Embedded mt scripts [WAS Re: Text editors]

[andu]

J. Landman Gay wrote:

> 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? :)
> 


I'm a little confused about the use of "embedded" and would be nice if 
you could do a demo web page with the above.
 From what I understand, the display doesn't go beyond the html 
possibilities unlike a java implementation which would allow for custom 
widgets and behavior. I don't mean to say that your solution is not 
definitely a more elegant way of doing it then the html templates I use 
for script generated web pages.



-- 
____________________
Regards, Andu Novac