Wxloop 1.0 README (original) (raw)

Here's my best attempt at describing the web looping software, wxloop.cgi version 1.02 (David Ovens, ovens@atmos.washington.edu, 8/15/2001):

Main driver: wxloop.cgi -- the hidden guts of the program, see below. THERE IS HELP INFORMATION IN THE CODE AS WELL.

Static Frame Html Files: navigate.html -- upper left frame with the browser-dependent Back button. Required because it seems that a lot of browsers have trouble with Back. titleframe.cgi -- upper right frame with dynamic titles, links, etc. controls.3frames.html -- lower left frame with the looping controls wxloop.3frames.html -- lower right frame that has a little bit of JavaScript in it to allow looping titleframe_sample.html -- sample output from titleframe.cgi (see Examples below).

Button images: buttons/ -- all of the various button image files used.

Include files: include_files/cgi-lib.pl -- for parsing data from a form include_files/date-lib.pl -- David Ovens' date/time routines include_files/master_path_file -- associates local paths to data with a variable include_files/master_pattern_file -- associates file names with the variable Examples: wxloop_sample.html -- sample output from running "perl wxloop.cgi unix_example all > wxloop_sample.html" To display this on your browser with "file:/tmp/wxloop/wxloop_sample.html" (or whatever the appropriate path is to that file), you need to follow these steps: (1) delete the first 2 lines since those are for dynamic html not static html (2) replace "titleframe.cgi?unix_example+all+-update+3600" with "titleframe_sample.html" NOTE: titleframe_sample.html was created by running "perl titleframe.cgi unix_example all -update 3600" and then deleting the first two lines as in (1) above.

unix_example/     -- contains sample graphics for variable
                      unix_example
windows_example/  -- contains sample graphics for variable
                      windows_example

The frame files are straight-forward html, JavaScript, and PERL code. The wxloop.cgi code is a very complicated blend of PERL processing that occurs on the Web server and HTML/JavaScript that occurs on the Web browser. The result of all of its PERL processing is to output the necessary HTML/JavaScript code to handle the top frame and the 4 displayed frames of the looper.

Many of the PERL aspects of wxloop.cgi are not portable, they relate to finding the requisite files on our system. These PERL routines were all developed by me, ovens@atmos.washington.edu, and I give permission for them to be used and copied freely, provided credit is given to me. You may obtain the actual code, at ftp://ftp.atmos.washington.edu/ovens/wxloop.tar. The PERL code can then be run from the command line as "[perl -d] wxloop.cgi atx_bref1 3", or "[perl -d] wxloop.cgi atx_bref1 /4h/", for example, (where perl -d is optional) to get an idea of what the code is doing.

The HTML/JavaScript output of wxloop.cgi should be extremely portable, and this is what you see when you do a "View Source" in your browser on the main page of the loop (not one of its individual frames). This is based on jsImagePlayer 1.0 and is used with permission of xholecko@sgi.felk.cvut.cz by including his credits.