DuaLink's parameters are 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.

Most of DuaLink'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
All that really matters about the applet dimensions is that the applet is tall enough to cope with your chosen Font size, and wide enough to cope with your Text entry (or the longer of the two text entries if you've opted to use a FocusText entry too). DuaLink will only react to the mouse when it's over the text itself rather than over the applet area, so minimizing the applet dimensions saves you web-page real estate rather than affecting DuaLink's behavior.

To make the setting up easier, for those times when space does matter, DuaLink includes a Testmode that displays the minimum width/height for the applet.

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
A hex triplet specifying the background color of the applet, which would usually be set to match the color of your page's body background. The default value is FFFFFF (white).

FocusBgColor
When the mouse moves over the Text the background color of the applet can change. This parameter lets you specify the color that it should change to. The default behavior is to match your BgColor, so if you don't want the background to react to mouse movement, just leave this parameter out. You can use this parameter and the one below as well as, or instead of, changing the color of the text.

PressBgColor
Like the parameter above, the applet's background color can change when the Text is clicked, and this parameter lets you specify the color used. Once again, the default behavior is to leave the BgColor unchanged.

TextColor
The color of the font used to display the Text string, as a hex triplet. The default color is 000000 (black).

FocusTextColor
The color of the text when the mouse moves over the Text string. The default is 0000C0 (medium blue). If you've entered text into the FocusText parameter, it's that text that will be shown in this color. If not, the contents of your Text parameter will simply change to this color when focussed.

PressTextColor
The color of the currently-displayed text when clicked. The default is C00000 (medium red). At this point, if you entered a value for the FocusText parameter, this is the text that will be shown. If not, your Text entry will be shown in this color.

Text
The line of text that DuaLink should display when unfocussed (the mouse isn't over it). Obviously you'd expect to enter something in this parameter (otherwise there'll be nothing to click on), so if you forget, the applet will display MISSING TEXT PARAMETER! instead. The text you enter can be as long as you like, but it cannot be wrapped onto multiple lines.

FocusText
The optional alternative text to be displayed when the mouse moves over the Text entry, replacing it. The default for this parameter is to use whatever you entered in your Text parameter - in other words, if you leave this parameter out, the line of text will always remain the same and only its color will change (according to your FocusTextColor setting).

DuaLink is coded to respond in an intuitive way whether your Text entry is longer than your FocusText entry or vice versa. On balance, you might feel that it's more aesthetically pleasing to have a longer text string in the FocusText parameter, but DuaLink isn't too bothered either way.

Font
A comma-delimited string giving the name, style and size of the font you want to use for the text. The default settings are Dialog, in plain, at size 12, which would be written as Dialog,plain,12. 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.

AudioFile
DuaLink can optionally play a sound when the applet is clicked, and this is the parameter that lets you specify the name (and, if necessary, the relative location) of that file. Like all Java applets, the file must be a Sun/NeXT format .au file. It's location can be given as an absolute or a relative URL.

Like all Cool Focus applets, DuaLink is forgiving in its sound support. If you forget to upload the audio file after diligently entering this parameter, or you point it to the wrong location, DuaLink will carry on happily but silently.

Align
Provides a choice of three options for text alignment: at the left, center and right of the applet. The default is 'left'. The choice of alignment is assigned to both the Text and the FocusText.

UseHandCursor
A yes or no parameter that determines whether or not a typical 'web-style' hand cursor is used when the mouse moves over the Text. 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.

URL1, URL2, URL3, URL4
Up to 4 URLs that DuaLink will link to when clicked. In most cases you'll probably want to link to just a single URL, so you'd include the URL1 parameter (possibly along with the Target1 parameter to specify the target frame or window). Any of these may be absolute URLs (http://www.doctors.co/operate) or relative URLs (../../MyPage.htm).

When using more than a single URL parameter, bear in mind that these parameters are processed in numerical order. In most cases, this will make no difference. However, it does become important if you wish to change the contents of the frame containing the DuaLink: this must be the last URL to be processed! If, for example, you were using all four parameters, and trying to load something over the DuaLink frame in URL2, the files referenced by URL3 and URL4 would not be loaded because DuaLink would have been stopped before these parameters could be processed.

For color- and sound-testing purposes, you can prevent the applet linking anywhere when clicked by prefixing the URLs with a dollar sign ($). Alternatively you can switch on Testmode.

Target1, Target2, Target3, Target4
The names of the frames or windows into which each of the correspondingly-numbered URLs should be opened. The default for each Target parameter is _self, so if there's a link that should open on top of the current frame you can leave out its Target parameter.

Testmode
A straightforward yes or no parameter. Most of the time you'll leave this set at its default no (when uploading the files to your server, for example). When setting up the applet, set this parameter to yes and then move the mouse over the applet. The minimum width and height for the applet will be displayed in the statusbar. You can then copy these unchanged to set your applet dimensions. As mentioned above, DuaLink isn't affected when you've specified a far greater amount of page-space than it really needs, but you'll probably want to minimize the space used if you can.

Note that when in Testmode, the applet does not link anywhere when clicked.


































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