Dynamix's parameters are explained below, with reference to the clickable example code in the left frame: you can click a parameter from the example code to jump to its explanation, or simply read this page from top to toe.

Most of Dynamix's parameters have a default setting which is mentioned below. If the default setting is the option you'd like to use in your own implementation, you can leave that parameter out of your HTML code.

The 'Archive' attribute & 'CabBase' parameter
JAR (Java ARchive) and CAB (cabinet) files are archives containing Java class files in compressed form, making them easier to handle and quicker to download. Most modern browsers are able to read one or other of these formats, and the Archive attribute and CabBase parameter tell the browser the name of the archive file to open. The .JAR, .CAB and .CLASS files must all be in the same directory, and the CODEBASE= attribute is used in the normal way, if required, specifying the absolute or relative location of this directory. Older browsers that are unable to read either the JAR or the CAB file will instead read the loose CLASS files.

Applet Width & Height
The applet's background will be filled with either your chosen BgColor or BgImage, which probably match your page background, so if space is not at a premium on your page, try to increase the width of the applet beyond your widest text link. This allows for browsers that require more space to display text, and allows for the extra width of the text if you use the CaptionFocusBold or EntryFocusBold options.

The applet's height should be sufficient to still display the lowest caption when the caption containing the most menu entries is opened. Once again, allow extra space for this and check remember that different browsers apply different spacing to the different fonts, so the perfect size in one browser may make some of your text invisible in another!

Copyright
This parameter must be included or the applet will not run, whether registered or unregistered. To prevent mistakes we recommend that you copy/paste it into your code from the Getting Started page: it is case-sensitive, single-spaced throughout and should appear on a single line. If there's a problem with this parameter, you'll see a status-bar message that reads "Copyright parameter missing or incorrect" which should lead you to the problem.

BgColor
A hex triplet specifying the background color of the applet, which would usually be set to match the color of your page's body background. The entire applet area is filled with this color. The default value is FFFFFF (white).

BgImage
The absolute or relative URL of a GIF or JPEG image to display as the background to the applet. The image can optionally be tiled (see the parameter below). If a transparent GIF is used, the transparent color will be replaced by your chosen BgColor.

TileBgImage
A simple (non-case-sensitive) yes or no to whether the BgImage should be tiled. The default value is 'yes'. If the image is not tiled, it will be scaled to exactly match the dimensions of the applet.

CaptionBgColor
The background color of menu captions. The default color is 99CCFF (light blue).

CaptionBgFocusColor
The background color of a menu caption when focused. The default is to match the CaptionBgColor, so the caption background won't react to the mouse unless you include this parameter and specify a different color.

CaptionBorderColor
The color of the single-pixel border around captions. The default color is 000000 (black).

CaptionBorderFocusColor
The color of a menu caption's border when focused. The default is to match the CaptionBorderColor.

CaptionTextColor
The color of the font used to display the Caption. The default color is 000000 (black).

CaptionTextFocusColor
The color of a Caption when the mouse moves over it. The default is FFFFFF (white). (There is no separate color for clicked captions, but a new shade is derived from this color and the current caption color when a linking Caption is clicked.)

EntryColor
The color of a menu entry when not focused. The default is 000000 (black).

EntryFocusColor
The color of a menu entry when focused. The default is FFFFFF (white).

EntryPressColor
The color of a menu entry when clicked. The default is 999999 (gray).

SelectorLineColor
Sets the border-color of the selector for menu entries, with a default of 99CCFF (light blue). This entry has no effect if ShowSelectorLines is set to 'no'. The SelectorBorderStyle parameter lets you choose the style of the selector border.

SelectorFillColor
Sets the main fill-color of the selector for menu entries, with a default of 000000 (black). This entry has no effect if ShowSelectorFill is set to 'no'.

SelectorBorderStyle
A choice of two options which allow a selector bar to be shown for the currently-highlighted menu entry. The values are not case sensitive.

box:  The default option: a rectangular border will be drawn around the entry.
line:  Lines will be drawn above and below the entry.

ArrowColor
Sets the color of the optional arrow drawn beside the focused menu entry. The default is to match your EntryFocusColor. You can also set the indent position of the arrow using the ArrowIndent parameter. This option has no effect if ShowArrow is set to 'no'.

CaptionFont
A comma-delimited string giving the name, style and size of the font you want to use for Dynamix's Caption text. The default settings are Dialog, in plain, at size 12, which would be written as Dialog,plain,12. Two important things to note: first, there must be no spaces in this entry; second, the three items must appear in the order name,style,size. Note that the style part of this setting can be plain, bold, italic or bolditalic, and these are not case-sensitive.

EntryFont
A comma-delimited string giving the name, style and size of the font you want to use for the menu entry text. The default value is Dialog,plain,12. This parameter works in exactly the same way as CaptionFont.

CaptionAlign
A non-case-sensitive choice of left, center or right to set the alignment of the Captions. The default is 'left'.

CaptionFocusBold
A caption's text can optionally switch to bold style when the mouse passes over it. This parameter takes a non-case-sensitive yes or no, with a default of 'yes' to set whether this will happen or not. (This parameter won't have any effect if your CaptionFont is already bold by default.)

EntryFocusBold
Similar to the parameter above, this sets whether menu entries' text will switch to bold style when focused. The default for this yes/no parameter is 'no'. (Once again, if your EntryFont is already bold, setting this parameter to 'yes' will make no difference.)

EntryFocusUnderline
Another yes or no parameter, with a default of 'no'. Include this parameter with a value of 'yes' if you want menu entries to gain an underline when the mouse passes over them. (This is a popular effect in ordinary HTML/CSS links and can be very effective, but we recommend setting ShowSelectorLines and ShowSelectorFill to 'no' when using this option.)

EntryIndent
The number of pixels from the left edge of the applet that menu entries should be indented. The default is 13. (Note that this parameter doesn't take into account whether or not an arrow is displayed beside the focused entry. The default figure will be fine if the arrow is used, but you may want to reduce it if no arrow if shown.)

ArrowIndent
The number of pixels from the left edge of the applet that the optional arrow is drawn beside the focused menu entry. The default is 5.

ShowArrow
A yes or no to whether the optional arrowhead should be shown beside the focused menu entry. The default is 'yes'.

ShowSelectorLines
A yes or no to whether a selector-border should be drawn around the focused entry. The default is 'yes'.

ShowSelectorFill
Another yes or no to whether a filled selector-bar should be used for the focused entry. The default is 'yes'.

TextSensitive
And another yes or no parameter (with a default of 'no') which determines whether only the text of a menu entry is sensitive to mouse movement or whether the whole width of the applet can be used to focus an entry. At the default setting, the mouse can move or click to the right of the text and the entry will still be treated as focused. When set to 'yes', the mouse must be over the text of the entry.

CloseOnExit
Yet another yes or no parameter, with a default of 'yes'. By default the menu will automatically close when the mouse moves out of it. Include this parameter with a value of 'no' if the menu should remain open so that the user can see where she is.

You can also access this parameter via JavaScript, allowing users of your page to choose for themselves how the menu should behave.

UseHandCursor
A yes or no parameter that determines whether or not a typical 'web-style' hand cursor is used when the mouse moves over a menu entry and any linking captions. The default value is yes, so you need include this parameter only if you want to set it to 'no' and stick to the default pointer. This feature is applied only when an applet is running in a Java 1.1-compatible browser (Internet Explorer 4x or higher, Netscape Navigator 4.07 or higher). In other browsers, this parameter is ignored and the default pointer will be used.

DefaultTarget
HTML offers it's own range of recognized targets for links: _top, _self, _blank and _parent. But when you use an applet like Dynamix that can take a number of links, you'll often be opening your pages into a main frame in your browser, perhaps called 'Main', so almost every entry on the menu will need a Target parameter with the value "Main". The DefaultTarget parameter gives you a way to avoid entering all those parameters. Just enter the name of this frame in the DefaultTarget parameter and it will be used by default for any entry on your menu that doesn't have its own Target parameter to override it.

HoverDelay
Sets the time (in milliseconds) between the mouse entering a Caption and the captions below it dropping down to reveal the menu entries for that caption. The default is 250. A higher value will mean the mouse must pause over a Caption for longer before its entries will be shown. (Note: Setting this to a lower value than about 100 might be very annoying!)

Name
Specifies a unique name for an applet when used with the Cool Focus 'Satellite' system. This name may be anything you like, but it should be the only applet currently running that has this name. If you're not using the Satellite system, you can ignore this parameter.

Satellites
A simple yes or no parameter that determines whether or not this applet should send mouse-move information to the Cool Focus 'Satellite' system. If you are using Satellites, include this parameter with a value of 'yes'. If you're not, either set the value to 'no', or leave out this parameter. Setting this parameter to 'yes' when no Satellite is being used will have the effect of making the applet respond to the mouse extremely sluggishly.

Caption1, Caption2, ..., Captionn
The Caption items to appear on Dynamix's menu. These are the items visible when Dynamix first appears. An unlimited number of Captions can be added. Each must have a unique number suffix. Although the order of parameters in your web page does not matter, consecutive number suffixes must exist. For example, if you're trying to add 12 captions, but you've forgotten to add a Caption8, only the first 7 entries will appear on the menu. When an '8' is not found, the applet will stop searching for more.

URL1, URL2, ..., URLn
Captions can act either as direct links (for example you might add a 'Home' or 'Contact Us' link from a caption), or as 'headings' that pop open to reveal the menu entries below, but a caption can't do both things. If there are no menu entries that begin with this Caption's number, Dynamix will assume that this Caption is supposed to be a link and will check to see if there is a URL parameter for it.

Target1, Target2, ..., Targetn
The names of the frames or windows into which each of the correspondingly-numbered URLs should be opened. Any URL that has no corresponding Target parameter will use the frame-name specified in the DefaultTarget parameter, so these individual Target parameters need only be included for links that should open into a different frame or window.

1-Entry1, 1-Entry2, ..., 1-Entryn
Each of Dynamix's captions can act as the 'heading' for an unlimited number of menu entries. The first number corresponds to the Caption number. (In the example code to the left, we've defined three entries that appear under Caption 2, so their parameter all start with 2-.) The last number is a unique number that works like the numbering of the Captions: consecutive number suffixes must exist.

1-URL1, 1-URL2, ..., 1-URLn
The absolute or relative URL to which the menu entry bearing the same numbering will link when clicked.

1-Target1, 1-Target2, ..., 1-Targetn
The names of the frames or windows into which each of the correspondingly-numbered menu entry URLs should be opened. Any URL that has no corresponding Target parameter will use the frame-name specified in the DefaultTarget parameter, so these individual Target parameters need only be included for links that should open into a different frame or window.







































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