Frontier: 4.2b1 Change Notes

4.2b1 Change Notes

Wed, Dec 11, 1996 at 6:28:37 AM by DW

SUITES.HTML

1. html.data.version = 3

This is the third major release of suites.html. First was in Frontier 4.0, second in 4.1.

2. html.buildPageTable

New script, from code that used to be in html.buildObject. Allows you to build html.data.page without building the page.

Allow outlines to be templates. See Narrative page for a discussion.

3. html.buildSiteMenu

Builds a Frontier menubar object from a website, suitable for including in your shared browser menu.

4. html.ftpTable

If there's an error building a page, add its address to an outline don't stop the build, this allows long Release Table operations to continue but you still find out which pages didn't build.

As of 4.2b1, this feature doesn't work. Not sure why. Any ideas?

5. html.ftpTable

In addition to showing the URL in the main window, if you have a fulltime net connection, we try to show the page in your web browser. Set user.html.prefs.fullTimeNetConnection accordingly.

6. html.getOneTagValue

Given a page of html text, extract the value of a specific tag.

7. html.init

Follows the pattern of other suites, makes sure new user.html settings are initialized to default values.

Some of the values are for future growth, not necessarily used in any of the new suites.html features.

8. html.initWebsite

Creates a new website table and sets up default structure.

9. html.loadFolder

Loads a structure of files and folders into the object db.

I want to do some more work here before documenting this.

10. html.loadImageFile

Load a file of any type as a cell in the indicated table

It can be a GIF, JPEG, Shockwave movie, whatever type you like.

It's loaded into user.html.images. You can move it anywhere you like.

The imageRef macro understands if the 1st param is an address.

11. html.loadTextFile

Tries to load a text file into the object db using scripts in html.data.textFileReaders.

See Narrative page for a discussion.

STANDARD MACROS

1. Look in html.data.standardMacros

Several new macros were added, one was deleted.

2. democracy24

Deleted -- the 24 Hours site is off the air.

3. pageHeader

Saves an htmlHint comment at the top of every page that's generated. It's optional, set user.html.prefs.noHintsInHeader true to turn it off.

Add our own meta tags, following pattern of PageMill, FrontPage:

<meta name="generator" content="Frontier 4.1 Mac"> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">

Supports new #javaScript directive. Works like #meta. It can be any type you like. It's coerced to a string and the text is inserted into the <head> of the generated page.

Important: If you've written your own custom pageHeader macro, you can call our macro from your macro.

4. imageRef

Allow images to be stored in object db. See Narrative page for a discussion.

5. spacePixels

Use this macro to force a table cell to be a specific height or width.

It creates the space.gif in the same folder as the page if it isn't already there.

6. biggerFont

Takes a string and returns an HTML string that displays bigger.

7. cSourceFile

Includes the text of a C source file in a web page. Probably works fine for Java source too.

USER.HTML.PREFS

1. A bunch of new prefs are added in this release

A full list can be found in html.init.

2. user.html.prefs.imgFileCreator

Determines the file type of image files created by suites.html.

3. user.html.prefs.textFileCreator

Determines the file type of text files created by suites.html.

HTML.DATA.PAGE

1. New fields were added in 4.2

All are set in html.buildPageTable.

2. html.data.page.f

The file that we're going to create/modify.

3. html.data.page.adrSiteRootTable

It points to the parent of the table that contains the #ftpsite directive.

WEB MENU

1. It's in the Extras folder

As usual, it's an optional upgrade. I'm adding commands as they occur to me. Not all are debugged. Not all are final...

2. Load Image File command

Standard file dialog. Choose the file you want to load.

It's loaded into user.html.images. You can copy/paste it elsewhere or mimic this script in your own menu command.

3. View in Finder command

Figures out the file path, brings the Finder to the front and highlights the file.

4. New Site command

This one is broken, but I'll fix it. ;->

TOYS

1. Look in suites.toys

These are scripts that are candidates for inclusion in the kernel.

Operations that are so general that they don't belong in another suite.

2. toys.commentDelete

string.commentDelete has a limit of 255 chars. This script uses string.nthField which doesn't have this limit.

Replaced calls in html.buildObject, html.data.standardMacros.formMacro, html.data.standardMacros.renderObject.

3. toys.newObject

Respects new user preferences for initial font/size.

4. toys.popStringSuffix

Turns xxx.html into xxx.

MISCELLANEOUS CHANGES

1. system.startup.startupscript

initialize user.preferences -- new settings

user.preferences.outlineFont, user.preferences.outlineFontSize.

user.preferences.tableFont, user.preferences.tableFontSize.

2. suites.navigator

If an address begins with http:// send the URL to the web browser.

Enter this in the Quick Script window to try it out: navigator.spawn (@navigator.data.outlines.apple, xxx, false).

3. user.preferences

Four new cells determine font/size for new tables and outlines.

Call toys.newObject instead of the kernel "new" verb to have these values respected.

Initialized in the new system.startup.startupscript.

© Copyright 1996-97 UserLand Software. This page was last built on 5/7/97; 1:28:10 PM. It was originally posted on 12/9/96; 6:48:55 AM. Internet service provided by Conxion.