Embedded mt scripts [WAS Re: Text editors]

[J. Landman Gay]

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         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com