WEBSTER.OCX BETA BUILD 914 For Windows NT and Windows 95    8/14/95

WEBSTER.DLL BETA BUILD 914 For Windows 3.1

                    
                    The Webster OLE2 Custom Control
                    -------------------------------

                   An HTML-Aware OCX From Trafalmador
                   ----------------------------------


What Is It ?
------------

The Webster OCX is a drop-in HTML display and Web browsing solution,
a WWW client as an OLE control.  Webster can retrieve, interpret and
display HTML pages (including forms and images), and respond to
hyperlink mouse clicks.  It differs from other Web browsers in that 
it is not a stand-alone application but rather a tool for application 
developers.  When embedded in an OCX-capable container, Webster exposes 
properties, methods and events which allow the container to maintain a 
high degree of control over Webster actions.  

Using a language such as Basic, Delphi or C++, you can monitor user
actions and approve, veto or replace any clicked URL.  A concealed load
feature allows the container to inspect the contents of a document 
before deciding whether to display it.

Browsing sessions may be fully automated for applications such as slide
shows or web-walkers, or merely guided by substituting, suggesting 
alternatives or disallowing access to certain URLs.  Alternatively, a 
container may remain uninvolved, allowing the user to perform the usual 
point-and-click Web browsing.

Possible applications include: 

o  An automated display or kiosk.

o  A Web search robot, able to perform network tree walks and retrieve
   documents based on specific criteria.

o  A guided browser, which directs the user to pre-selected destinations 
   yet allows side excursions inside the permitted domain.

o  An HTML reader for documents distributed on CD-ROM.

o  A Reader for an HTML forms and images database.

o  Display clickable images in any application.

o  Build a better Web browser, adding infrastructure and features 
   like timer-driven events and specialized address book creation on
   top of Webster's native capabilities (see Vogon Poetry).


Who Needs It ?
--------------

The target audience for Webster is the application developer who needs
to incorporate a Web browser (or just an HTML display) into an 
MS-Windows product, without resorting to heavyweight OLE solutions like
MS-WORD.  The OCX is implemented as an in-process DLL, which is both
quick and compact.  Most future program development environments will
support the OCX format, which is being promoted by a very large company.

The 32-bit webster.ocx can be used under Windows NT and Windows 95 (being
multithreaded, it cannot run under Win32s).  It is optimized for slow 
modems.

The 16-bit webster.dll can be run under Windows 3.1x.  It differs from 
the 32-bit version in that it is not (yet) net-aware, so it only accepts
local "file:" URLs.


Current State: Beta
-------------------

o  32-bit multithreaded implementation / 16-bit local-only version.

o  One-click local disk browsing.

o  60+ OLE properties, methods and events exposed.

o  HTML 2.0 implemented, many 3.0 and de-facto standard extensions.

o  HTTP 1.0 protocol over winsock.

o  Can save an HTML page to disk, including images, and load from disk.

o  A simple MDI browser (Vogon Poetry) is included in the Beta kit.
   Intended as a starting point for Webster-based browser development,
   it demonstrates how to use Webster in an MFC/C++ app.


Please let us know of any bugs you find or improvements you would like
to see.  The beta kit may be freely redistributed.


Installation
============
The Beta kits come in 16- and 32-bit flavors, each of which has a full
package and an update kit.  Download the full package only once, then
just retrieve the update kit for subsequent releases.  All kits can
be found at our Web page or ftp site.


32-bit Kit:
-----------
The complete distribution kit is in wbstrXXX.zip, with XXX being 
the build number.  If you already have all the DLLs listed below 
(they are MSVC 2.2 redistributables), you can download 
wbstrXXXnodlls.zip instead.
 
The wbstrXXX.zip distribution kit contains the following files:

o  webster.ocx     The 32-bit Webster OCX control
o  HotList.htm     Sample hotlist
o  vogon32.exe     The Vogon Poetry browser
o  regsvr32.exe    Use to register oc30.dll
o  html.dfa        Webster data file
o  html.llr        Webster data file
o  mfc30.dll       SYSTEM DLL
o  mfco30.dll      SYSTEM DLL
o  mfcn30.dll      SYSTEM DLL
o  mfcan32.dll     SYSTEM DLL
o  oc30.dll        SYSTEM DLL
o  msvcrt20.dll    SYSTEM DLL
o  webster.odl     Declares Webster properties, events and methods
o  readme.txt      This file

16-bit Kit:
-----------
The complete distribution kit is in wb16-XXX.zip, with XXX being the
build number.  If you already have all the DLLs listed below (they 
are MSVC 1.52 redistributables), you can download wb16uXXX.zip instead.
 
The wb16-XXX.zip distribution kit contains the following files:

o  webster.dll     The 16-bit Webster OCX control
o  vogon16.exe     The Vogon Poetry browser
o  regsvr.exe      Use to register oc25.dll
o  html.dfa        Webster data file
o  html.llr        Webster data file
o  oc25.dll        SYSTEM DLL
o  compobj.dll     SYSTEM DLL (OLE 2)
o  ole2.dll        SYSTEM DLL (OLE 2)
o  mfcoleui.dll    SYSTEM DLL
o  ole2.reg        SYSTEM DLL (OLE 2)
o  ole2conv.dll    SYSTEM DLL (OLE 2)
o  ole2disp.dll    SYSTEM DLL (OLE 2)
o  ole2nls.dll     SYSTEM DLL (OLE 2)
o  ole2prox.dll    SYSTEM DLL (OLE 2)
o  stdole.tlb      SYSTEM     (OLE 2)
o  storage.dll     SYSTEM DLL (OLE 2)
o  typelib.dll     SYSTEM DLL (OLE 2)
o  webster.odl     Declares Webster properties, events and methods
o  vb_props.txt    Property list for VB3
o  readme.txt      This file

Both Kits:
----------
Create a directory in which to unzip the files.  After unzipping, copy
all the files marked SYSTEM to your Windows system32 (32-bit) or 
system (16-bit) subdirectory.  Webster.ocx (or webster.dll) may be 
kept in any directory, the only strict requirement is that html.dfa 
and html.llr reside in the same directory as the OCX (or DLL).

An OLE control must be entered in the system registry before it can be
used.  To register webster.ocx or webster.dll, run vogon32.exe or 
vogon16.exe respectively and select Register Webster from the File 
menu, then select webster.ocx (or webster.dll) in the dialog box.
You only need to do this once.  Note that the same menu offers an 
Unregister Webster option, for complete uninstallation.  If you need 
to move the OCX to a different directory, unregister it and re-
register from the new location.  Remember to move html.dfa and 
html.llr along with the OCX (or DLL).

You must also register oc30.dll (for webster.ocx) or oc25.dll (for
webster.dll): use regsvr32.exe or regsvr.exe, respectively.  This
program also has an uninstall feature.

Test the control using the Vogon Poetry browser described below.  
MSVC 2.2/1.52 owners may also exercise the control using the Test 
Container from the CDK (tstcon32.exe or tstcon16.exe).


Beta Release Notes:
-------------------

Beta 914: FONT and BASEFONT tag support, Tab and Enter key navigate
          in forms, prompt page for basic authentication, on-the-fly
          font property setting.  VB3 can now initialize properties
          in Form_Load().

Beta 913: Hidden/revealed pages, basic authentication, HTTP proxy 
          support, source, pure text and hyperlink extraction 
          methods, load completion event, HTTP binary download.

Beta 912: Status page is automatically displayed instead of a blank
          page, improved forms POST support.

Beta 911: HTTP 1.0 implemented.  Copy, cut and paste (^C, ^X and ^V)
          are available in all edit controls (forms, ISINDEX).  Status
          page has a dismiss-from-cache button (method will follow).
          The Vogon Poetry browser now demonstrates how to handle the
          DoClickURL event, which allows the container to determine 
          the response to every hyperlink click.

Beta 910: Implements a status display, support for image-only pages, 
          HTML source display and pure-text save.  The Vogon Poetry 
          browser now has a slide show/guided tour feature.

Beta 909: Added: horizontal scroll bars.  PROMPT attribute support
          for ISINDEX tags.  Direct URL entry in the directory page.
          URL copy to clipboard on right mouse click.  New 16/32-bit
          Vogon Poetry browser.

Beta 908: Cosmetic: improved repaint, introduction of our Web site.

Beta 907: Hyperlink jumps allowed without canceling load.  Corrected
          handling of raw text files.

Beta 906: Forms fully functional, including multiple forms and multiple
          Submit buttons per form.  BASE tag supported (overridable for
          file: scheme via the IgnoreBaseInFile property).

Beta 905: History lists implemented.  Color selection and tiled-image
          background supported.

Beta 904: ISINDEX tag supported, for simple searches.

Beta 903: A directory browsing feature has been added (the "D" button).  
          Parallel 16-bit OCX is available for beta test.

Beta 902: When a control is newly created, the default setting for the 
          HomePage property points to the file HotList.htm in the current
          directory.  The Home button displays it.

Beta 901: The Click event has two arguments, the URL clicked by the user
          and a Cancel boolean.  If the container ignores the event, the
          URL is loaded.  The container can set Cancel to TRUE, causing
          the user request to be ignored, or leave Cancel FALSE and 
          alter the URL argument resulting in a load of the modified URL.

          The container (or user) may also initiate a page load by setting
          the PageURL property.


The Vogon Poetry Browser
------------------------
The Vogon Poetry browser is not a work of art, just a quick-and-dirty
demonstration platform for Webster.  It simply embeds a single Webster
OCX in each MDI child window, and creates a dispatch function for 
handling events.  Vogon demonstrates Webster's basic display, browsing 
and event features only, and is not a full-blown OLE control container.  

Vogon Poetry exhibits the usual MDI app characteristics, including the 
ability to serialize a document.  A Vogon document contains all the
persistent control properties.  You can use the Webster property pages 
to select the initial URL and other properties (the "W" on the Vogon 
toolbar button invokes the properties dialog box), then File | Save 
the configuration as a .vog document.

NEW in BETA 910: A simple slide show capability has been added to Vogon
Poetry.  Select View | Slide Show Setup (or the corresponding toolbar
button) to show the Slide Show Setup dialog box, then click Add to add 
the current page URL to the end of the slide show list.  Toggle the 
automated URL walk using View | Slide Show or the corresponding toolbar
button.  When you create a .vog document (File | Save) the slide list
is included, and can be reloaded with File | Open.

NEW in BETA 911: A URL filter feature demonstrates how to respond to 
the DoClickURL event and approve, modify or veto the selected URL.

New in BETA 913: Added demos for hidden pages, text and hyperlink 
extraction.

Vogon is an MSVC 1.52/2.2 application which can be built for either 
16- or 32-bit platforms. The MFC/C++ source code is available in 
vogonXXx.zip (XXx is the version designation) and may be freely 
modified and distributed.


MFC/C++ Notes
-------------
Vogon Poetry source code is a starting point for implementing your own
application, with webster.h providing a type-safe interface definition.
A more complete solution for OCX container implementation is promised 
in a future version of MFC.


Visual Basic 3 Notes
--------------------
The 16-bit webster.dll can be used in VB3 to view local HTML files and
images.  Here is the cookbook:

1.  Insert the MSOLE control into your form (make it a reasonably
    large rectangle).  VB immediately pops up the "Insert Object"
    dialog.

2.  Check "Create New" and select "Webster HTML Control" in the
    "Insert Object" list box.  If you don't see "Webster HTML Control",
    you probably need to register Webster - see the installation 
    instructions.

3.  Click on the resulting control to select it, then hit F4 to bring
    up the "Properties" dialog.  Set the first property, 
    "AutoActivate" to "1 - GetFocus".  All other defaults are OK.

4.   Hit F5 to run.

To select a new page programatically, use a statement of the form

OLE1.Object.PageURL = "file:///C:/MyPage.htm"

... where OLE1 is your MSOLE control name, and "Object" is constant.  
You can read or write all properties using this syntax -- set the
initial values in Form_Load().

The file vb_props.txt lists the available Webster properties and 
methods.


Trafalmador Software
====================

email:       tanny@netcom.com

WWW:         http://www.vpm.com/trafalmador/

ftp:         ftp.netcom.com/pub/ta/tanny/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
