Up: The WebEQ Authoring Environment

Using the WebEQ Authoring Environment

The WebEQ Authoring Environment interface consists of two Netscape frames. The top frame is the previewing window, and the bottom frame is the control panel.

To use the authoring environment, a user prepares a source file. In this file, math equations are delimited with <MATH>, </MATH> tags. Optional parameters to WebEQ such as font size and color are included as parameters in the <MATH> tag.

Warning: There is one exception: the user should not specify the eqno parameter, since the authoring environment automatically generates this. Equations are numbered sequentially through the document to aid in sizing the applet windows.

Apart from some minor differences in entity names and tag arguments, the source file should be viewable within a HTML 3.0 capable browser such as the arena browser.

You may find it useful to look at a sample source file.

The Control Panel

When first loaded, the control panel contains a form prompting for a source file, and the codebase for the WebEQ classes.

Important: The path names for the source file and the codebase are interpreted as URLs. The codebase is included verbatim in the applet calls, and thus may be a relative path name. To guarantee relocatable pages, one should specify an absolute URL.

As an example, suppose

the WebEQ classes are installed in /www/WebEQ/bin,
you are editing the file /www/mydocs/test, and
on your system http://www.yoursystem.net/ corresponds to the directory /www.

Then you might enter:

Source file: http://www.yoursystem.net/mydocs/test
Codebase: /WebEQ/bin

To load the example file linked above into the authoring environment, you could specify:

Source file: http://www.geom.umn.edu/software/WebEQ/author/example.html
Codebase: http://www.geom.umn.edu/software/WebEQ/bin

The Preview Button

Clicking the preview button displays the current document in the upper window using WebEQ. This document contains the applet tags necessary for viewing the document with WebEQ under Netscape 2.0.

At any time, you can save this document by

Selecting the upper frame by clicking on it, and
Using the "Save Frame As" option under the Netscape file menu

Remember to save your work! Applet sizes are reset each time you load a source file into the authoring environment.

The Size Button

Clicking on the "Size Equations" button brings up a fill-out form in the control panel window. The form contains a line for each equation in the document, together with the current applet window height and width specifications.

The sizing form is designed to be used in conjunction with the Java Console. The Java console can be enabled by checking the appropriate box under the Netscape Options menu. For each equation in the source document, WebEQ will write the equation number, a bit of the source code for the equation, and the proper dimensions for the corresponding applet window. The user needs only to transcribe these dimensions from the console to the sizing fill-out form, save the table, and preview the document to generate an .html file with correct WebEQ applet dimensions.

The sizing panel also contains a "Preview" button which allows you to view the document with the current applet window dimensions. You can change the applet dimensions as many times as you wish. When you are satsified, bring the document up in the preview window and save it as described above.

Installation Notes

The scripts in the authoring system require the libwww-perl library, developed by Roy Fielding <fielding@ics.uci.edu>. The latest version can always be obtained at <http://www.ics.edu/WebSoft/libwww-perl/>

To install the authoring system on your local server, you must first install the library. Then, you must edit the file "libpointer.pl in the ~WebEQ/author/bin directory to point to the location of the library on your system.

Up: The WebEQ Authoring Environment

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Comments to: rminer@geom.umn.edu
Created: Apr 17 1996 --- Last modified: Thu Apr 18 12:04:28 1996