The Parameters Explained             

Each of ImageWizard'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, clicking the red references to other parameters to skip between them as necessary.

Most of ImageWizard's parameters have default settings which are 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.

Width & Height
Because ImageWizard is designed for banner-ad display, it requires that all the images displayed are the same size. Although it will display images smaller than the applet dimensions, the results will be less than attractive. Therefore, the applet dimensions should exactly match the dimensions of your banner images.

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 will be visible immediately after the applet starts and before the first image is shown. If you set FadeToBackground to 'yes', each Image will be faded to and from this color. For best results, set this to the same value as that of your page's body-background. The default is FFFFFF (white).

BgImage
The name (and location if necessary) of an optional GIF or JPEG image that will be scaled to match the applet dimensions and used as its background. This is specified as an absolute or relative URL. As with the BgColor, this image will only be visible when the applet first starts, unless you've set FadeToBackground to 'yes' in which case each Image will fade to and from the BgImage.

StartDelay
A number of seconds that ImageWizard should wait after initializing before it starts to display the images. (During this period, your BgColor or BgImage will be visible.) The default is 0 seconds (no start-delay).

FadeAmount
Sets the degree of color-change that takes place with each repaint of the applet, with a default setting of 5. Higher numbers mean that an image will fade from nothing to full visibility more quickly, but in a 'jumpier' way. Higher numbers may be required for large images (having more color processing to do), but for typical applet banners a setting of 5-7 should be suitable. To balance speed with smoothness, edit this parameter in conjunction with FadeSpeed.

FadeSpeed
Essentially a 'delay' that sets the pause between each repaint of the applet, with a default setting of 5. Higher numbers result in longer pauses, and thus a somewhat 'jumpier' display. For typical banner images, the default settings for this parameter and FadeAmount should be about right. If images are significantly larger or smaller, experimentation with both parameters should make smooth animation at a sensible speed possible.

Hold
The number of seconds that each banner should remain visible, with a default of 10 seconds. An image becomes active as soon as it starts to fade in, meaning that a click inside the applet will link to the URL of the image that's either fading in or fully visible.

FadeToBackground
A simple yes or no to whether each image should fade to and from the BgColor or BgImage. The default is no, meaning that each image will fade from the previous image. (The first image displayed, of course, will fade from the background regardless.)

HoldBackground
This parameter becomes active only if FadeToBackground is set to 'yes'. This sets the amount of time (in tenths of a second) that the background (color or image) should be shown before the next image starts to fade in. The default is 5, meaning half a second.

DisplayOrder
The three possible values are up, down and random, and none is case-sensitive. The default is up. This sets the order in which the Images are displayed.

  • UP displays the images in numerical order from 1 to 2000 (or your highest-numbered image)

  • DOWN displays the images in reverse order (2000 to 1)

  • RANDOM displays the images in a random order. Note that this is intelligent randomization: in one pass through your total number of images, each will be displayed once. In other words, ImageWizard selects an image from the pool of not-yet-displayed images rather than picking randomly from the entire list. When each image has been displayed once, ImageWizard 'shuffles' them into a new order and starts again.

    • DefaultTarget
    In applets like ImageWizard, in which up to 2000 images can link to 2000 URLs, the frame-target name will often be the same for most (if not all) of those links. In HTML, you'd use the <BASE TARGET=> tag to set a default target name. In ImageWizard, the DefaultTarget parameter works in exactly the same way. Enter the name of the frame or window that most links should open into. The default for this parameter is _top. For advertizing banners, this will usually be the target you want, meaning that this parameter can usually be left out. For any images that need to link to a different frame, you can override this setting by including an individual Target parameter for that image.

    UseSelectColors
    Another yes or no parameter which 'switches on' the two parameters named below. The SelectColors feature provides user-feedback when the mouse enters or clicks the applet by drawing a colored box around it and (optionally) shrinking it. The default is 'yes'. If you set this to 'no', the images will not react to mouse actions.

    DefaultSelectColor
    This parameter only becomes active if UseSelectColors is set to 'yes' (its default). If most (or all) images should respond to mouse entry by drawing a 3D border of a particular color around the image, enter that color into this parameter. Any image that doesn't have its own individual SelectColor parameter will use this one. The default color for this parameter is C0C0C0, which is generally effective on most page-backgrounds.

    ShrinkOnSelect
    Yet another yes or no parameter, with a default of yes. In this mode, the image shrinks slightly to make room for the surrounding 3D border when the mouse enters, and slightly more when clicked. Setting this parameter to 'no' leaves the image at its original size and draws the border over the image, covering its edges. This parameter only becomes active if UseSelectColors is set to 'yes' (its default).

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

    Image1, Image2, . . . Image2000
    The name (and relative or absolute path if required) to the image files you want to display. Up to 2000 images can be shown. If you include a relative path to an image file, remember that this path is relative to the location of the HTML document containing the applet. ImageWizard will not be fazed if some number-suffixes are missing. It's quite legitimate to display 2 images (for example) in parameters Image6 and Image1438.

    URL1, URL2, . . . URL2000
    The URL of the web page or Internet resource you want the correspondingly-numbered image to link to if clicked. This may be an absolute URL ("http://www.negative.net/growth.htm") or a relative URL ("../../another/page.htm"). 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.

    As an aid to testing, URLs can be prefixed or replaced with dollar signs ($) and ImageWizard will ignore them when clicked and not link anywhere.

    Target1, Target2, . . . Target2000
    The name of the frame or window you want the correspondingly-numbered image's URL to open in. If no Target parameter is included for an image, the target for this image will default to _self. Use of this parameter for an image overrides the target set in DefaultTarget.

    SelectColor1, SelectColor2, . . . SelectColor2000
    These parameters are active only if UseSelectColors is set to 'yes' (its default), allowing you to set a particular 3D border color for each image which will be shown when the applet is focussed or clicked. Use of this parameter for an image overrides the color set in DefaultSelectColor.


































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