On 4/28/02 10:52 PM, Scott Rossi wrote: > So far, MC & REV do not run within Web browsers. You can build Web enabled > stacks and use MC/REV as a helper application for a browser, but you can't > run MC/REV embedded within a browser.
I have (maybe) discovered a work-around for this problem. Some of you may remember that I have been trying to embed the output from an mt script into an html document. I think I may have figured it out -- and if Simon can implement his text editor as an mt script on the server, the following solution may provide what he needs. I've been working on this off and on for weeks and the eureka factor this morning when it finally came together was substantial. :) I'll preface everything with the caveat that I've only tested the following on my Mac in OS X so far, and I only have a couple of browsers to test with. I'd appreciate input from anyone who tries the technique with other browsers, especially older ones. In all versions of Netscape and Mozilla, and possibly older versions of IE (I haven't got an older version to test with,) the "object" tag appears to work: <OBJECT data="http://www.myserver.com/cgi-bin/echo.mt" width="400" height="800"></OBJECT> The height and width parameters are required. The browser will add scrollbars if necessary. You can add other parameters to control alignment or other things if you want. That's all it takes to embed the output from echo.mt into an html page. Of course, newer versions of IE don't support it (I'm testing with IE 5.x for Mac and it doesn't work there.) Either Microsoft decided to implement their own definition of the "object" tag, or I am missing some required parameters. I have read that IE requires the "classid" parameter (which Netscape doesn't,) and the W3W specs say that the classid can be a URL to the data, but IE doesn't appear to use it unless it is a classid that has been registered with Microsoft (grrr). If anyone knows how to get around this and make the object tag work, I'd like to know about it because the object tag has been around a long time and is supposedly supported by almost every browser. Then today I discovered the IFRAME tag -- which works in Netscape, Mozilla, and IE, at least, in newer versions of those browsers. This will embed the output of echo.mt into an html document: <IFRAME src="http://www.myserver.com/cgi-bin/echo.mt" width="400" height="800" scrolling="auto" frameborder="0"> [Alternate text here for browsers not configured to display frames.] </IFRAME> You can adjust the scrolling, frameborder, and a number of other parameters to fit the needs of the page. This method works great in browsers that support the IFRAME tag, though browsers that don't support frames won't show anything. Now something even cooler: Mozilla and Netscape 6 allow you to embed your own custom tabs into the browser's sidebar display -- those are the tabs on the side that load dynamic data and which are always available. I customized my tab configuration to include a module that loads my custom html document containing the IFRAME tag. My custom mt script reports information about the sizes of my mail inboxes on the server. Since I let old mail pile up there for a while, I like to know how large the spool files are so that I know when I should delete them. Whenever I want to check the size of my inboxes, I just open my custom browser tab in Mozilla and it loads the current information. Instant gratification. I actually have MetaCard running three custom mt scripts for me now. Not only will it scan and report on my mail inboxes, but another script also backs up my access logs every so often (because I rarely remember to download them before my ISP deletes the old logs every week) and a third mt script deletes large mail inboxes whenever I say -- which I do by simply clicking on a link I've saved as a bookmark in my browser. The ability to control stuff on my server via MetaCard and display it in a browser is really exciting. Hope this helps anyone else who has been trying to embed mt output. Who needs Perl? :) -- Jacqueline Landman Gay | [EMAIL PROTECTED] HyperActive Software | http://www.hyperactivesw.com _______________________________________________ metacard mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/metacard