ECN No Name Newsletter: January, 1995

The ECN No Name Newsletter is no longer being published. This is an archived issue.

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Mosaic: Defining a Documents Menu

Cathy Curry

Mosaic V2.4 is the web browser created and maintained by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). Typing the command Mosaic opens this browser and the NCSA Mosaic: Document View window appears on your screen. A frame surrounds the central Document Window (the area where documents are viewed) with a row of menus along the upper section of the frame.

These menus, provided by Mosaic File, Options, Navigate, Annotate and Help, are all defined internally and cannot be modified. However, Mosaic does provide a method to create your own Documents menu. Using this Documents menu, you can set up a permanent menubar which will enable you to relocate to various sites. Mosaic uses the documentsMenuSpecfile resource to specify the file that contains the description of the Documents menu. This specification file is similar to the hotlist file, except you have to create it manually.

In the specification file, pairs of document titles and URLs are listed on separate lines, with titles preceding URLs. Mosaic displays the document title in the menu and accesses the corresponding URL when you select the item. The placement of two or more dashes ( -- ) on a line between title/URL pairs causes a horizontal line to appear on your menu, providing a way to organize groups of titles. Do not use quotation marks (") when constructing your specification file.

This specification file may be placed in your home directory or elsewhere (.mosaic, public-web, etc), and you may name it whatever you wish. While a specification file may contain up to 80 title/URL pairs, this example file contains six pairs. The following lines create the Documents menu shown at the top of this page.

---- SAMPLE specification template file: ---- 


Schools of Engineering Home Page
http://www.ecn.purdue.edu/
Engineering Computer Network Home Page
http://www.ecn.purdue.edu/ecn/
Purdue University Home Page
http://www.purdue.edu/
Purdue University Computing Center Home Page
http://www.purdue.edu/PUCC/
Purdue Department of Computer Sciences Home Page
http://www.cs.purdue.edu/
--
Web Sites of Interest
http://www.ecn.purdue.edu/ecn/Documents/WWW/www.sites.html

---- End of Example ------

Using ECN's specification template file...

To copy and use this generic, pre-composed document menu file written by the ECN, do the following:

  1. Start Mosaic and go to the ECN Home Page (http://www.ecn.purdue.edu/ecn/).
  2. Select the link World Wide Web (WWW) and when the new screen appears, click on How to Use Mosaic Tools in the ECN Environment. On this screen you will see the document Template File for Documents Menu. Select this document.
  3. Pull down the File menu and select the option Save As. A dialog box will appear; within the Format for saved document field, select Plain Text. Move the mouse into the Name for saved document field, click to bring focus to this field and type in the full pathname of where you want to place the file. The default value displayed will be the pathname to your HOME directory. Name the file anything you want.
  4. Click the OK button.
  5. After you have created and saved the file, you will have to set your X resources. X resources are usually set in a personal .Xdefaults file in your HOME directory.

    If you do not have a .Xdefaults file, you can create one in your HOME directory using your favorite editor. Type the following line in your .Xdefaults file. In this example the specification file has been named specfile.

    Mosaic*documentsMenuSpecfile:
    /full pathname/specfile

    If you already have a .Xdefaults file, add the above line to the file.

    This is an example of the specfile residing in my HOME directory.

    Mosaic*documentsMenuSpecfile: /home/harbor/a/cathyc/specfile

  6. Save the file and exit the editor.
  7. After you have saved your .Xdefaults file, type the command: xrdb .Xdefaults.

    This will cause the resource file to take effect. Restart Mosaic. On the Menu bar of your Document View window, there will be a menu named Documents.

    Creating your own file

    You may wish to create your own specification file rather than use ECN's pre-composed file as your base. To do this, create your file, name it and continue with the previous instructions beginning at step #5.

    webmaster@ecn.purdue.edu
    Last modified: Thursday, 02-Oct-97 20:52:27 EST

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