Each of ActiveMenu's parameters is explained below, with reference to the clickable example code in the left frame: you can click a parameter from the example code to jump to its explanation, or simply read this page from top to toe. As you read, click the red references to other parameters to jump to them.
Most of ActiveMenu's parameters have a default setting which is mentioned below. If the default setting is the option you'd like to use in your own implementation, you can leave that parameter out of your HTML code.
The 'Archive' attribute & 'CabBase' parameter
JAR (Java ARchive) and CAB (cabinet) files are archives containing Java class files in compressed form, making them easier to handle and quicker to download. Most modern browsers are able to read one or other of these formats, and the Archive attribute and CabBase parameter tell the browser the name of the archive file to open. The .JAR, .CAB and .CLASS files must all be in the same directory, and the CODEBASE= attribute is used in the normal way, if required, specifying the absolute or relative location of this directory. Older browsers that are unable to read either the JAR or the CAB file will instead read the loose CLASS files.
Applet Width & Height
The button and menu automatically fill the full width of the applet, so increasing or reducing the WIDTH= value will make the button & menu wider or narrower, thus allowing for longer Label and Entry strings.
Because ActiveMenu counts the Entry parameters in your HTML code to determine the number of menu entries, setting the height is equally easy. ActiveMenu will create a menu that's exactly the right height to display all entries at your chosen font size. All you need to do is ensure that the applet height is sufficient to display this menu. Any 'dead space' below the menu will be filled with your chosen BgColor or BgImage, although you'll probably want to reclaim this wasted real estate by minimzing the applet height as much as possible.
When minimizing the height of the applet, bear in mind that Netscape Navigator 4.x creates far more space between each entry than is usual, as a result of Netscape Corp apparently not understanding what constitutes the height of a font. To ensure that all visitors to your site can see all menu entries, check your ActiveMenu implementation in Navigator and alter the applet-height as necessary.
When determining the best dimensions for the applet, it's easiest to temporarily set BgColor to a color that stands out from your page background.
Copyright
This parameter must be included or the applet will not run, whether registered or unregistered. To prevent mistakes we recommend that you copy/paste it into your code from the Getting Started page: it is case-sensitive, single-spaced throughout and should appear on a single line. If there's a problem with this parameter, you'll see a status-bar message that reads "Copyright parameter missing or incorrect" which should lead you to the problem.
Name
Specifies a unique name for an applet when used with the Cool Focus Satellites system. This name may be anything you like, but it should be the only applet currently running that has this name. If you're not using the Satellites system, you can ignore this parameter.
Satellites
A simple yes or no parameter that determines whether or not this applet should send mouse-move information to the Cool Focus satellites system. If you are using Satellites, include this parameter with a value of 'yes'. If you're not, either set the value to 'no', or leave out this parameter. Setting this parameter to 'yes' when no Satellite is being used will have the effect of making the applet respond to the mouse extremely sluggishly.
BgColor
The applet's background color as a hex triplet. This is visible when the menu is not showing, and in a thin line between button and menu. For best results, set this to the same value as that of your page's body-background. The default is 000000 (black).
BgImage
Specifies the name (and location if necessary) of an optional GIF or JPEG image to be used as the applet background. Location is given as a relative or absolute URL, just as with the HTML <IMG SRC=> tag. The image is placed beneath the button and is automatically scaled to match the full applet width and the height of the applet minus the ButtonHeight. The image will be visible when the menu is closed. When the menu opens the image will be covered at least partly by the menu, depending upon how much your applet's height setting differs from the height of the menu.
TileBgImage
A yes or no parameter (with a default of 'no' for backwards compatibility) that allows the BgImage to be tiled to fill the applet area.
ButtonColor
Hex triplet for the color of the button. This is a 3D button, so stick with 'mid-range' colors such as C0C000 or 008080 to ensure that the applet can derive lighter and darker shades for the button-highlight and button-shadow. The default is 000080 (mid-blue).
ButtonHeight
The height of the button, with a default of 22. For a larger LabelFontSize you might want to increase this value. You'll usually need to increase the height of the applet by the same amount too.
MenuColor
The color of the menu as a hex triplet. This is another 3D item, so apply the same guidelines as for ButtonColor. The default is 000080 (mid-blue).
Label
The text you want to appear on the button. The default is Contents. No particular reason for that. This text will be automatically centered on the button, but longer strings might crowd (or overlap) the arrow symbol. If so, increase the applet's width. The default is equivalent to "" (blank).
LabelFont
A comma-delimited string giving the name, style and size of the font you want to use for the text. The default settings are Helvetica, in bold, at size 13, which would be written as Helvetica,bold,13. Two important things to note: first, there must be no spaces in this entry; second, the three items must appear in the order name,style,size. Note that the 'style' part of this setting can be plain, bold, italic or bolditalic, and these are not case-sensitive.
LabelColor
A hex-triplet for the color of the button-label text (and arrow) when unfocussed (the mouse isn't over it). The default is 0000FF (bright blue).
LabelFocusColor
The color of the button-label text (and arrow) when focussed (the mouse is over it). The default is C0C0C0 (silver).
LabelPressColor
The color of the button-label text (and arrow) when the button is depressed (pushed, not sad). The default is 808080 (dark gray).
EntryFont
A comma-delimited string giving the name, style and size of the font you want to use for the text. The default settings are Helvetica, plain, at size 11, which would be written as Helvetica,plain,11. There must be no spaces in this entry and the three items must appear in the order name,style,size. The 'style' part of this setting can be plain, bold, italic or bolditalic, and these are not case-sensitive.
EntryColor
The color of the text for menu-entries when unfocussed. The default is C0C0C0 (silver).
EntryFocusColor
The color of the text for a focussed menu-entry. The default is 00FF00 (bright green).
EntryPressColor
The color of the text for a menu-entry when clicked. The default is 808080 (dark gray).
Sound
Specifies whether or not you'd like the applet to play sounds in response to mouse-clicks. The value can be either yes or no, and neither is case-sensitive. (The default value is no.) If you want to use sounds, note that you must direct the applet to at least one Sun/NeXT format (.au) audio file using any or all of the four following parameters.
SoundButtonDown
The path (if necessary) and name of the audio file to be played when the menu's button is clicked (or when the mouse moves onto the button if TouchSensitive is set to 'yes'). See Using Sounds, below.
SoundButtonUp
The path (if necessary) and name of the audio file to be played when the menu's button is released (or when the mouse exits the applet if TouchSensitive is set to 'yes'). See Using Sounds, below.
SoundButtonUp
The path (if necessary) and name of the audio file to be played when a menu entry is clicked. See Using Sounds, below.
SoundButtonUp
The path (if necessary) and name of the audio file to be played when a menu entry is released. See Using Sounds, below.
Using Sounds: ActiveMenu is very forgiving in its sound support. If Sound is set to 'yes' but none of the four parameters above are included (or their audio files can't be found) ActiveMenu will still work properly (albeit silently). Therefore, if you only wish to have audio accompaniment for button-clicks (for example), simply remove the SoundEntryDown/Up parameters.
ShowArrow
By default, ActiveMenu displays an arrowhead symbol on the button, indicating that the menu will open or close when the button is clicked. This parameter allows you to remove the arrowhead symbol. The default setting is a non-case-sensitive yes. To remove the arrow, use the value no (also not case-sensitive).
TouchSensitive
The default for this parameter is no, with the result that ActiveMenu's button must be clicked to open or close the menu. By setting this parameter to yes, simply moving the mouse onto the button will open the menu, and moving the mouse out of the applet will close it again. This can be particularly useful if you wish to add a 'menubar' of ActiveMenus to your page, requiring less effort on the part of your visitors. The 3D effect is also removed from the button, which allows it to be slotted seamlessly into a page background. Neither value is case-sensitive.
UseHandCursor
A yes or no parameter that determines whether or not a typical 'web-style' hand cursor is used when the mouse moves over an entry on the menu. The default value is yes, so you need include this parameter only if you want to set it to 'no' and stick to the default pointer. This feature is applied only when an applet is running in a Java 1.1-compatible browser (Internet Explorer 4x or higher, Netscape Navigator 4.07 or higher). In other browsers, this parameter is ignored and the default pointer will be used.
Entry1, Entry2, . . . Entryn
The clickable text-strings to appear on the menu portion of the applet. These will be left-aligned. You may include as many Entry parameters as you wish, but each must include a unique number-suffix; if you have two entries named Entry6, only the first of these will be displayed.
To place a spacer on the menu, enter &sp as the value for the entry-number at which you want the spacer to appear. Don't include correspondingly-numbered URL, Target and Message tags to reduce unnecessary clutter in your HTML file and to prevent messages appearing in the status-bar when the mouse touches the spacer. As you can see in the example code in the left frame, Entry4 has been assigned a spacer.
ActiveMenu determines how many entries your menu will contain by counting the number-suffixes in the Entry parameters. Therefore, if you skip a number-suffix, ActiveMenu will think it's finished when it gets to the missing number and will stop looking for more.
URL1, URL2, . . . URLn
The URL of the page you want the correspondingly-numbered 'Entry' to fetch when clicked. This may be an absolute URL ("http://www.protestors.com/plain/") or a relative URL ("../../another/page.htm"). If an Entry has been used to place a spacer on the menu, the spacer will be non-linking so no matching URL parameter should be included (as in the example code in the left frame).
If a URL starts with a dollar sign ($), or contains only a dollar sign, the link will be ignored. This can be useful for testing colors and sounds whilst setting up.
Note that although Java does support #name anchors appended to URLs (to link to particular parts of a page), not all browsers will react correctly to it, so its use is generally best avoided.
Target1, Target2, . . . Targetn
A text-string specifying the name of the frame or window in which you want the correspondingly-numbered downloaded page to open. The default is _top. No Target parameter should be included for any Entry being used as a spacer, as in the example code in the left frame.
Message1, Message2, . . . Messagen
A text-string you want displayed in the browser's status-bar when the mouse passes over the corresonding 'Entry', usually giving some clue to the linked page. The default is Link to followed by the corresponding 'URL' value. No Message should be entered if the Entry is being used as a spacer, as in the example code in the left frame.
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