This applet, documentation, and accompanying images may not be distributed
for profit or on CD without the express written consent of the copyright
holder. The applet, images, and documentation are Copyright 1998-2000,
Lithic Software Corporation, all rights reserved.
For updates stop by:
http://www.lithic.com/java/java.html
The help files cover the following topics:
Introduction to lsSlideShow
Uses for lsSlideShow
Parameters
Slides File
License
Improving download speeds
Changes from version 1.x
Changes from version 2.0
Changes from version 2.1
Help/Consulting
Introduction:
There are three general considerations with using lsSlidesShow, the
slides file, the images, and the parameters.
The information for the slides used by lsSlideShow are stored in a slides file. The format for the slides file is discussed below. The directory that the slides file is in must be specified in the parameter named "slides". For example, if your server was www.lithic.com, and the value of the source parameter was "java/slides.txt", the applet would look for http://www.lithic.com/java/slides.txt to get the dates information. If your slides aren't showing up, click the About button (if you register lsSlideShow, this About button will be a Beginning button) to see where lsSlideShow expects the date file.
You can use any size images with lsSlideShow, provided that the applet is big enough to display them. The size of the applet can be changed using the width and height in the applet tag.
The parameters are discussed below. Many of them can be left as is when you first use lsSlideShow, but you may want to glance through them to see the configuration options.
An example HTML file, slideshow.html, is
included for demonstration. To begin, you should examine the tag
and parameters in that file, then make modifications after you have seen
the way that it works. You will most likely have to change the source
parameter to make it work. The source parameter is
discussed below.
To upload the class files for an applet, you need to use binary mode
rather than ASCII mode. Binary mode is the default mode for a lot
of FTP clients, so generally just upload as normal. The slides file
should be uploaded in ASCII mode.
lsSlideShow can be used to display any series of pictures. It
can also be "nested", so that you can lead from one slide show to another.
An example of this could be a real estate office setting up a slideshow
for the houses in their inventory. Each house slide could provide
a link to another slideshow showing more images from that house.
Each slideshow would have it's own page, slides file, and images.
Once the class files and images are downloaded, they are loaded from cache,
so download time isn't an issue after initial download (unless your caching
is turned off or your cache is purged).
The parameters are briefly discussed below.
<APPLET CODE="lsslideshow22.class" width=550 height=270>
The width and height can be adjusted to accomodate the size of the
images that you are using, or the amount of space that you have available
on your page. You can also use an archive file for faster
downloading. If you want to store the class files in a different
directory than the html file, use a codebase modifier (for example, codebase="../applets")
in the applet tag.
<PARAM NAME=slides VALUE="/java/slides.txt">
The slides parameters is discussed below under Slides
File. The slides parameter specifies the file that contains information
about the slides, descriptions and links that lsSlideShow displays, so
it is important to understand. There is an example dates file, slides.txt,
included in the distribution package.
<PARAM NAME=final VALUE=".">
<PARAM NAME=prior VALUE=".">
These parameters let you set what happens if the user clicks final
or previous after seeing the last or first slide, respectively. This
is useful if you want to present your website visitor with a number of
options, then have them go to a final page with the last click. You
should use a full URL here, or a "." if there is no link.
<PARAM NAME=imagedirectory VALUE=".">
If this is a ".", the images need to be in the same directory as the
class files (this is called the codebase). If you want to keep your
images in another directory, specify that directory in this parameter.
If you are specifying the location of your images, you need to use a complete
path, not a relative path. For example, if images where in http://www.lithic.com/images/,
that is what would be put in this parameter. If you use a path, be
sure it ends with a "/".
<PARAM NAME=font VALUE="TimesRoman">
<PARAM NAME=point VALUE="10">
<PARAM NAME=style VALUE="plain">
These let you set the font for the text shown in the text area.
The permissible values for style are plain, bold, italic, and bolditalic
(case sensitive). If the font you refer to is not available on the
viewing system, it will substitute TimesRoman 12 point plain. You should
try to use common fonts, for example:
Arial
TimesRoman
Dialog
<PARAM NAME=textareawidth VALUE="150">
If you choose a button side of right or left (discussed below), this
lets you set how wide the area used to display text is. It must be
a number that is greater than 0 and less than the width of the applet.
<PARAM NAME=textareaheight VALUE="75">
If you choose a button side of top or bottom (discussed below), this
lets you set how high the area used to display text is. It must be
a number that is greater than 0 and less than the height of the applet.
<PARAM NAME=next VALUE="Next">
<PARAM NAME=previous VALUE="Previous">
<PARAM NAME=beginning VALUE="Beginning">
<PARAM NAME=loadingimage VALUE="Loading Image">
<PARAM NAME=loading VALUE="Loading slide ">
<PARAM NAME=slide VALUE="Slide">
<PARAM NAME=click VALUE="Click Next to Continue">
These parameters are for multilingual support. To change the
language to something other that English, adjust the values of these parameters
to the equivalent in your target language.
<PARAM NAME=showslidenumber VALUE="yes">
This sets whether to display the Slide #/# in the text area.
Acceptable values are "yes", "no", and "append". If you choose a
buttonside of top or bottom, you should set this to "append" or "no".
<PARAM NAME=buttonside VALUE="right">
Indicates whether the buttons and text area should be on the right,
left, top, or bottom. The values "right", "left", "top", and "bottom"
are case sensitive.
<PARAM NAME=returncharacter VALUE="*">
Each description needs to be on a single line in the slides file, as
discussed later under Slides File. lsSlideShow will automatically
wrap long lines. If you want to force a return, use the return character
surrounded by spaces. You can replace the value of this parameter
with another return character if you are using * in your descriptions,
for example. So if you wanted to create a two paragraph description,
the description would include two * characters, as follows:
This is the first paragraph * * This is the second paragraph.
Note that the asterisks have spaces on both sides.
<PARAM NAME=background VALUE="FFFFFF">
<PARAM NAME=right VALUE="A0A0A0">
<PARAM NAME=link VALUE="0000FF">
<PARAM NAME=unselectedtext VALUE="000090">
<PARAM NAME=selectedtext VALUE="FF0000">
<PARAM NAME=textbackground VALUE="F0F0F0">
The background is the color of the applet background. The
right is the color of the background of the components on the right.
The link is what is drawn around linked images. The unselected text,
selected text, and textbackground are used to draw the area where the text
is displayed. The text is shown in the selectedtext color if the
cursor is over it and the image is linked, otherwise it is in the unselectedtext
color
The colors must be in hex format, as shown. If you need some help
with this format, try the hex color calculator (for Windows 3.1/95) located
at:
http://www.lithic.com/software/free.html
If you make a mistake with a color (for example, using a non-hex color),
a default color will be used. So if you aren't sure why your colors
aren't showing up, have a look at the colors used in the parameters.
Slides File
<PARAM NAME=slides VALUE="java/slides.txt">
The dates used for lsSlideShow are stored in a dates file. The
path to the dates file must be specified in the source parameter.
For example, if your server was www.lithic.com, and the value of the source
parameter was "java/dates.txt", the applet would look for http://www.lithic.com/java/dates.txt
to get the dates information. The path must be the full path (no
relative paths). If the applet cannot find the dates file, you can
click the About button to show where it expects the file (if you register
the product, the About button will be a Beginning button).
Here are two example slides (for more, see the slides.txt file):
Late Afternoon from Mather Point evening.jpg http://www.lithic.com/java/calendar.html
Sunset on the South Rim of the GC late.jpg .
The format is:
[description][single space][image file][single space][URL]
The URL can be either a full URL, as shown on the first line, or a dot (.), as shown on the second line. If there is no URL associated with a slide, use a "." . The image file should be in either the diretory pointed to by imagedirectory or the codebase (where the class files are). Where to put them is discussed above in parameters under imagedirectory.
The final line of the slides files should not end with a return.
Please be sure that the description, image file, and URL are separated by a single space. Also, be sure to use a simple text editor (for example, notepad on Windows systems, vi on UNIX, or simpletext on a Mac), when creating the file. The dates file must be plain text. You should not have additional returns (ie blank lines) at the end of the dates file.
To add returns to the description, use the return character in the returncharacter
parameter (discussed above under parameters). The applet will automatically
wrap lines, but to force a return, you need to add a return character.
If you use the return character, surround it by spaces (for example, if
the return character is "*", include " * " in your text to force a return.
Improving download speeds
The best way to improve download speeds for an applet is to use an
archive file to store all the class files in. The easiest way to
do this is to take all the class files, and create a zip file from them.
Then put the zip file in the same directory as your class files and add
an "archive=" modifier to your applet tag. If your zip file
was called slides21classes.zip, you would use the following tag:
<APPLET CODE="lsslideshow21.class" ARCHIVE="slides21classes.zip"
width=550 height=270>
There is a zip file called slides21classes.zip in the distribution package that you can use. To use it, put it in the codebase and add ARCHIVE="slides21classes.zip" to your applet tag.
If you register the applet (commercial site must register), when you
received your new license class, if you are using an archive, you will
need to create a new zip file with the new slideslicense class. You
should name the new zip file differently from the old zip file, for example
slides21new.zip, then make the appropriate change in the applet tag.
This is because, if the "archive=" modifier is not changed, the browser
may use the old zip file that it has in cache rather than the new one.
Changes from version 1.x
There are several major changes from version 1. The main changes
are the way that the dates are stored and the interface. There are
also several new parameters.
Because lsSlideShow has many new features, there isn't an easy way to
upgrade the html page so that it can support the current version.
Please read this entire documentation for information on setting up lsSlideShow
v2.x. The lines in the slides file are in the same format as the
slides1..n parameters that were in version 1.2 and 1.3.
Changes from version 2.0
All new parameters need to be added to your page so that the slideshow
works correctly. The new Parameters are the following:
<PARAM NAME=font VALUE="TimesRoman">
<PARAM NAME=point VALUE="10">
<PARAM NAME=style VALUE="plain">
These let you set the font for the text shown in the text area.
The permissible values for style are plain, bold, italic, and bolditalic
(case sensitive). If the font you refer to is not available on the
viewing system, it will substitute TimesRoman 12 point plain. You should
try to use common fonts, for example:
Arial
TimesRoman
Dialog
<PARAM NAME=textareawidth VALUE="150">
This lets you set how wide the area used to display text is.
<PARAM NAME=showslidenumber VALUE="yes">
This sets whether to display the Slide #/# at the bottom of the text
area.
<PARAM NAME=buttonside VALUE="right">
Indicates whether the buttons and text area should be on the right
or left. The values "right" and "left" are case sensitive.
Please also read the following section, Changes from version 2.1.
<PARAM NAME=textareaheight VALUE="75">
This was added so that if you choose to have the buttons on top or
bottom, you can set the height of the text area. It must be a number
that is greater than 0 and less than the height of the applet.
<PARAM NAME=buttonside VALUE="right">
New with this version, the option of using "top" or "bottom".
If you choose a buttonside of top or bottom, you should set the showslideparamter
to "append" or "no".
<PARAM NAME=showslidenumber VALUE="yes">
New with this version, the value "append", which shows the slide number
after the text.
Change the applet tag to refer to version 2.2
<APPLET CODE="lsslideshow22.class" ARCHIVE="slides22classes.zip"
width=550 height=270>
The way that licensing works was also changed. If you are a registered
user and have not been contacted yet, please contact java@lithic.com.
Help/Consulting
Consulting, help with the parameters, customizing, and programming
are available for a fee from Lithic Software Corporation. To contact
Lithic Software, email to consulting@lithic.com