Browser Compatibility; Notes and Hints
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Browser |
The BENTO interface
is not written for a particular browser, and doesn't try
to take advantage of particular browser or platform
features, with one small exception (see below).
Hence, in order to achieve a good and highly functional
user interface, without resorting to proprietary solutions,
it has been necessary to rely somewhat heavily on a wide
range of standard features, specifically:
- Cookies:
On the server side, PHP's session management functions are
used to keep track of instrument settings and related
details. To that effect, the server needs to maintain
a session identifier, which it does by sending you
a cookie.
- Javascript:
Javascript is used for dynamic interaction on the
browser side. Many features would be clumsy or
outright infeasible without Javascript.
- CSS:
Many details concerning size and positioning are controlled
through CSS. These details often do not have any HTML
equivalents.
- Frames:
In order to achieve a smooth, uninterrupted display, all
server interaction is done through a hidden frame.
Many browsers, most notably Internet Explorer,
throw away images when a form is submitted, and the main
display (including the graph) would flash or be absent for
notable periods of time if server interaction was done
through the main page. (And for "heads": the 'object'
element is generally poorly supported, and is not a
viable alternative for this perfectly innocent and highly
effective use of frames.)
- Image pre-load and caching:
A large number of the dynamic display elements, most
notably the illuminated buttons and the graph itself,
require effortless switching between different images, and
are therefore pre-loaded and changed through Javascript.
It is important that browsers are configured to cache
documents, rather than load them every time they are
accessed. By default, browsers are usually configured
correctly, but sometimes these settings are changed.
The only non-standard feature used is that for Internet
Explorer the 'fullscreen' mode is used. For other platforms
a similar effect can be achieved through browser or
window manager settings, but there is no
script-accessible standard for this.
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Platforms |
The BENTO interface has been tested with recent versions
of Mozilla (and Mozilla FireBird), Netscape, Internet
Explorer, and Opera on (where applicable) Linux,
Windows 98, Windows 2000/NT, and Mac OS9. It currently
looks a bit odd in Opera, and the pan slider doesn't work
particularly well.
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Screen Size |
A minimum of 1024x768 is required. The graph image itself
is 800x600, and the rest is needed for the control interface.
Anything substantially larger will cause the demonstration
to open in a smaller window.
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Traffic Data |
The traffic data and AS numbers are mostly simulated and
masqueraded in the demonstration, and are likely to look
less real and
intuitive than what one would see in a real environment.
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