Roller'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 Roller'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 Item's text. If you choose to use images with Roller (with or without text captions), they will automatically be scaled to fit the applet dimensions which result in some weird warping of ratio, so it's recommended that you ensure the applet is large enough to display the largest image without scaling. To make the setting up easier, Roller includes a Testmode that displays the minimum width for the applet and shows the largest image-dimensions that Roller can display without scaling at its current size.
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 (the color over which the text and images appear). The default value is 000000 (black).
TextColor
The color of the font used to display an Item's text string, as a hex triplet. The default color is BDBDCE (light gray).
TextFocusColor
The color of the text when the mouse moves over the link button. The default is 00FF00 (lime).
TextPressColor
The color of an item's text when the link button is clicked. The default is 00B000 (medium green).
ArrowColor
The color of the arrows on the button when unfocused. The default color is BDBDCE (light gray).
ArrowFocusColor
The color of an arrow when the mouse moves over its button. The default is 00FF00 (lime).
ArrowPressColor
The color of a button-arrow when the button is clicked. The default is 00B000 (medium green).
ButtonColor
The color of Roller's buttons, and also used to draw the border around the applet if ShowBorder is set to 'yes'. The default color is 404040 (dark gray).
DefaultTarget
When using any menu applet you need to be able to choose different frame names for each link. This normally means that for every entry on the menu you need a URL and a Target parameter. However you'll want most of these links to open in one particular frame, meaning that almost all of those Target parameters would be identical. The DefaultTarget parameter gives you a way to leave out all those identical Target parameters. Simply enter the name of the frame or window into which most (or all) of the links should open; this frame-name will then be used by default for any link that doesn't have its own 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 for the applet will be shown in the browser's statusbar, based upon your longest text and choice of font. You'll also see the current maxmium image dimensions displayed: this is the maximum image size that Roller can currently display without scaling it; if you're using images, you can use these details to make sure that your largest image falls within these dimensions.
ShowBorder
Another yes or no parameter that sets whether or not a border should appear around Roller's edges. The default value is yes.
ShowLinkButton
Yet another yes or no parameter, taking a default of 'yes'. If you're using Roller to display images, you may not want to associate those images with URLs - in other words, you're not using Roller as a menu, but simply for its image-display abilities. If this is the case, Roller's linking button is superfluous and taking up valuable page space. Set this parameter to 'no' and the button will be removed.
Delay
This parameter sets how fast Roller scrolls the next entry into view when the up or down arrow-button is clicked. The default value is 30; a higher value will make the scrolling slower. You're choice for this value will depend a lot on the dimensions of the Roller on your page. A narrow applet displaying just single lines of text will usually be fine with the default value. If you're displaying images, however, you may want to set the Delay or 10 or less.
Amount
Using the Delay parameter you set the lengths of the pauses as Roller moves the display upward or downward a pixel. If you're displaying large images, however, even with a very short delay the animation could seem too slow. The Amount parameter allows you to specify how many pixels the display should move at a time. The default is still 1. To increase the speed, increase this value. By adjusting this and the Delay parameter in tandem, it should be possible to achieve a smooth animation at any speed.
TextAlign
An easy non-case-sensitive choice of top, middle or bottom for the vertical positioning of the text in the Roller 'window'. If you're displaying text only, this is best left at its default setting, middle. To display images with textual caption, choose 'top' or 'bottom' to have the text displayed above or below the image; 'middle' will cause the text to be drawn across the center of the image, possibly making it difficult to read. If you're using images only, without text captions, this parameter is ignored.
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 link-button. 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.
Font
A comma-delimited string giving the name, style and size of the font you want to use for the menu entries. 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 also that the style part of this setting can be plain, bold, italic or bolditalic, and these are not case-sensitive.
Item1, Item2, . . . itemn
Roller can display an unlimited number of entries, any of which can consist of text, image, or both. These must be specified in numbered Item parameters, and the numbering must be consecutive beginning from 1. When Roller is initializing, it will stop looking for further Item parameters when it reaches an Item number that hasn't been used.
The Item parameters can contain two separate elements, separated by a pipe symbol (|). The first element is the text to be displayed for this item. The second (after the pipe symbol) is the relative or absolute location of an image to be displayed. In the example code to the left, the first three Item parameters use both text and an image. If no image is required, leave out the pipe symbol so the parameter contains only the text to display (as in Item4 opposite). If you want to display just an image with no text, use a pipe symbol followed by the relative or absolute path to the image (as in Item5 opposite).
The pipe symbol before the image-path is vital: without it, Roller will treat your image path as if it were text instead.
URL1, URL2, . . . URLn
The absolute or relative URL that each item on the menu should link to when the link-button is clicked. The number suffixes in this parameter correspond to the number suffixes in the Item parameters.
As an aid to testing colors and layouts, you can prefix your URLs with a dollar sign ($). You can then click the applet without error messages appearing or being linked elsewhere. (Remember to remove those $ signs before uploading your page, though!)
Target1, Target2, . . . Targetn
Allows you to specify a frame- or window-name into which each of the URL links should be opened. Once again, the number after 'Target' corresponds with an Item number. If a URL parameter exists and has no corresponding Target parameter, the target used will be the DefaultTarget.
In the example code to the left, you can see that Items 2 and 5 specify their own Target parameters; the other Items' URLs with open into a frame called 'main' as specified in the DefaultTarget parameter.
Remember that frame names are case-sensitive. If you're trying to make something open in a frame and your browser persists in opening a new window for it instead, check that the case and spelling of the name match in the Target parameter and in your HTML <frameset> tag.
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