.
Target FrameName _self The name of the default frame into which new content should be loaded. If the frame/window does not exist then a new one will be created.

Special values:

Value Meaning
_self show in the current frame
_parent show in the parent frame
_top show in the top-most frame
_blank show in a new unnamed top-level window
Targetx,y FrameName Target The name of the frame which the new content should be loaded into. It defaults to the value of the Target parameter (which defaults to _self). If the frame/window does not exist then a new one will be created.

Special values:

Value Meaning
_self show in the current frame
_parent show in the parent frame
_top show in the top-most frame
_blank show in a new unnamed top-level window
TimeOut 100 to 120000 15 000 The amount of time (in ms) for which the applet will wait for all the images to load before replacing them with its own text versions (see below).
URLx,y URL REQ. The URL which will be used for the link.

This URL may be absolute (i.e. including "http://yourserver.com/yourdirectory/yourpage.html")

OR

it may be relative (it will be interpreted using the path of the document in which the applet is embedded).

( e.g. "./section_a.html" )

Width

24+

The value specified by the <applet> tag. (or 150)

 Specifies the width of the applet when it is drawn.

N.B. This value MUST be the same as that in the <applet> tag for proper functioning.

See a demonstration. (With source.)

© Chris Rodgers, Feb, 1999. All rights reserved.

Please direct bug reports, suggestions, errors in this documentation and general comments to "chris at rodgers dot org dot uk".