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 relative URL (or with the URL parameter removed), it will display [unknown] in place of the modification date. The same is not true of the file size, unless you're using Netscape Navigator (never a wise choice for the design/layout stages of implementing an applet).

To get around this in-built security, DateTrack must access a URL via the HTTP protocol (as used for transferring information on the World Wide Web). Therefore, when setting up DateTrack on your page, you have three options:

Enter an absolute URL (one that starts http://) in the URL parameter and allow your browser to go online and retrive the modification date each time you refresh its view

Enter a relative URL (or leave the URL parameter to blank), upload the HTML document and class file to the server, and then point your browser at the copy of the HTML document on the server. (If you need to make changes, you'll usually have to alter your local copy and upload it to replace the remote copy.)

Cheat! Simply for testing purposes, where you would normally enter a code such as |sd into your DisplayText or ReactText parameters, replace it with actual text such as 14 September 1996, 09:32 (in place of a long date) or 14 September 1996 (in place of a short date). If you do this, remember to replace the text you added with the appropriate code again when you've finished setting up!