Diaporama - a free applet to make your Web site more attractive
Update: this thing used to work pretty well in Java 1.0 but changes in more recent Java implementations now make it crash... I'll take a lot at that someday, maybe... or you could do it and send me the results of your investigations.Description
Here's a small slideshow applet I have written to enhance some Web sites.It works by displaying interpolated images between the images you give it. This results in a circular sequence of images with smooth transitions between them.
Advantages
- Runs in any Java compatible browser (JDK 1.0.2). (Due to Netscape's usual substandard implementation of Java, it won't work with Netscape browsers on the Mac. However it will degrade gracefully by just showing the first image. If you know about a way to fix this, please tell me.)
- Small size (about 10k).
- Using this applet for smooth transitions is efficient because transition images are computed locally, not transmitted.
- Asynchronous behavior (only waits for the images it needs before starting, loads images sequentially and asynchronously).
Drawbacks
- Relatively high memory usage, but still usable on most machines for middle-sized images.
Parameters
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| between | int | Number of interpolated images between each image |
| mainDelay | int | Time to display a non-interpolated image (ms) |
| delay | int | Time to display an interpolated image (ms) |
| link | url | Document to show when user clicks on applet |
| target | String | Frame in which to display link |
| message | String | Text to display in status bar when mouse cursor enters applet |
| image1 | url | First image. Used via Applet.getImage |
| image2 | url | Next image. And so on... (without gaps) |
Notes
- You will have to prepare the slideshow images so that they all have the same size as the applet.
- URLs given in the parameters are relative to the document containing the applet.
Download links
- diapo.zip
- The applet archive file. Get this if you just want to use the applet.
- diapo_src.zip
- The ZIP file containing the Java source code for the applet.