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| What
are the DevKit pre-requisites? |
The Mandoforms Developer Kit and Shareware uses Java in order to
provide a cross-platform solution for developers.
The recommended
(but not minimum) system requirements are:
- 750Mhz Pentium PIII or SPARC equivalent
- 256MB
of RAM
- 60MB
of free disk space
- A graphics
card and display device capable of displaying >256 colours
- Windows ME/2000/XP/2003,
Linux (Kernel v2.2.12 or above), Solaris7 or above,
Other UNIX capable of running Java 1.2.2 or above
Depending on your operating system, there are versions of Mandoforms
available with or without Java included. The version without Java
is much smaller, but you will need a separate copy of Java installed
for the software to work. You can use either the Java Runtime Environment
(JRE) or Java Development Kit (JDK).
The
software has been tested and designed to work optimally with Java
1.3, but should operate with Java 1.2.2, although this
may be slower. The software may not operate at all with earlier
releases of Java.
Please
note that you can obtain the latest version of Java for Windows,
Solaris and Linux from http://java.sun.com.
For
other platforms try the appropriate OS website.
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| What
are the Enterprise Server pre-requisites? |
The Mandoforms Test Server contains its own built-in web server
and servlet engine. However, the Professional and Enterprise Servers
require a standard Web server and a servlet engine in order to operate.
Hence the
recommended (but not minimum) system requirements are:
- 750Mhz Pentium III or SPARC equivalent
- 256MB
of RAM
- 80MB
of free disk space
- Web
Server
- Java 1.2.2 or above
- Servlet engine supporting Java Servlet API 2.2 or above
- Windows ME/2000/XP/2003,
Linux (Kernel v2.2.12 or above), Solaris7 or above,
Other UNIX capable of running Java 1.2.2 or above
Some
Web servers such as iPlanet include a servlet engine. Other popular
servers, such as Apache, IIS and Zeus, require add-on servlet engines.
For the latter we recommend you use JRun 3.1 from Macromedia,
or TomCat 3.3.1 from Apache,
to provide the servlet engine required.
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| Why
doesn't the Builder/Test Server run? |
If you have installed the 'no_JRE' version of the software, please
ensure that your PATH contains a reference to your own Java Runtime
Environment (JRE) or Java Development Kit (JDK).
If you
deselected 'JRE' when installing the software, and do not already
have Java installed you will need to reinstall the Builder.
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| Why
don't Mandoforms appear? |
If your web page displays the message 'Your Browser does not
appear to support Compressed Java Applets' where your form
was expected, then you need to turn on support for Java Applets
in your browser. You
can do this as follows:
Netscape v4->v7 and Mozilla
Tick
the appropriate box in:
Edit-->Preferences-->Advanced
IE v4->v6
Go to
the following menu item:
Tools-->Internet Options-->Security
Select
the appropriate security zone and press the 'Custom Level' button.
Finally, tick the appropriate box in the 'Microsoft VM' section.
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| Does Mandoforms support older browsers? |
HTML-based Mandoforms use simple HTML and so are compatible with the widest range of browsers including some very old ones.
Applet-based Mandoforms work on I.E v4 and above, and Netscape v4.1 and above.
With applet-based Mandoforms we
recommend that you use the 'device detection' facility on the Mandoforms
Server in order to serve up Mandoforms using the appropriate <applet>
tags to support older browsers and browsers on certain Unix platforms.
Please note that the Shareware Builder does not support 'device detection' and so creates a Mandoform Applet
encapsulated within a single compressed .zip file. This means that
the Mandoform will not work if you are using a browser that does
not support compressed zip files, for example, older versions of Netscape Navigator
on certain Unix platforms.
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| How
do I display debug statements? |
To generate debug statements permanently for a form simply tick the 'debug' option on the Advanced page of the
Builder. Alternatively,
to see debug statements whilst the form is running, type #d
into the status bar. Note that when you are using the Test Server, debugging is turned on by default.
With
HTML-based Mandoforms debug statements appear in the source of the HTML pages returned by the Mandoforms Server. Depending on your browser you
can normally right mouse click on the HTML page displayed and select 'view
source' to view these debug statements, which you'll find near the top of the HTML page.
With applet-based Mandoforms your browser's Java Console is used to display debug and error statements
sent by the Mandoform whilst it is running.
To turn the Java Console on in IE v4 and above; tick the 'Java
Console Enabled' box in the following menu item and then restart
the browser:
Tools-->Internet Options-->Advanced-->Microsoft VM
To view the Java Console in IE v4 and above; select the menu
item:
View-->Java Console
With Netscape and Mozilla the Java Console is always enabled
if you have Java support turned on.
To view the Java Console in Netscape v4; select the menu item:
Communicator-->Tools-->Java Console
To view the Java Console in Netscape v6; select the menu item:
Tasks-->Tools-->Java Console
To view the Java Console in Mozilla; select the menu item:
Tools-->Web Development-->Java Console
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| Are
Apple Macs Supported? |
At this time you cannot run the Builder or Test Server on Macintosh machines. The forms themselves will run with some restrictions:
Mac OS/X 10.1+
HTML Mandoforms work with both IE and Netscape browsers.
Internet Explorer v5/v6 both work with applet Mandoforms.
There is a bug with Java support in Netscape v6. We recommend that you upgrade to v7 or use the latest Mozilla browser.
Mac OS/9
HTML Mandoforms work with both IE and Netscape browsers.
There are various problems with different versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape when trying to run applets. So we recommend that they are not used with this platform.
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| How
do I specify the correct server port? |
In
the Builder, with the 'Submit to Mandoforms Server' button action:
If you do not provide a port number for submitting to the Mandoforms
Server, it will default to the port it was served from (port 80 for
http and port 433 for https). If this is not what you require then
enter the correct port number.
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| How
do I force users to tick a checkbox? |
If you do not select the 'use label' option for checkboxes, the
field will be set to the value 'true' or 'false' depending on whether
or not the box is checked. This means that an unchecked box will
always pass the 'Required' test as it always has a value (i.e. true
or false)
Hence
in order to 'force' the user to tick or untick a checkbox, you must
select the 'use label' option in the Builder.
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| How
do I check that caching is working? |
The <applet> tag for caching Mandoforms should be put on any page that a user may visit prior to viewing a real Mandoform.
It should be put at the bottom of any such page so that any 'real' page content
such as images will load first and not disturb the client's experience of
your website.
If
the client browses any of these pages containing the caching <applet>
tag, the browser will download the java code archive (mandoforms.zip) in
the background, without the user realising. We have tested this process and
for most modern browsers (version 4+), the archive will continue downloading
from the last byte previously downloaded. So if a client downloads about
a third of the archive and then navigates to another page with the same caching
<applet> tag, the archive will continue downloading from the very next
byte.
Eventually
the user will get to the page containing the actual form. In most cases this
will be a dynamic page generated using the device detect feature of the Mandoforms
Server. As the <applet> tag generated by the server should contain
a base-ref tag exactly the same as the codebase tag used to cache the archive,
the browser should continue downloading the archive from the last byte received,
or if it has been fully downloaded, simply proceed to display and run the
applet.
However
although the applet code has been fully downloaded there is still the form
definition that must be downloaded before the form can be displayed. The
form definition is the formname.xml file that you will have copied to the
forms directory in the mandoforms web-app. This download will take some time
to download depending on the size of the form.
Now we should define exactly what the user will experience: When viewing a page containing a Mandoform,
whether defined statically using an <applet> tag in a .html file, or
dynamically via a URL to the Mandoforms Server, the process is exactly the
same. The browser will lay out the page with its text and images and also
the applet. As the <applet> tag defines how big the applet is to be,
the browser will reserve some screen 'real estate', say a 300 x 400 pixels.
If the code has not been downloaded previously through caching, the applet
will first appear as a grey box. So if you see a grey box on opening a form
page, this is a sign that the applet has not been fully cached.
When
the applet code has downloaded the applet will run. The first thing it does
is display a splash screen. This defaults to a white background with a Mandoforms
logo. While this is displaying the applet tries to download the form configuration
XML. When the xml has been fully downloaded the applet displays the form
and the user may proceed to fill it in.
You should bear in mind that once a Mandoform
applet has been downloaded, either via a caching <applet> tag or as
the proper form, the applet code resides in the browser cache. Only by restarting
the browser will you clear the cache, and the applet must be downloaded again.
So
to test, we would advise waiting on a cache page for a fair while, just to
ensure that the applet has fully downloaded. Then proceed to the URL with
the form on it. If a grey box appears for a longish time, the applet hasn't
been cached. If it is just the splash screen that displays for a long time,
the caching is working, but the configuration XML is taking time to download.
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