Javascript in Neobook - Possible... simple?

[BillB]

Hi

I have written a freeware graphical disk size viewer in Neobook, using rtFSM to retrieve Drive data.  I would like to take it a step further so that, when the user clicks on a drive bar (actually a button), statistics are shown (graphically) for that drive.  An ideal solution might be to link to the freeware Javascript "JDisk Report", at
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Problem
1) I don't have the first idea how to run a Java program in Neobook.  I'm guessing it would be via a browser object.
2) Would such an "extension" be visible to most users, or would they have to have a particular Java installation on their PCs?  If it requires special configuration I won't go down that route.  Ideally I want a one-file, no-installation solution.

Thoughts appreciated..




(Edited by BillB at 11:57 am on Feb. 8, 2004)

[Troy]

BillB,

Right now as far as I know, the only way to use Javascript would be in a browser object. (You are subject to the users' javascript settings.)

Troy

[Gaev]

BillB:

Please note that Java and JavaScript are two completely different things ; thanks to Marketing shenanigans by Netscape & Sun, a lot of people confuse the two.

Java is a lower level computer language (similar to C++) ; JavaScript is a Scripting facility used to manage html documents (somwhat like Visual Basic & NeoBook's scripting commands).

Your Browser interprets Javascript commands, so you (or your clients) don't need to install anything extra in order to use applications built with Javascript.

Java, on the other hand, is where MicroSoft and Sun have had their bitter battles.

In order to run "stand-alone" programs built with Java, you need to first install something called the Java Virtual machine (a.k.a JVM) ; Linux/Unix machines come with this software pre-loaded ; not Windows.

However, "applets" built with Java can be called and run from within your web (html) pages ; same as pdf documents (with Adobe Acrobat) and swf files (with Macromedia Flash Player). The down side is that applications called/run from within a Browser are (for valid security reasons) not able to read/write local files (some exceptions but we won't go into those here).

JDisk Report is unfortunately a stand-alone Java program ; at the bottom of the referenced web page it clearly states that JDiskReport requires Java; get Java first, then download and install JDiskReport. So, you would need your clients to install Java (and risk getting caught in the cross-fire of two battling titans) and then invoke this program from NeoBook (using the Run command ; hopefully with the Wait option).

I tried to do a quick search for applets that performed a similar function, but didn't find any (probably because of the security restriction) ; however, there are quite a few "charting" applets that can take data from simple text files (e.g. comma separated values) and display fancy graphical views ; so, if you had another utility/plug-in that stored the drive/folder space information in a file, you'd be in business ; all you'd need to do then, would be to script your pub to display your html document in the Browser object ... and craft the html to call the "charting applet" with a pointer to the text file.


Good luck.

[BillB]

gk51

Thanks for the clear overview - it's a subject I have never fully understood.  I think I'll carry on seeing what can be done within Neobook + rtFSM.  
I have looked at freeware graphical disk/folder space reporters but haven't found anything where I can pass the parameters ("report on c:\ , d:\  etc" ) .

Spacemonger at www.werkema.com is particularly good at showing where your disk space has gone, but there is no way to automate it, as it takes 3 mouse clicks to select a drive (no keyboard shortcuts) and these will be in different screen locations for different drive configurations.  

If anyone knows of a decent bit of freeware which can either be passed parameters or automated with keystrokes, I'd like to hear about it.