Each of DateTrack'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 DateTrack'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.
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.
URL
The parameter that matters most: the URL of the web page or file whose modification date you want to check and display. There are three possible options:
- The default URL is that of the current page, so leave the parameter out completely to display the 'last modified' date of the HTML page containing the applet. You'd normally do this just as a service to visitors of your site, and set the Reactive parameter to 'no'.
- Include this parameter, and enter an absolute URL (ie. a URL that begins http:// etc)
- Include this parameter, and enter a relative URL (such as mypage.htm or ../documents/mypage.htm)
The last two options can be useful to provide 'last-modified' details about several pages on your site (or elsewhere) all together on one page. For example, you could create a menu-list of DateTracks whose DisplayText parameters gave a description of each page and whose ReactText parameters gave its modification date and/or URL.
Note that while setting up DateTrack and displaying a long URL, the URL will be prefaced by file:// if the URL parameter is not included or points to a relative URL, or will result in your browser going online if it points to an absolute URL. For final testing, remember to take a look at how the applet appears when run via HTTP from your web server.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Java security prevents an applet from accessing modification dates of files on your own system. When adding the applet to your pages and testing it with a URL (or with the URL parameter removed), it will display [unknown] in place of the modification date. Don't worry -- this is normal; when the applet is running from the web server it will display the date correctly. For more details and workarounds, see DateTrack & Java Security.
BgColor
The applet's background color as a hex triplet. For best results, set this to the same value as your page's body-background so that the text displayed by the applet appears to be part of the page's own text. The default is FFFFFF (white).
TextColor
The color of the text to be used when displaying your DisplayText. The default is 000000 (black).
FocusTextColor
The color of the text to be used when the mouse enters the applet and passes over the DisplayText. When this happens, not only can the color change, but the applet will also replace the text with your ReactText if you've specified one. (These changes will only occur if Reactive is set to 'yes'.) The default is 0000C0 (blue). If you don't want the color to change, simply set this value to the same value as your TextColor parameter.
PressTextColor
The color of the text to be used when the mouse clicks the text. (The color change will only occur if Reactive is set to 'yes'.) The default is C00000 (red). If you don't want the color to change on a click, set this value to the same value as either your TextColor or FocusTextColor parameter.
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.
Delimiter
You tell DateTrack where to insert the URL or modification date of a file by inserting text codes at the appropriate point in the DisplayText and/or ReactText parameters. However, these codes (such as su) could easily occur in a piece of text you want to display normally (the word 'such' for example). Therefore, each code must be prefaced with a symbol that tells DateTrack it is a code, and this symbol is called a delimiter. Always choose a symbol that you don't need to use in your ordinary text. The default is | (pipe symbol), and you'll rarely need to change it to something different, so this parameter can usually be left out of your page.
Reactive
A simple non-case-sensitive yes or no value. If you choose 'no', the applet will just display your chosen DisplayText, and not react to mouse clicks or movement in any way. If you set this parameter to 'yes', the text will highlight in FocusTextColor when the mouse passes over it, briefly change color again to PressTextColor when the text is clicked, and link to the URL when clicked. If you've specified a ReactText string, this will replace the DisplayText string when the mouse moves over the text.
NOTE: DateTrack's reactive area spans only the width of the active text-string rather than the full width of the applet, but spans the full height of the applet. Therefore, although the applet can be as wide as you like without affecting the reactivity, it's best to minimize the applet's height as much as possible to give a narrower reactive area.
MakeNonLinking
Another non-case-sensitive yes or no value. If you have Reactive set to 'no', this parameter has no effect. However, if Reactive is set to 'yes', you can choose to prevent DateTrack acting as a link when clicked by also setting this parameter to yes - it will then react in every other way, but will not open the specified URL. This is primarily useful when you have a Reactive applet that points to the current HTMl page, which of course there's no need to have a link to. In addition, you might prefer to use DateTrack purely to provide extra information when the mouse enters it, but not to link anywhere.
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 DisplayText. 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.
Target
The name of the frame or window you want the URL to open in when the applet is clicked (provided the Reactive parameter is set to 'yes'). If no Target parameter is included, the target will default to _top.
DisplayText
This parameter will contain the entire line of text you want DateTrack to display when it first starts and whenever the mouse isn't in the active area of the applet. DateTrack can include up to two of the following codes in its DisplayText parameter. These codes will be replaced at run-time with the URL of the current document (or the document contained in your URL parameter), the last modification date of the file, or the file's size. You insert these into the text by including any of the following codes where you want the text to appear:
lu : long URL, the absolute URL of the document
su : short url, the filename of the document only
ld : long date, the last-modified date of the document as day, month, year, hour, minute
sd : short date, the last-modified date of the document as day, month, year
LU : long URL, displayed in upper-case characters
SU : short URL, displayed in upper-case characters
LD : long date, displayed in upper-case characters
SD : short date, displayed in upper-case characters
fs : file size, automatically calculated in bytes, k or Mb as appropriate
Each of these codes must be prefaced by the Delimiter or the characters themselves will just be displayed as ordinary text. You should type the delimiter+code into the parameter as if they were a normal word, placing a space before and after, for example, or adding a comma after the code.
The default string that will be used if you leave this parameter blank is: Last Updated: |ld, which inserts the long date after the words Last Updated:.
Although the intended function of DateTrack is to display the modification date (with the display of the URL and file size handy extras), there's no necessity to use any of these three options. If you choose to, you can type any ordinary line of text into this parameter, ignoring the codes, and it will still function as a clickable link to the URL and Target you've specified.
It's possible to have no text displayed: simply include the DisplayText parameter, but place nothing between the " signs for its value. This is of little use, except that you can make the applet Reactive and enter text into its ReactText parameter so that nothing will be seen until the mouse enters the applet.
To insert spaces at the very start of the line, preceed your text string with hard-spaces by holding the ALT key and typing 0160 several times on the numeric keypad. Elsewhere in the line, you can insert as many spaces as you like by just hitting the spacebar a few times.
ReactText
An optional text string that will be displayed when the mouse moves over the DisplayText, replacing it. The value for the ReactText parameter follows exactly the same 'rules' as the DisplayText parameter, allowing the inclusion of up to two codes for URL/modification date/file size here also. For the ReactText to be displayed, Reactive must be set to 'yes'. The default value for this parameter is a copy of your DisplayText; therefore, if you want DateTrack to be Reactive, but don't want to change the text shown when the mouse enters, leave this parameter out of your HTML page.
NOTE: Although certainly not vital, the reactivity of DateTrack is somewhat more pleasing if your ReactText entry is longer than your DisplayText entry.
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