5 The images parameter

This is a database table parameter. Please refer to 2.2 for a detailed explanation of database tables layout. In all the following examples we assume that the recordseparator is ^ and the fieldseparator is | .

Column Name Type default Range
0 Key string No default, obligatory field  
1 The image’s location URL No default, obligatory field Fully qualified URL’s as well as relative URL’s are supported (see 3.12)
2 X coordinate Integer 0  
3 Y coordinate Integer 0  
4 Width Integer Width of the image  
5 Height Integer height of the image  

 

Column 0 is the (primary) key. This key will be used when referring to this record.

Column 1 is the URL of the image.

Column 2, 3, 4 and 5 define a crop region. If you only need a part of the image, then you can define a crop region

5.1 tableft, tabmiddle, tabright, tabline, selectetableft, selectedtabmiddle and selectedtabright

You can define your own tabs. They are split up in 3 groups:

Tab composition

Combining the different parts of the tab together composes the tab.

The left and right parts of a tab (either selected or not selected) are copied ‘as is’ from the image file.

tabmiddle, tabline and selectedtabmiddle are tiled as needed., e.g. when there are no more tabs to draw then tabline will be tiled until the whole applet area is filled.

You can use 1 file per icon or pack different icons in one file. Packing multiple icons in 1 file results in shorter download times because your browser doesn’t need to make multiple internet connections.

<param name="images"
value="
^tableft|images/tabtrans.gif|0|0|2|100
^tabmiddle|images/tabtrans.gif|2|0|1|100
^tabright|images/tabtrans.gif|3|0|2|100
^tabline|images/tabtrans.gif|5|0|1|100
^selectedtableft|images/tabtrans.gif|6|0|2|100
^selectedtabmiddle|images/tabtrans.gif|8|0|1|100
^selectedtabright|images/tabtrans.gif|9|0|2|100
"

Here is a blown up view of the tabtrans.gif image

If you make your tabs opaque then the background will not be visible but overlaid with the tabs.

But if you use transparency in your tabs (e.g. for the background) then the background will be visible. This is especially important if you want to use an image as background.

Failing to make your tabs transparent will block out your background image totally.

5.2 Background

A special key is "background", it allows you to use an image as your background. If the image is smaller than the surface of the applet, then the background image will be tiled.

<PARAM name=images value="
^background|images/back.jpg
^tableft|images/tabtrans.gif|0|0|2|100
^tabmiddle|images/tabtrans.gif|2|0|1|100
^tabright|images/tabtrans.gif|3|0|2|100
^tabline|images/tabtrans.gif|5|0|1|100
^selectedtableft|images/tabtrans.gif|6|0|2|100
^selectedtabmiddle|images/tabtrans.gif|8|0|1|100
^selectedtabright|images/tabtrans.gif|9|0|2|100
">

 the background image

Notice that the default tabs are not ‘transparent’. The java language doesn’t allow creating transparent off-screen images. In 5.1 we have demonstrated how you can use external tabs with transparent backgrounds.

5.3 Icons

You can define an icon for every tab. 1 icon when the tab is not selected and 1 icon when the tab is selected. Of course you can define the same image twice.

<PARAM name=entries value="
^a|home||home|home
^b|exclamation||excl|excl
^c|book||bookclosed|bookopen
">

<PARAM name=images value="
^home|images/home.gif
^excl|images/excl.gif
^bookopen|images/bbooko.gif
^bookclosed|images/bbookc.gif
">