/usr/share/dx/java/htmlpages/earlier.htm

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<title>Java Explorer Status</title>
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<h2>Changes in 1.0.4</h2>
<ul>
<li>Shift+Mouse Click in any Java Explorer Image applet will
cause the applet to pop its image up in a new browser window.
This enables the user to save the image.
<li>Java Explorer's web page generation mechanism will now automatically
generate applet tags in the .html file which result in the
content produced by the DXLOutput tool being displayed in an
applet running in the browser.  Examples of this mechanism in 
place are <a href="MutualFund.html" TARGET="_parent">MutualFund</a>
and <a href="ddi.html" TARGET="_parent">Thunderstorm Simulation</a>.
<li>The dx.net package in Java Explorer includes  the
<a href="Status.htm#interfaces">dx.net.DXLinkHandler</a> 
interface which an applet can implement in order 
to handle output produced by a DXLOutput tool in a net.
<li>A new menu in the 'Execution' panel provides a selection of views -
Front, Back, Left, Right, etc.
</ul>
<h2>Changes from 1.0.3 to 1.0.4</h2>
<ul>
<li>Data-driven selector and selector list interactors were malfunctioning
on the second execution following receipt of new input values for
<i>stringdata</i> and <i>valuelist</i> inputs.  They would continue to
malfunction until the user selected a new value in the interactor.  The
specific symptom was that the selector or selector list tool would output
a value from its most recent user input or from the stored net if the
user had never entered a value.
<li>The mechanism by which DXServer erases old gif files malfunctioned
on the pc with an httpd program causing DXServer to erase these files
too soon.  As a result, the browser's Java Console would contain error
messages indicating that <i>AppletClient couldn't load <filename>.gif</i>.
</ul>
<h2>Changes from 1.0.2 to 1.0.3</h2>
<ul>
<li>A bug in Netscape 4.05 and earlier versions prevented data-driven
selector interactors from working properly.  Since that bug is fixed in
Netscape 4.06, the Java Explorer applets attempt to distinguish
between 4.06 and other versions in handling these interactors at
run time.  If Java Explorer mistakenly identifies a pre-4.06 browser
as a 4.06 browser, then the Java Explorer applet will crash when
it handles an option-menu style data-driven selector interactor 
message.  There will be a corresponding message in the browser's
Java Console.
<li>The <a href=Status.htm#configuration>distributed execution</a>
mechanism did not work using the SGI version of DXServer
due to a syntax error in the remote shell script used to spawn
dx sessions.  The DXServers for the other platforms experienced
protocol errors due to dropped data packets.
<li>Java Explorer obeys the Image tool's interaction mode input
parameter.  You may include an interactor in your visualization 
to control the parameter.  If the input is tab down then Java
Explorer may overwrite it.  Java Explorer will obey the value of
the input if the value is one of "none", "rotate", "pick", "panzoom",
or "zoom".  If the value is "panzoom", then Java Explorer will enter
its pan mode.
<li>Java Explorer's Image and Pick menus in the <i>Execution</i> panel
will be included in the user interface if there are 2 or more image
or pick tools respectively.  Previously these menus were included if
there was 1 image tool or pick tool.
<li>Java Explorer will honor the image tool's interactionmode input
parameter value saved in a .net file.  In other words if you save
a visual program with the Image tool in <i>Pick</i> or <i>Rotate</i>
mode, then Java Explorer will be in <i>Pick</i> or <i>Rotate</i>
mode (respectively) when the browser hits the web page resulting
from that net.
<li>A bug in DXServer in 1.0.2 and earlier versions in which
the DXServer entered an infinite loop if dxexec crashed is now fixed.
<li>Java Explorer now uses Netscape's Document Object Model for
locating image window destinations within the web page only for
vrml output and not for image output.
</ul>
<h2>Changes from 1.0.0 to 1.0.2</h2>
<ul>
<li>All .class files required by Java Explorer are now in one
jar file.  As a result the time  taken by a browser to load
Java Explorer's classes over the internet should be reasonable.
<li>Support for Data Explorer's sequencer is now included.
If your visual program contains multiple images tools, 2 or more of
which should sequence together, then set the <b>groupName</b> input of
their associated <b>WebOptions</b> tools to a common string.
The Java Explorer sequencer works differently from the Data Explorer
sequencer in that it cycles the Data Explorer sequencer through one
time, then replays images from a local cache for good performance.
The Data Explorer sequencer does not replay images from an image cache.
Instead it actually reexecutes the net with every step, relying on
data caching in the executive for good performance.  The differences
which would be obvious to an end user are:
<ol>
<li>When the Java Explorer sequencer has finished one cycle the
green execution light goes off, unlike in Data Explorer.
</ol>If an interactor value is changed while Java Explorer is replaying
images from its cache, the change will not be reflected in the image unless
the user selects <i>Sequence</i> in the <i>Mode</i> menu again.
<li>Camera interaction modes now operate in the coordinate space of the viewer.
<li>Camera interaction modes allow you to stroke in the image with the mouse.
<li>DXLExitDX now successfully terminates dxexec in the pc version of DXServer.
<li>The input types to WebOptions have changed.  In the previous release,
the inputs were all of type "value list or string list or object".  Now the 
mdf information for WebOptions contains appropriate types for all the inputs.
As a result you may get warning messages from dxui when loading an older
net saved with a WebOptions.  If you do get such a warning, then you 
must check the values entered in the configuration dialog for WebOptions.  
It's likely that one or more values were lost.
<li>Some interfaces used in the java code generated by dxui have changed.
In order to use nets saved with the previous version of Java Explorer with
this version, you must do the following:
<ol>
<li>Remove or hide the old version of WebOptions (found in weboptionsmac.net).
<li>Add the new version found in <i>installDir</i>/java/server/dxmacros
to your DXMACROS.
<li>Load and visual program then save it using 'File/Save'.
<li>Save a new java file using 'Edit/Java/Net To Applet'.
</ol>
<li>Dxui used to write the files comprising a web page into its
current working directory.  Now it writes them into the same directory
as the .net file.  
<li>So that you aren't required to hand edit the 
makefile generated by 'Edit/Java/Save As Web Page' you may make settings
for the following in $HOME/DX:
<ul>
<li><b>DX*cosmoDir: /some/where/vrml</b>
<blockquote>
<small>A value is required for cosmoDir only if you're generating
web pages which use vrml. The files pointed to by cosmoDir are
supplied with the cosmo plug-in.</small>
</blockquote>
<li><b>DX*dxJarFile: <i>installDir</i>/java/htmlpages/dx.jar</b>
<li><b>DX*jdkDir: /usr/jdk_base/lib/classes.zip</b>
<blockquote><small>This location depends on your installation of java.</small>
</blockquote>
<li><b>DX*htmlDir: <i>installDir</i>/java/htmlpages</b>
<li><b>DX*serverDir: <i>installDir</i>/java/server</b>
</ul>
<li>You may produce an <i>Orbit</i> and use it in a web page
without using a connection to DXServer.  To do this, simply 
follow the instructions for producing a Java Explorer web page.  Then
remove the applet tag pointing to <i>myprog.class</i> from the .html file.
<li>A display in <i>orbit</i> mode now gives the user an indication that
an <i>orbit</i> is available by changing the cursor.  However, this works 
only in Internet Explorer.
</ul>
<p>
dxsamples 4.2.0-1 / usr / share / dx / java / htmlpages / earlier.htm
