FileTrack & Java Security             

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 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, FileTrack must access a URL via the HTTP protocol (as used for transferring information on the World Wide Web). Therefore, when setting up and testing FileTrack 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, 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.)

  • If you're a Windows user, install the Microsoft ® Personal Web Server and use Internet Explorer to make HTTP connections to files on your local system.
    • Alternatively, for purposes of deciding a safe width for the applet, you could use the Text parameter to temporarily set up a line of text that contains the longest possible entry that would need to be displayed, and then adjust the width of the applet accordingly. For example, if you want to display the filesize, short modification date (without the time), short URL (filename only), and have SplitLines set to 'no', set one of your Text parameters to something like the following:

    <param name=Text1 value="Download this file   NEW!   filename.exe   147.5k   Saturday 25 September 2000">

    When doing this, choose the longest possible text that each part of an entry could contain and place 3 spaces between each. If NewFileDays is set to anything but '0', one of these entries should be the word 'NEW!'. Set the parameters that begin with 'Show' to 'no', and look at the result in your browser. When you've made the applet wide enough to display this line, return the parameters you changed to what they were before.