Wxloop 1.0 README

Here's my best attempt at describing the web looping software,
wxloop.cgi version 1.02 (David Ovens, ovens@atmos.washington.edu, 8/15/2001): 
  
  Main driver:
    wxloop.cgi        -- the hidden guts of the program, see below.
                         THERE IS HELP INFORMATION IN THE CODE AS WELL.

  Static Frame Html Files:
    navigate.html     -- upper left frame with the browser-dependent
                         Back button.  Required because it seems that
                         a lot of browsers have trouble with Back.
    titleframe.cgi    -- upper right frame with dynamic titles, links,
                         etc.
    controls.3frames.html 
                      -- lower left frame with the looping controls
    wxloop.3frames.html
                      -- lower right frame that has a little bit of
                         JavaScript in it to allow looping
    titleframe_sample.html 
                      -- sample output from titleframe.cgi (see
                         Examples below).
 
   Button images:
    buttons/          -- all of the various button image files used.

   Include files:
    include_files/cgi-lib.pl  -- for parsing data from a form
    include_files/date-lib.pl -- David Ovens' date/time routines
    include_files/master_path_file -- associates local paths to data
                                      with a variable
    include_files/master_pattern_file -- associates file names with
                                         the variable
   Examples:
    wxloop_sample.html -- sample output from running 
          "perl wxloop.cgi unix_example all > wxloop_sample.html"
      To display this on your browser with
           "file:/tmp/wxloop/wxloop_sample.html" 
      (or whatever the appropriate path is to that file), you need to 
      follow these steps:
         (1)  delete the first 2 lines since those are for dynamic
              html not static html
         (2)  replace
                 "titleframe.cgi?unix_example+all+-update+3600"
              with
                 "titleframe_sample.html"
              NOTE: titleframe_sample.html was created by running
                     "perl titleframe.cgi unix_example all -update 3600"
                    and then deleting the first two lines as in (1) above.

      
    unix_example/     -- contains sample graphics for variable
                          unix_example
    windows_example/  -- contains sample graphics for variable
                          windows_example

The frame files are straight-forward html, JavaScript, and PERL code.
The wxloop.cgi code is a very complicated blend of PERL processing
that occurs on the Web server and HTML/JavaScript that occurs on the
Web browser.  The result of all of its PERL processing is to output
the necessary HTML/JavaScript code to handle the top frame and the 4
displayed frames of the looper.

Many of the PERL aspects of wxloop.cgi are not portable, they relate
to finding the requisite files on our system.  These PERL routines
were all developed by me, ovens@atmos.washington.edu, and I give
permission for them to be used and copied freely, provided credit is
given to me.  You may obtain the actual code, at ftp://ftp.atmos.washington.edu/ovens/wxloop.tar.
The PERL code can then be run from the command line as 
  "[perl -d] wxloop.cgi atx_bref1 3", or
  "[perl -d] wxloop.cgi atx_bref1 /4h/",
for example, (where perl -d is optional) to get an idea of what the
code is doing.

The HTML/JavaScript output of wxloop.cgi should be extremely portable,
and this is what you see when you do a "View Source" in your browser
on the main page of the loop (not one of its individual frames).  This
is based on jsImagePlayer 1.0 and is used with permission of
xholecko@sgi.felk.cvut.cz by including his credits.