Chapter 14

Designing Web Pages with FutureTense Texture


CONTENTS


FutureTense Texture is a unique Web content development application. It can be used to create visually rich, highly interactive Web publications in a short period of time. Publications created with Texture can be viewed on any platform that supports Java. Texture is a unique Web content development application because it relies on a Java applet. Content created with the Texture editor is read by the Texture Java applet and is formatted on the browser. This is a innovative solution to document formatting limitations of HTML. As you will learn shortly, Texture is a powerful tool for formatting documents. Content developers have complete control over various objects of a document created with Texture. Although Texture offers many benefits over other Web content development applications, there are a few drawbacks in taking this route. Subsequent sections will explore these drawbacks and suggest ways in which you can deal with them. Be sure to visit the FutureTense Web site for the most up-to-date information about Texture.

URL
The FutureTense Web site:
http://www.futuretense.com/

Applications of FutureTense Texture

Texture is ideal for creating high-impact Web publications that are interactive and easy to update. This is because Texture encourages the separation between content and formatting, and gives Web content designers complete control over the layout of a publication.

On the other hand, Texture is ideal for formatting the contents of an online magazine or newsletter. In addition to these publications, Texture is ideal for creating other Web-based publications such as online sales presentations and product catalogs that can benefit from advanced document layout features of Texture. Any publication that can use powerful document formatting capabilities of Texture can benefit from it. Refer to Figure 14.1 for an example of an online newspaper created with Texture. As you can see, publications created with Texture can be highly formatted and made interactive with the use of various controls in a page. For example, the up and down buttons you see on Figure 14.1 are actually two graphics images. These graphics images have been turned into interactive controls by assigning actions and triggers to them. Shortly, you will learn how Texture can be used to create a publication like the one shown in Figure 14.1 in a matter of minutes.

Figure 14.1: Interactive Web publication created with Texture.

Compatibility Issues and Drawbacks

Publications created with Texture require a Java compatible Web browser. This means users who do not have a Java compatible Web browser will not be able to view content created with Texture. However, this restriction might not apply to you. The two most commonly used Web browsers, Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, both support Java. Therefore, most users will be able to view Texture publications. Because Microsoft Internet Explorer is free for all Windows 95, Windows NT, and Macintosh users, a majority of these users will switch to Internet Explorer in the near future. Therefore, although the fact that Texture relies on Java places a restriction on who can view Texture publications, this restriction might not apply to you if most of your users use Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. In the near future, Spyglass Mosaic users also should be able to view Texture publications.

Another drawback of Texture is the fact that it depends on a Java applet. If a user has not installed the Texture viewer, the user's browser has to download the Texture viewer each time it encounters a Texture publication. Although in a corporate/intranet environment, due to high- speed Internet connections, this is not a major issue; it becomes an issue for users navigating a Web site with relatively slow POTS links to the Internet. FutureTense is aware of this drawback. By the time you read this, you might expect to see a solution to this problem. Again, visit the FutureTense Web site for the most up-to-date information about Texture.

Installing Netscape Plug-In for FutureTense Texture

Before experimenting with Texture, it is highly recommended that you install the Netscape plug-in for Texture. This will make sure you do not have to download the Texture Java applet each time you view a Texture publication. The Texture viewer for Netscape Navigator can be downloaded from the following URL. By the time you read this, it is likely that FutureTense also will have a similar solution for MS Internet Explorer.

URL
The FutureTense Texture viewer download site:
http://www.futuretense.com/viewdown.htm

HTML Tags Supported by Texture

As you will learn shortly, contents of a Texture text box can be dynamically retrieved using a URL when a user browses a Web page with a Texture publication. This is a powerful feature, because changes made to various documents of a Texture publication can be immediately made available to users browsing a Web site without having to worry about the layout of the publication.

The FutureTense Texture viewer supports a number of HTML tags. These tags can be used to format text displayed on Texture publications. It is recommended that you only use the following HTML tags, because HTML tags not understood by the Texture viewer will be ignored regardless of the Web browser used to view the Texture publication.

Controlling Fonts and Attributes of Text

The following HTML tags can be used to control font sizes. Use these tags to control the appearance of text appearing inside a Texture publication text box:

<H1> This text will appear in a very large font </H1>
<H2> This text will appear in a large font </H2>
<H3> This text will appear in a medium font </H3>
<H4> This text will appear in a small font </H4>
<H5> This text will appear in a very small font </H5>
<H6> This text will appear in a tiny font </H6>

<FONT FACE=[Name of Typeface]>
This text appears in the typeface specified in the FONT tag
</FONT>

<FONT COLOR=#RRGGBB>
This text appears in the RGB value specified in the FONT tag.
RR=Red value, GG=Green value, BB=Blue value.
</FONT>

<FONT SIZE=[Size of font]>
This text appears in the font size specified in the FONT tag
Note that font sizes are specified in pixels.
</FONT>

The following character styles also are supported by Texture. Use these styles to highlight text appearing inside a Texture publication text box:

<EM> This text appears emphasized (usually italicized) </EM>
<STRONG> This text is typically rendered in bold </STRONG>
<I> This text appears italicized </I>
<B> This text appears in bold </B>
<PRE> Reformatted text </PRE>

Formatting Paragraphs

Paragraphs of text appearing in a Texture text box also can be formatting using the following HTML tags:

<P ALIGN=Center>
Text in this paragraph will appear centered
</P>

<P ALIGN=Left>
Text in this paragraph will appear left justified
</P>

<P ALIGN=Right>
Text in this paragraph will appear right justified
</P>

<P ALIGN=Justify>
Text in this paragraph will appear full justified
</P>

Lists

Lists can be used to format a list of items. The following HTML tags are supported by Texture to format a list of items:

<DL>
<DT> First Term </DT>
<DD> This is the definition of the first term. </DD>
<DT> Second Term </DT>
<DD> This is the definition of the second term. </DD>
</DL>

<OL>
<LI> Ordered List item one.</LI>
<LI> Ordered List item two.</LI>
<LI> Ordered List item three.</LI>
</OL>

<UL>
<LI> Unordered List item one.</LI>
<LI> Unordered List item two.</LI>
<LI> Unordered List item three.</LI>
</UL>

Text Spacing

You are probably familiar with the HTML tag used for line breaks. The line break tag is supported by the Texture viewer and can be used as follows:

First line of text<BR>
Second line of text<BR>

The BLOCKQUOTE element usually is used to format text quoted from another source. The BLOCKQUOTE HTML tag usually inserts space above and below the quote. The syntax of the BLOCKQUOTE tag is as follows:

<BLOCKQUOTE>
This line of text was typed in the wee hours of the morning.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

Special Characters

The Texture viewer supports special characters that can be specified using an entity reference (&#lt;) or a character reference (&#60;). Refer to Appendix C for an example of a list of useful entity and character reference codes for generating special HTML characters.

Commenting HTML Code

In addition to the above tags, Texture also respects the HTML tag used to comment Web pages. Web pages can be commented using the following HTML tags. Text appearing inside the HTML comment tag is ignored by the Texture viewer:

<!--
This text will not appear inside a Texture text box because
it is used to comment HTML code.
-->

Hello World, FutureTense Texture!

It is easy to create publications with Texture. The following example will help you become familiar with various capabilities of Texture and learn how various Texture controls can be used to make a publication interactive. The following publication uses several powerful document formatting features of Texture. It is recommended that you experiment with the Hello World publication before reading how it was put together. You then will be able to easily understand how various controls, actions, and triggers can be used to make a Texture publication interactive. Assuming you've already installed the Texture viewer, you can view the Hello World publication by opening the Texture publication using Netscape. If you have not already installed the Texture viewer, please do so now. The Hello World Texture publication is included in the CD-ROM that accompanies the book (\Chapter-14\HelloWorld\HelloWorld.html). Note that the Texture viewer does not have to be installed to view Texture publications. At the end of this chapter, you will be shown how to publish Texture publications so users can view them by dynamically downloading the Texture viewer Java applet.

Note that a few user interface dialog boxes might be different in the released version of Texture. This chapter is based on a pre-release beta version of Texture. However, for the most part, you will not have any difficulty following steps in this chapter to create Texture publications.

Beginning to Create a Texture Publication

In order to begin creating a Texture publication, select File | New to bring up the Project Manager dialog box shown in Figure 14.2. This dialog box is used to specify the project folder and name of the publication. When specifying a page name, please leave the extension .ftl as it is because it will help you easily identify the Texture project file.

Figure 14.2: The Project Manager dialog box can be used to specify the filename and folder of a new publication.

URL
FutureTense Texture can be obtained by visiting the following URL and filling in and submitting a form. Instructions for downloading Texture will be e-mailed once the form is submitted.
Http://www.futuretense.com/contact.htm

After typing in a filename and folder, click the Next button to continue. You then will see a Page Properties dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure 14.3. This dialog box can be used to specify the dimensions of a Texture publication. If you are not absolutely sure of the dimensions of your publication, simply type in a reasonable value, such as 400 ¥ 300, and select a background color for the publication. You can change these values later by selecting Edit | Page Properties from the main menu.

Figure 14.3: Page Properties dialog box.

Caution
When creating Texture publications, be considerate toward users browsing your Web site with 640 ¥ 480 monitors. Avoid creating publications that are more than 625 pixels wide. It is inconvenient to view documents that require the use of the horizontal scroll bar.

The dialog box in Figure 14.3 also can be used to specify the background color of the Texture publication. When the Color button in Figure 14.3 is pressed, a standard color selection dialog box will be displayed. As shown in Figure 14.4, this dialog box can be used to select a color using a number of ways. After specifying the dimensions of the publication, and selecting a background color, click the OK button to continue.

Figure 14.4: Color selection dialog box.

Creating a Manual Image Animation

The Hello World Texture publication contains a manual graphics animation. What is a manual graphics animation? A graphic will be displayed by default. When a user clicks the graphic, another graphic will be displayed. This sequence will continue each time a user clicks the graphic. It is easy to create a manual graphics animation with Texture. First, select Objects | New | Image from the main menu. Draw a graphics image box as shown in Figure 14.5. Then, select the image box and click the right mouse button. Using the pop-up menu that appears when the right mouse button is clicked, select the Object Properties option as shown in Figure 14.5.

Figure 14.5: The right mouse button can be used to invoke the Object Properties dialog box of an image box.

You then will see the Object Properties dialog box shown in Figure 14.6. The Object Properties dialog box is a tabbed dialog box. Use the Name data entry field to give the image box a name. Be sure to give descriptive names to all objects of a Texture publication. It is also a good idea to specify the type of object in its name. For example, because we are naming an image box, the name given to the image box in Figure 14.6 ends with "graphic." Although this may seem trivial at the moment, once you have a dozen or so objects in a publication, you will realize the benefit of using descriptive names and specifying the type of object in its name.

Figure 14.6: General tab of the Object Properties dialog box.

The Object Properties dialog box also can be used to specify its position as well as dimensions. Click the Initially Shown checkbox to make sure the image box is visible when the publication is first displayed. The Color button can be used to assign a background color to the image box. If you do not want the color to show up, simply click the transparent check box.

The data entry field for Tip can be used to specify the contents of the balloon that pops up when a user rests the mouse pointer on the graphic. As shown in Figure 14.6, this data entry field can be used to let the user know what would happen if he or she clicks the graphic.

The "Actions" and "Targets" tabs are covered in a later section. The Content tab is used to specify the contents of the image box. There are two ways to specify the contents of an image box. You can type in its URL if the image is located on a Web server. The image then will be dynamically loaded from a Web server when the publication is viewed. Because we are creating an animation, more than one graphic has to be added to the text box. This can be done by selecting several graphics files as shown in Figure 14.7. Note that only the first graphic will be initially displayed. Soon, you will learn how to get Texture to display other graphics specified in the Content tab of the Object Properties dialog box.

Figure 14.7: Content tab of the Object Properties dialog box.

A local graphic also can be specified by clicking the Grab button and selecting a content file from a dialog box identical to the one shown in Figure 14.8. Note that when a file is selected using this dialog box, it is copied to the Texture project directory. Before beginning to create a Texture publication, you might want to copy all the graphics files to a directory. You then can select graphics files without roaming all over your directories and hard drives.

Figure 14.8: Content file selection dialog box.

The Image tab of the Object Properties dialog box (see Figure 14.9) is useful for specifying the appearance of a graphic inside the image box. This dialog can be used to fit the graphic to the image box or fit the image box to the graphic. It also can be used to specify the placement of a graphic and whether it should be tiled. After making your selection, click the OK button to continue.

Figure 14.9: Image tab of the Object Properties dialog box.

You now will see the first graphic specified in Figure 14.7 (see Figure 14.10). Note how the name of the image box, specified in Figure 14.6, is displayed to the upper-left corner of the image box. It is now required to set up actions and triggers for the manual graphics animation. This is done by selecting the image box, clicking the right mouse button, and selecting Action Manager as shown in Figure 14.10.

Figure 14.10: The right mouse button pop-up menu of an image box can be used to invoke the Action Manager dialog box.

The Action Manager dialog box is used to specify actions related to the object selected when the Action Manager was invoked and what object should trigger the action selected. This is somewhat tricky. However, after you learn how it works, it will seem very natural and easy to use. As mentioned earlier, we need to set up our manual graphics animation so that if a user clicks the graphic, Texture will display another graphic. When Action Manager was invoked, the image box containing the first graphic of the animation was selected. As shown in Figure 14.7, the image box selected before invoking the Action Manager contains two graphics. As far as Texture is concerned, these graphics are URLs. Therefore, use the scroll-down list and select the Next URL action as shown in Figure 14.11. Afterward, click the Trigger button and the mouse pointer will change into a different icon (a hand with a pointing finger). Next, click the image box selected earlier to create a trigger / action event.

Figure 14.11: Action Manager dialog box.

Texture then will display a dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure 14.12 to confirm the Action/Trigger creation was a success. Realize what just happened. When a user clicks the image box, a mouse click action is fired. This mouse click in turn triggers the action selected in the Action Manager. Because the image box in Figure 14.10 was selected before invoking the Action Manager, actions selected in the Action Manager apply to the image box shown in Figure 14.10. In this case, the mouse click action triggers an event (Next URL) in the same object. Note that this event could have been triggered just as easily by another object. At this moment if you select View | Preview Page frou click this graphic, Texture will display the next graphic. Note that at the end of the list of URLs (graphics) in Figure 14.7, Texture reverts back to the first graphic. By default, Texture publications are displayed using Sun's Applet Viewer. View | Preferences can be selected from the menu bar to choose a different Texture publication viewer, such as Netscape Navigator.

Figure 14.12: Action/Trigger creation confirmation dialog box.

Creating a Manual Text Animation

A manual text animation can be created as easily as a manual graphics animation. In order to create a text animation, select Objects | New | Text from the menu bar. Then, draw a text box using the mouse, select it, and click the right mouse button. A pop-up menu then will be displayed next to the text box. Use this menu to select Object Properties as shown in Figure 14.13.

Figure 14.13: The right mouse button pop-up menu of a text box can be used to invoke the Object Properties dialog box.

You will now see an Object Properties dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure 14.14. This dialog box is similar to the one in Figure 14.6. Use it to label the text box and specify the tip that will be displayed when a user rests the mouse pointer on the text box. Again, note how the name of the text box ends with "text box" to make it easier to identify it as a text box in Object Manager. You will learn about Object Manager shortly. After customizing the text box as shown in Figure 14.14, click the Content tab to continue.

Figure 14.14: General tab of the Object Properties dialog box.

The Content tab is used to specify the contents of the text box. There are three ways to specify the contents of a text box. Just like image boxes, you can either give a local filename or an HTTP URL. There is a third way to specify the contents of a text box. If you precede a URL name with an exponent symbol, the text after the exponent will be interpreted as the contents of the text box. For example, if you would like to specify the string "Hello World!" in a text box, you would simply type in the string "!Hello World!" as a URL name. This is a powerful feature for creating text boxes that do not contain paragraphs of text. As you can see in Figure 14.15, the exponent is used to insert three strings, as URLs, to the text box in Figure 14.13. By default, only the first string will be displayed. After typing in the contents of the text box, click the Text tab to continue.

Figure 14.15: Content tab of the Object Properties dialog box.

The Text tab, shown in Figure 14.16, is handy for formatting text in a text box. The Text Justification radio buttons can be used to format the justification of text in the text box. The Face Color button can be used to assign a color to text displayed in the text box. One of the most sophisticated features of Texture is hidden beneath the Font button.

Figure 14.16: Text tab of the Object Properties dialog box.

Texture enables Web content developers to use whatever fonts installed on the system they are working on without having to worry about fonts installed on the user's computer. This means if you use a special TrueType font in a Texture publication and if a Macintosh user looks at the publication, the Macintosh user will see the publication in the font the text was meant to be viewed in. This works thanks to the technology of a font recording and playback technology licensed from Bitstream Inc.

Note
When a Texture publication is saved, Texture uses Bitstream's technology to record fonts used in a Texture document in a proprietary and portable format called "Portable Font Resource." When a Texture publication is being displayed by the Texture viewer, it checks the Texture publication for various fonts that are used in the publication. If a font is locally found on the user's system, that font is used. Otherwise, the font resource is dynamically downloaded from the Web server. All this happens seamlessly depending on the operating system the user is using. For example, if a user is using Windows NT, the font resource for Arial will never be downloaded, because it is locally installed on virtually all Windows NT computers. If most of your users use Windows NT or Windows 95, it's best to use default Windows fonts such as Arial and Times Roman as much as possible.

After selecting a font for the text box (see Figure 14.17), press OK to continue. You then can bring up the Action Manager dialog box and create an Action/Trigger for the text box the same way one was created for the image box. Once the Action/Trigger is created, you will see a confirmation dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure 14.18.

Figure 14.17: Font selection dialog box.

Figure 14.18: Trigger/Action confirmation dialog box for the manual text animation.

Displaying Contents of a URL in a Texture Publication

At this point, we have a pretty interesting publication with two manual animations. That's very nice, but our publication really does not do anything yet. You now will be shown how to display the contents of a URL in a text box. By default, Texture does not automatically create scroll bars in text boxes. This means if text in a text box does not fit the text box, users have no way of viewing that text. This can be fixed by adding a previous and next graphic to the publication. Actions and Triggers then can be used to display text that does not fit in the text box. You will be shown how to do this shortly. In order to set this, you first need to create two graphics and a text box as shown in Figure 14.19. The text box will be used to display the contents of a Web page and the two graphics will be used as "page up" and "page down" buttons for the text box.

Figure 14.19: Contents of a URL can be displayed in a text box.

After creating the two graphics and the text box, select the text box and click the right mouse button. Use the pop up menu displayed when the right mouse button is clicked to select the Object Properties dialog box. You then will see the General tab of the Object properties dialog box shown in Figure 14.20. Use it to assign a name to the text box and specify a tip that will be shown when a user rests the mouse pointer on the text box. Afterward, click the Content tab.

Figure 14.20: General tab of the Object Properties dialog box.

The Content tab can be used to specify the contents of a text box. As discussed earlier, a URL, filename, or a text label can be the contents of a text box. For the purpose of this example, as shown in Figure 14.21, a filename is used as the contents of the text box. Click the OK button after typing in a filename. The filename specified in Figure 14.21 is incidentally my favorite quotations collection file. (If you would like to share one of your favorite quotations with me, e-mail it to me!)

Figure 14.21: Content tab of the Object Properties dialog box can be used to specify the conternts of a text box.

After the text box is assigned content and two appropriate images are assigned to the two image boxes, the Texture publication will look similar to the one shown in Figure 14.22. It now is required to assign a Page Up and Page Down action to the two image boxes. To do this, select each text box as shown in Figure 14.22 and click the right mouse button. Then, use the pop-up menu to select Action Manager.

Figure 14.22: After the text box is assigned content and two images are added to the publication.

As shown in Figure 14.23, use the Action Manager dialog box to select the Scroll Down action and assign it to the appropriate graphic using the Trigger button. Do the same to the other graphic by assigning the Scroll Up action to it.

Figure 14.23: Action Manager dialog box of the text box.

When actions and triggers are created, you will see a dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure 14.24 to confirm the Action/Trigger creation. Note how descriptive object names are helpful when working with Texture publications.

Figure 14.24: Action/Trigger creation confirmation dialog box.

Using the Timer Object

The Timer object is handy for triggering actions after a certain time period. This example will demonstrate how the Timer object can be used to create an "automatic" animation. Unlike the previous animation, this animation does not require any user intervention. Instead, after a certain time period, the animation will automatically advance to the next frame. In order to create this animation, create a simple text box with about two lines of text as shown in Figure 14.25. Note how the exponent is used to define literal strings. After typing in the contents, click the OK button to continue.

Figure 14.25: Content tab of the simple text animation text box.

Afterwards, a Timer object has to be added to control the animation. A Timer object can be added by selecting Objects | New | Timer from the main menu. Note that the Timer object is an invisible object. It is never displayed in Texture publications. Therefore, as shown in Figure 14.26, feel free to draw the Timer object anywhere in the publication. After creating the Timer object, use its Object Properties dialog box to give it a name, specify a time delay interval, and click the OK button to continue.

Figure 14.26: Texture publication after inserting a Timer object.

The last two animations used the mouse click event to trigger the next URL action. Because this animation does not require any user intervention, the animation is triggered by the Timer object. In order to use the Timer object to control the animation, select the text box and click the right mouse button. As shown in Figure 14.27, then use the dialog box that pops up to invoke the Action Manager dialog box of the text box selected.

Figure 14.27: Invoking Action Manager of the animation text box after creating a Timer object.

Use the Action Manager dialog box to specify the Timer object to trigger the next URL event. This is done by selecting Next URL, clicking the Trigger button, and selecting the Timer object. You then will see a message box to confirm the Action/Trigger creation.

That is all there is to creating a relatively sophisticated Texture publication. This publication now can be viewed with any Web browser, such as Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, that supports Java. Select View | Preview Page to view the publication and it will be shown in Applet Viewer as shown in Figure 14.28.

Figure 14.28: Publication viewed with Applet Viewer.

At this time, if a user clicks the Next button, Texture will display the next page of quotations. Refer to Figure 14.29 for an example of what the publication in Figure 14.28 looks like after a few user interactions. As you can see, Texture can be used to create high-impact, active publications quite easily. As you become more familiar with Texture, you will find yourself using it to create various innovative Web publications that are impossible to create with standard HTML.

Figure 14.29: Publication after a few user interactions with Applet viewer.

Publishing Texture Publications on the Internet

When a Texture publication is saved, you will see an HTML file in the project directory. The HTML file created with Texture can be immediately published on the Web. There are a few things you should be aware of when publishing Texture publications on the Internet. Texture publications are stored in project directories. It is highly recommended that you leave the directory structures of Texture project directories the way they are. In other words, if you wish to publish a Texture publication, simply copy the entire project folder to a child of your Web server's root directory. Then, users can view the Texture publication by looking up the HTML file created by Texture. If you take a look at Figure 14.30, you will notice that the URL of the Texture publication is file///H%7C/Publish/WWW/WSDGWNT/Texture/HelloWorld/HelloWorld.html. This is because the publication directory (HelloWorld) was copied in its entirety to the H:\Publish\WWW\WSDGWNT\Texture directory.

Figure 14.30: Hello World publication viewed with Netscape.

By default, Texture publications require users to download and install a special Netscape plug-in. (FutureTense will have a similar solution for Internet Explorer and possibly Mosaic by the time you read this.) Although it is highly recommended that you get users to download and install the Texture viewer, because it will save a great deal of time in the long run, the Texture viewer can be made available dynamically. In order to make it available dynamically, locate the file Futurew32.zip in the \Texture\classes directory and decompress it. Be sure to use a 32-bit file decompression utility such as WinZip to ensure long filenames and directory names are preserved when the file Futurew32.zip is decompressed. Also be sure to turn on any switches in the file decompression program to preserve embedded directory names in compressed file. When the file is decompressed, it will create the following directory structure:

\-Classes
    +-bitstream
    +-Future
    |   +-Agent
    |   +-Content
    |   +-Fable
    |   +-Interfaces
    |   +-Native
    |   +-Parser
    |   +-Read
    |   +-Util
    |   \-Viewer
    \-sun
        \-awt
            \-win32

Copy this entire directory structure to the document root directory of your Web server and locate the HelloWorld.html file in the project directory. By default, in this file, you will see an applet definition similar to the one shown next.

<applet code=ftview.class width=575 height=400 codebase=>
<param name=ft value=HelloWorld.ftl>
<param name=ver value=3>
</applet>

Note that it does not have a value defined for the codebase= tag. As it is, the publication can be viewed only if a user has installed the Netscape (or Internet Explorer) plug-in. In order to make sure users can view Texture publications with any Java-compatible browser without having to install a special plug-in, simply change the above code listing as follows. Note how the codebase tag now refers to the Classes directory that was copied to the document root directory of the Web server. That's all there is to publishing a Texture publication on the Web! Again, encourage users to download and install the browser plug-in since it will save them a great deal of time in the long run.

<applet code=ftview.class width=575 height=400
        codebase=/Classes>
<param name=ft value=HelloWorld.ftl>
<param name=ver value=3>
</applet>

Summary

Texture is a powerful Java-based Web content development application. It can be used to
create publications that are highly interactive and exciting to browse. Texture also provides Web content developers better control over publications they create. For example, fonts used in a Texture publication are portable across all platforms that support Java. This is a major advantage because finally, with Texture, Web content developers do not have to be bound with using only one or two standard typefaces. In addition to this, Texture also includes a collection of powerful objects that can be used with various actions and triggers to create active publications. FutureTense Texture is an ideal solution for creating high-impact Web publications that require complete control over the layout, typefaces, and interactive behavior of the publication.

If you have any questions about using Texture to create Web applications, join the beta-interest mailing list. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to list@futuretense.com. In the first line of the message type JOIN BETA-INTEREST.

What's Next?

As you add more information to your Web site, it is going to be increasingly difficult for users to locate the information they need. This is why you should set up a search engine at your Web site and enable users to search your Web site for various key words. The next chapter demonstrates how a Web site can be made searchable by setting up a search engine.