Please read through the Licence agreement before using the software.
The Slider Menu Applet is a customisable menu system which will enable visitors to your
site to navigate using a graphical interface.
The software is very flexible and quick to setup. It is possible to quickly produce a wide
range of effects to suit the varying needs and creativity of web page authors. However, it is
also possible to produce complex inter-linked networks of menus and submenus by using this
applet.
This menu system allows for separate, but connected menus
to be placed at different locations in either the same frame, or in different frames. The
applet provides many features, although they are not all compulsory for its use. A simple
menu setup can easily be produced in a mater of minutes which will provide and impressive
interface by which you and other can browse your site pages.
More features will be listed soon...
As the author of this applet, I hope that you make good use of it and create some
stunning menus and enhance your web pages. Tell you friends where you got the applet from and
encourage them too, to include it on their pages - it is free after all!!
Feedback on this applet is encouraged as I am always looking for ways to improve it and ideas
for new applets. Just imagine if it was you that came up with the idea for the next revolutionary
applet!
You can contact me by email at here
and make sure to regularly visit my website, DanCity
to find new and exciting applets!!
Do enjoy using the Slider Menu Applet,
Dan MacFarlane.
28 October 1999.
These tutorials describe how to make the most of the Slider Menu Applet on you own web page
or site.
It is assumed that web page authors wishing to make us of this applet have has basic knowledge
of HTML. If you are not yet familiar with HTML and you are desperate to put these stunning menus
on your pages then I suggest that now would be a good time to spend a while getting familiar
with HTML before you read on.
The Slider Menu Applet has been designed to provide a great level of flexibility and hence provides
many features, and control over many parameters. Due to this there many appear to be a lot of
documentation for the applet. This is to ensure that each of the features is described
clearly, it is by no means necessary for you to have knowledge of all these features to create
simple menus.
For all users, it is a good idea to start with a simple menu systems like those described in
the examples section in order to become familiar with the applets use,
rather than attempting a complex system straight away. In all cases it helps if you have a clear
picture of the menus, items, and pages before you actually start implementing the menu system.
There are two stage to creating a menu system. The first stage is the placement and specification
of the menu viewer applets. The second stage is the specification of
the menu definitions, themselves.
If you are confident with HTML and have used Java Applets before, then you may prefer to go straight
to the examples section, and start using the applet. The remaining
documentation can then be referred to when you have a practical understanding of the use of the
applet.
The 'engine' of the menu system is a Java applet which can display any of the menus
that you will define. You can use the following applet code within you HTML page in order
to create an instance of the menu displayer/viewer. This code should be used wherever you
want to show a menu on your pages. You should ensure that the SliderMenu.jar file exists in the
same directory as the HTML document and that the size of the applet is large enough for all
the menu items to fit on, otherwise the menu cannot be displayed.
<APPLET name="MenuView1" width=130 height=120
archive="SliderMenu.jar" code="SliderMenuApplet.class">
<PARAM NAME="copyright" VALUE="(c) 1999 Dan MacFarlane. http://www.dancity.com/">
<PARAM NAME="background" VALUE="#ffffff">
<PARAM NAME="definitions" VALUE="menuDefinitions.html">
<PARAM NAME="defaultmenu" VALUE="Main">
<PARAM NAME="statusLine" VALUE="true">
</APPLET>
Each of the applet tag parameter is described below. All the parameters are optional except for copyright and home.
name="<String>" | Each instance of the applet should have a unique name parameter value associated with this particular menu viewer. The can be later used to reference this particular viewer. |
background="#000000" | The background parameter allows you to specify the background color of the applet. This will normally be the same color of you page background. |
defaultmenu="<String>" |
The defaultmenu parameter refers to the menu which will be the first menu to be
displayed by this menu viewer. This parameter is optional, omitting it will case the
first menu to be defined to be used. If you set this parameter to "null" then no menu
will be shown when the applet starts. |
definitions="<String>" |
The definitions parameter is optional and can refer to a separate menu definition
file, which contains the menu definitions to be used by this menu. If a definitions file
is not specified the HTML document containing the applet will be searched for menu
definitions. Menu definitions are described in the menu section. |
statusLine="true" | The statusLine parameter is optional and will set the status line display on or off. When set, the destination html link of a menu item will be shown on the status line of the browser, when the user moves the mouse over the menu item. |
itemWidth="<value>" | New Feature! The itemWidth parameter is optional and can be used to set the width of the menu buttons. The default width is 110 pixels. |
copyright= | This parameters is required for the applet to work. |
To specify the different menus and submenus you require, you will need to create a set of
menu definition. Each individual menu or submenu definition must consist of a menu tag
surrounding individual item tags. The following example defines a menu called 'MainMenu'
with two items, 'Intro' and 'Links'.
<MENU name="MainMenu"> <ITEM name="Intro" href="info.html"> <ITEM name="Links" link="LinksMenu"> </MENU>It is important that when defining a menu that you include both an opening and closing menu tag. If these are not formatted correctly the menu may not be interpreted at all. It is also important the when specifying the parameters for all tags that a space is left between different parameters, and that there are no spaces included between parameter name, = character, and value. After completing your definitions code you should check it to ensure that their the spacing of the parameters is correct.
The following parameters may be included within the <MENU> tag. The setting of
these parameters will be used for each item in the menu being defined unless they are
overridden by the parameters within the item tags.
name="<String>" | The name parameter is required and should refer to the name of this menu. This is used when you want to display this menu. Each menu you create must have a unique name. |
direction="left|right|up|down" | The direction parameter can be used to specify the sliding direction of the menu items, and can be either left, right, up or down. This parameter is not required and defaults to left. |
textalign="left|right|center" | The align parameter can be used to specify the alignment of the button text, which can be either left, right, or center justified.. This is not required and defaults to left. |
rightColor="#0052ff" leftColor="#002983" solidColor="#0052ff" textColor="#ffffff" background="#000000" | These parameters may be used to specify the appearance of the buttons. The values are hex representation of the colors required for; the right-hand side of the button; the left-hand side of the button; the solid color of the button when it is selected; the text color; and the background color. None of these parameters are required and if they are omitted default colors (shown) will be used. If the chosen text and button colors are the same then the colors will be adjusted to make the button text visible. |
The following parameters may be included within the <ITEM> tag. The setting of
these parameters will be used for the current item the tag is defining. The item buttons
that will be created are all a standard size: width=110 height=20. You must ensure
that the applet which shows the menu is large enough to display all items.
name="<String>" | The name parameter is required and is the text which will appear on this items button. |
href="<URL>" | This parameter specifies the page to load when this menu item is clicked on by the user. It must be a valid relative or absolute URL string ending in either '.html' or '.htm' or starting with 'mailto:' This parameter is not required, and if omitted, selecting this menu item will not reference a new HTML document. |
target="<>" | This parameter specifies the target frame for the help page specified in the href parameter to be loaded into. This parameter is not required, it defaults to loading the page on top of the active page. |
link="<Menu name>" | This parameter specifies the name of the menu to load when this menu items is clicked on by the user. This parameter is not required, if omitted, clicking on this menu item will not display a new submenu. |
applet="<Applet Name>" | This parameter specifies the name of the applet which a new submenu should loaded into. This parameter is not required, if omitted, the next menu will be loaded in the same applet the selection was made in. |
direction="left|right|up|down" | The direction parameter can be used to specify the sliding direction of the menu items, and can be either left, right, up or down. This parameter is not required and defaults to left. |
textalign="left|right|center" | The align parameter can be used to specify the alignment of the button text, which can be either left, right or center justified. This is not required and defaults to left. |
rightColor="#0052ff" leftColor="#002983" solidColor="#0052ff" textColor="#ffffff" background="#000000" | These parameters may be used to specify the appearance of each individual buttons. Setting these parameters will override any specified for the whole menu and set in the menu tag. The values are hex representation of the colors required for; the right-hand side of the button; the left-hand side of the button; the solid color of the button when it is selected; the text color; and the background color. None of these parameters are required and if they are omitted default colors will be used. |
Once you have created you menu definitions using the <MENU> and <ITEM> tags, you can either
include the definitions within the HTML file containing the menu applet(s) or in a central,
separate file. You must decide which is the most appropriate method for your needs.
If you intend using the menu within a single (smallish) page or intend loading new menu applets
on the top of the old menu applet then it is appropriate to include the menu definitions within
the same HTML file as the menu applets. This method is not appropriate for large HTML
pages. You should note that this is not the preferred method.
If you are using a standard set of menus between several pages then a separate 'global' menu
definitions file is recommended, which will contain all you menus. This avoids the need to
repeat the same menu definitions within each HTML page, and changes can be made to the one
central location rather than each page in turn. For single page menus, a separate small
definitions file will reduce menu loading time.
In order to reference a separate definition file you need to include the URL of the file in
the 'definitions' parameter for the applet code as described in the
applet section.
Although the Slider Menu Applet is very simple to use it may take novice users a while to
become familiar with the capabilities and master the use of this applet. These examples
demonstrate simple uses of the applet and are intended as a starting point. They show how
to utilise some of the basic features of the applet.
The only limitations to what you can do with the Slider Menu Applet are based on your own
creative ability.
This is a menu produced by the Slider Menu Applet using the minimal amount of HTML required. Similar pieces of HTML can be produced in seconds to define your own custom menus. Cut and past the code to an HTML file, and change it as you wish.
(See default online version of this document for working applet)The code which produces this applet example is show below. You can cut and paste it to one of your own HTML documents. You may want to make changes to the MenuName, MenuItem texts, and enter or remove the href parameters and values. Make sure you have the SliderMenu.jar file in the same directory as where the page is located. Feel free to modify the code and experiment with the parameters.
<center>
<APPLET name="VerySimpleExampleMenu" WIDTH=120 HEIGHT=120
ARCHIVE="SliderMenu.jar" CODE="SliderMenuApplet.class">
<PARAM NAME="copyright" VALUE="(c) 1999 Dan MacFarlane. http://www.dancity.com/">
<PARAM NAME="default" VALUE="MenuName">
</APPLET>
</center>
<menu name="MenuName">
<item name="MenuItem1" link="MenuName"">
<item name="MenuItem2" link="MenuName">
<item name="MenuItem3" link="MenuName">
</menu>
Here is a another simple menu created by the Slider Menu Applet. This one makes use of additional direction and color parameters to produce a different effect. The width of the applet has been set to 250 to allow for two columns of buttons. The href parameters for each menu item have been replaced with link parameters. As these refer to the menu its-self, the menu is reloaded each time an item is clicked upon.
(See default online version of this document for working applet)The code which produces this applet example is show below. You can cut and paste it to one of your own HTML documents. Make sure you have the SliderMenu.jar file in the same directory as the page is saved in. Feel free to modify the code and experiment with the parameters.
<center>
<APPLET name="SimpleExampleMenu" WIDTH=250 HEIGHT=90
ARCHIVE="SliderMenu.jar" CODE="SliderMenuApplet.class" >
<PARAM NAME="copyright" VALUE="(c) 1999 Dan MacFarlane. http://www.dancity.com/">
<PARAM NAME="default" VALUE="SimpleMenu">
</APPLET>
</center>
<menu name="SimpleMenu" textAlign="center">
<item name="The" link="SimpleMenu" direction="right">
<item name="Slider" link="SimpleMenu" direction="down"
rightcolor="#0052cc" leftcolor="#000066">
<item name="Menu" link="SimpleMenu" direction="up">
<item name="Applet" link="SimpleMenu" direction="left"
rightcolor="#0052cc" leftcolor="#000066">
</menu>
The number of different uses of the Slider Menu Applet is massive! It is really up to you
to use you imagination and configure the applet in creative way and make it unique to your
pages.
See the www section for links to novel examples
from other sites on the internet.
You can now download the exclusive Slider Menu Applet for use on your own web pages.
Click below to download the 21KB SliderMenu Applet distribution package. This zip archive
contains all the necessary files and documentation to get you started with the Slider Menu Applet.
This page will soon contain links to examples of site which are making great us of the Slider
Menu Applet.
If you think your site should be listed here email
me here with the URL so I can check it
out. Unusual or creative menu systems are especially sought after!
Please read through the following Licence agreement before using the software.