User Guide for the Panorama 4 Deluxe Applet

Running the demonstration applet

Click on the file pan4.htm and the applet will appear in your browser in a few seconds. The applet is controlled by a mouse. When the loading message disappears and the picture is displayed, position the mouse over the picture.Hold the left button down and move the mouse slowly across the picture in any direction. Moving the mouse leftwards will scroll the picture to the right, and the picture will scroll to the left if the mouse is moved in the opposite direction. When the mouse is moved in an upward direction the picture will scroll downwards. Similarly moving the mouse in a downward direction will scroll the picture up. To reduce the scrolling speed, reverse the direction of the mouse.

You can zoom in on any portion of the picture by depressing the 'i', 'inward', key. Depress the 'o', 'outward', key to return the image to its original size. The arrow and Page Up / Down keys can also be used to zoom up and down and change direction. Zooming can also be performed by pressing the '+' and '-' keys.

An image editor will be required for cropping and resizing. Irfan View is an excellent freeware program which allows resizing to within a resolution of one pixel. It uses minimal space on a desktop so multiple copies can be run concurrently allowing inspection of several images at the same time.

An easy to use stitching facility is available in iPhoto Express. This allows you to join up your images seamlessly. This program is available from Ulead Systems.

You can find a wealth of information on panoramic photography at www.panoguide.com.

Image compression

If you are uploading the applet to a web page it is important to keep the image byte sizes as small as possible. If they exceed, say, 100Kb in total your visitor may have to wait several minutes for them to download and may decide to leave your page. Image compression programs are widely available, many of them free. JPEG Imager is an excellent product and a free version is available from the following URL: http://www.geocities.com/vas_b/

Setting up the applet PARAMETERS

The VALUE for the PARAMETER, "imageName", is the name of your image file. Acceptable image formats are JPG and GIF. The other basic PARAMETER is:

regcode - This is the code you receive on registration of Panorama 4. If you wish to run the applet from a website you will need this. A separate code is required for each domain the applet is used on.

Optional PARAMETERS - Deluxe version only

If you register for the Deluxe version you can customise your implementation of Panorama 4.

optionsCode - This code activates the optional parameters.
pan360 - When set to "true", the image will rotate through 360 degrees. If set to "false", the image will halt at the left or right extremity.
xPosition - Sets the initial horizontal location of the image in the window. For example, if set to "100", then the image will commence scrolling at 100 pixels to the extreme left of the image.
yPosition - Sets the initial vertical location of the image in the window. For example, if set to "50", then 50% of the image will be above the top of the window.
zoomMin - This is the factor controlling the size the image can be zoomed down to. For example, '1', represents 100%, or the original size of the image, and '0.9' represents 90% of the original size of the image.
zoomMax - This is the factor controlling the size the image can be zoomed up to. For example, '20', represents 20 times magnification of the original size of the image.
zoomStep - This is the factor controlling the amount by which the image is zoomed after each depression of the zoom keys, 'I' or 'O'. For example, '0.25', will zoom up the image by 25% each time the 'I' key is depressed.
speed - This integer value sets the speed of scrolling of the image. A small value increases the scrolling speed and a high value decreases the scrolling speed.
scroll - This sets the direction in which the image scrolls when the applet is loaded - "LEFT" or "RIGHT"
autopan - The image pans automatically if this parameter is set to "ON". When set to "OFF" the image position can be controlled by the mouse
audio - This is the name of an audio file, which will play automatically when Panorama 4 is loaded into a browser. At present (March 2001), most browsers will only support the 'au' sound file format. You can convert '.wav' files into the '.au' format with shareware programs available from: Goldwave and Awave
audioloop - When set to "ON" the audio file will play continuously. When set to 'OFF' the audio file will play just once when Panorama 4 is loaded.
backgroundColor - This is the background colour of the applet window. The colour is set using the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) hexidecimal format used in HTML.
foregroundColor - This sets the colour of any text you use in the applet.
fontFace - This sets the font of any text you use in the applet. Available fonts are: Serif, SansSerif and Monospaced.
fontType - '1' represents PLAIN, '2' represents BOLD, and '3' represents ITALIC.
fontSize - This sets the size of any text you use in the applet.
loadingMessage - This is the message your vistors will see while the image is being downloaded to their browser.

The table below shows the code as implemented on the Panorama 4 Deluxe web page:

Controlling Panorama from JavaScript

There are four control operations avaiable using JavaScript:

Move the image left
Move the image right
Zoom in image
Zoom out image
Autopan - scrolls the image without the need of mouse action
Play an audio file

The following example uses buttons to implement these operations:

<FORM>
<INPUT TYPE=BUTTON VALUE="<--" onclick="actionPerformed('<')">
<INPUT TYPE=BUTTON VALUE="-->" onclick="actionPerformed('>')">
<INPUT TYPE=BUTTON VALUE="Zoom+" onclick="actionPerformed('+')">
<INPUT TYPE=BUTTON VALUE="Zoom-" onclick="actionPerformed('-')">
<INPUT TYPE=BUTTON VALUE="Pan/Pause" onclick="actionPerformed('autopan')">
<INPUT TYPE=BUTTON VALUE="audio" onclick="actionPerformed('audio')">
</FORM>

Using this script, when a button is pressed, the function "actionPerformed()" is called which passes the relevant argument to the Java applet.The code for this function is as follows:

<SCRIPT Language="JavaScript">
function actionPerformed(str)
{
document.applets[0].javaScript(str)
}
</SCRIPT>

Example Upload to a website

You will need an FTP program such as WS-FTP or Cute FTP. Trial or free versions of these programs can often be found on CDs provided with Internet monthlies. Windows 95/98 has an upload wizard which is quite easy to use. Some web servers, such as AOL and ACMECITY allow you to upload your files from one of their web pages. Upload the file pan4.class, pan4.htm and your image file to same directory on your website. In your homepage enter the following (or similar):

<A HREF="/directory_name/pan4.htm">My Panorama Page</A>

Registration

Thank you for downloading the Panorama 4 applet. The Panorama 4 demonstration applet is fully functional and has no expiry date. There are no limits on the dimensions of the image files. A registration code is required to run the applet from a website. These can be obtained from:

Panorama 4
sales@imageviewer.co.uk

or you can go directly to the Registration form.

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