JWNews is a News Ticker Style Applet that reads input from an external Text
File and provides Links to Various "Articles". An Article is indicated
by the Heading which is the Large text the scrolls down from the Top.
JWNews
was inspired by UCOD Marquee, which was written by Michael Imamura.
Improvements over UCOD Marquee:
Deficiencies of JWNews to UCOD
Marquee:
NONE That I could Think Of :)
My
Thoughts on this Applet:
This applet caught my eye from the first time I saw it looking for something for my Department's Intranet (Nokia Telecommunications MSC/HLR Software Development) Site. UCOD Marquee, although free, lacked certain features that I deemed necessary (i.e. Explicit Frame Target Control). Therefore, I recoded the thing from scratch incorporating the features that I needed, and adding enhancements here and there. An Additional feature I'd like to point out is the use of a triple buffer for flickerfree animation. In fact, all my applets so far implement ether a double or triple buffering scheme.
Legal Specifications:
The Java Source, and Class Binaries are Property of Jeremy C. Witt and
I reserve Copyrights. You are granted free use of this applet and the associated
source code for whatever you wish with the following Provisions:
Text File Format:
The Text File used must adhere to the following criterion or the applet will
most likely crash: (Being that I didn't write a very robust Text File Parser :)
EXAMPLE TEXT FILE WITH EXPLANATION FOLLOWS: (News.TXT)
; This is the Text File that tells the Marquee
what to do.
; It is very important that you follow the conventions
; for creating this file, as the File Parser I wrote
; is not very robust, and will crash otherwise..
; Rules:
;*******
;1. Comments are preceded by
; in first Column.. Duh
;2. First Line After Comment MUST be a Header Record
; in the following Format
; BackgroundText~TargetFrame@AbsoluteWebURL
; or
; BackgroundText@AbsoluteWebURL (for _top Frame)
;3. After Header Record, there are Newsblock Records
; These can consist of 1 or more Lines of text with
; the Following gotchas
; a: There must be at least one NewsText
Line
; b: If you want a blank line, you MUST put at least a space on it
;4. There is no limit to the number of Headings you can have to have fun
;Author: JEREMY C. WITT 9-4-97
;************************************************************************
Winter~_top@http://smell.thepit.net/winter This is the New Applet Created
to convey the latest news - Click on this text to Goto Winter's Page. Each major
heading (indicated by the background text) will take you to the appropriate
page.
; Major Heading 2
;****************
BluesNEWS@http://www.bluesnews.com Click here to goto the coolest News Page
on the planet. Bluesnews
; Major Heading 3
; ***************
NOKIA@http://www.nokia.com Click here to see my place of business
; Major Heading 4
; ***************
Planetquake@http://www.planetquake.com Check out The Planet
; Major Heading 5
; ***************
Redwood@http://redwood.stomped.com How could we ever do without this one!
; Major Heading 6
; ***************
Feedback~_blank@mailto:winter@smell.thepit.net Go here to Complain :)
; Major Heading 7
; ***************
Thete's Page@http://smell.thepit.net/thete Go look at Thete's Page
Whew.. BTW: The Text File must be stored where the applet
codebase is or this wont work right!
Configurable
Parameters for the Applet:
Parameter: | Default: | Description: |
string | "NoFile" | Test String (Try out Colors without File) |
font | "Helvetica" | Text Font |
style | "PLAIN" | Text Style (Underline,Italic,Bold,etc..) |
basesize | 10 | Size of the Smaller Font (Forground) |
fps | 15 | Frames Per Second (Speed of Applet) |
bgcolor | "DD0000" | Hex Color String (Background) |
tbcolor | "202020" | Hex Color Sting (Background Text) |
tfcolor | "FFFFFF" | Hex Color String (Foreground Text) |
file | "news.txt" | FileName to Open for News |
lcolor | "FFFF00" | Hex Color String (Mouse Over Color) |
acolor | "FF0000" | Hex Color String (Mouse Clicked Color) |
pobgt | 10 | Percent X Offset from Left of Background Text |
pofgt | 15 | Percent X Offset from Left of Foreground Text |
scrollstyle | 1 | NOT IMPLEMENTED |
sizemult | 3 | Size Multipler * fg Text size = bg Text size (int) |
Example: (do view source for html.. its too dang hard to copy it
into an HTML Document without invoking another copy of the applet
Thas All she wrote... have fun