We got the word on Anfy's Java products from two very
respectable sources. The CoffeeCup team and the Adobe team when we got the page editors
from each. We have had the applets running on our site for many years now and still
many people are coming to the site to view these applets. We've been linked to and listed
on variuos websites which specialize in Java. But the new applets and applet creation
applications from Anfy are much better. The graphics and visual effects of these applets
are beautiful and truly mind bongling. Fabio Ciucci is a Java Guru of the highest
rank. With his applets and applet creation application called Anfy, he included some
general remarks which would be of interest to everyone involved with Java and the web. We
excuse his occasional, albeit minor syntactical and grammatical errors since English isn't
his native language.
GENERAL NOTES AND SOLVING COMMON ERRORS (with applets)
From Fabio Ciucci, aka, Randy Ram Jam ...
Here's how to solve some common errors installing Java applets. You have to know that Java
is supported by Netscape 2+, MS Explorer 3+ only on 32 bit operating systems (Windows
95/NT etc.), so you will not see java applets if running Windows 3.1, or a 16 bit browser: The
alternate message will appear. Java is different from javascript: Java is made by .class
files and is more powerful than javascript. Javascript is a script/batch language written
directly in .html documents. Javascript is supported by Windows 3.1 (16 bit) too.
To install applets, you have simply to do this:
1) Copy the .class files on same dir of .html files, same as GIF and JPG images. 2) Add
the <APPLET> tag in the html document, as explained in instructions. Some html
editors don't permit this or have strange standards, in this case save the .html file,
then edit it with dos edit, notepad or another text editor, and add manually the
<APPLET> tag. 3) Upload .html file, .class files and other ones (images etc.) to
your web page account as usual.
Common errors:
A) LONG FILENAMES TRUNCATION AND LETTER CASE CHANGE: Many MS-DOS users
still use PKUNZIP to decompress zip archives, and haven't in mind the
difference between FiLe.ExE, FILE.EXE and fILe.eXe. This is bad, for a couple of reasons.
The first is "long file names" usage: msdos (and old 16 bit win 3.1
programs) are able to support files 8 chars long with a suffix 3 chars long. Newer systems
are able to support long file names, for example MyNiceApplet.class, that has a suffix of
4 chars.
If you unzip with pkunzip the applets archives, or upload the .class files on the server
with an old win 3.1 FTP program, etc., you will TRUNCATE the filename, and the result will
be MYNICEAP.CLA ! Then, remember to unzip with winzip 32 for win95 or similiar, and to
copy/upload files with new programs that don't truncate filenames. Be careful on case of
letters, too, since internet (unix) is case sensitive. So, write MyNiceApplet.class and
not Myniceapplet.class, for example. Most common mistakes are on images filenames, since
win95 is not case sensitive and it loads an image even if the case is different. For
example, save an image as Image1.jpg, and you will be able to load it in netscape also if
called as IMAGE1.JPG, image1.JPG, IMAGE1.jpg. This will not work online, so be sure the
name of images you load from an applet is exactly the same.
B) Wrong image sizes or applet size: read carefully instructions of the applets, since
sometime images MUST be of fixed sizes (for example 64*64, 128*128 etc.) and don't enlarge
too much applets, no more than 600 of
width (since many people have 640*480 video modes).
Some Tips and Tricks
Probably you are thinking: what people without java browsers will see instead of the
applets? You can place an alternate text, or image, or a whole html segment:
<applet code="MyApplet.class" width=150 height=150>
<param name=param1 value="1234">
<param name=param2 value="5678">
<IMG ALT="*" ALIGN=center SRC="alternateimage.gif" border=0>
</applet>
So, for example, you can display a normal image if java is not present, otherwise a java
manipulation of the image.
If you want to read .class files from another dir, just use the codebase:
<applet codebase="http://www.app.com/app/" code="MyApplet.class"
width=150 height=150>
<param name=param1 value="1234">
<param name=param2 value="5678">
Sorry, your browser doesn't support Java.
</applet>
You can even load images for applets from a cgi-bin/ , maybe for pic of the day or
similiar:
<applet code="MyApplet.class" width=150 height=150>
<param name=image value="/cgi-bin/Image.cgi">
<param name=param2 value="5678">
<IMG ALT="*" ALIGN=center SRC="/cgi-bin/Image.cgi" border=0>
</applet>
Bug reports:
- Don't save .JPG images from Adobe Photoshop 4, since some java implementations aren't
able to read them. Use Photoshop 3, or another program, like Paint Shop Pro.
- MS Explorer 3.02 has a bug, that cause a SecurityErrorException when java loads images
from local Hard Disk. Applets will work when online, but will be hard to test them, so get
a newer version or a previous one (3.01). The URL for java explorer upgrade is:
microsoft.com/java/download/vmdownload.htm
Fabio Ciucci
www.anfiteatro.it/java.htmlYou can download lots of goodies which will be of such good quality that you will
actually use them, too at his site. He even has the site set up in many languages. Anfy 3D
is there too. Our advice? Get it. Register it. Use it. GIRIUI. It is a swell application
for creating and configuring the kewlest of Kewl 3D Java with a wizard that is simple.
Ok, so we have several
pixel manipulating Java applets which were given freely to us by a dude by the name of
Fabio Ciucci who lives in Italy where people don't think that name is particularly
unusual. You can get all the applets and use them and change them around if you want. But
you have to read the dot-txt files and do just what they say so everything will be kosher,
ok? When you go to Fabio's web site page, you can easily get all the parts and the text
files and use these applets to learn about graphics Java applets. Then you'll understand
why Java applets are easier to put into your pages than Javascript scripts, even though
writing the applet itself is much more difficult. But, remember rule number one of being a
Java web guru, "Ya gotta cop the attitude."
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