Rasbey presents: the Poly tab

[Rasbelin]

Notice the difference?

I have been playing around with the idea of using the sidebar tabs for providing easy access to new information and useful features for accessing sites easier. As the result of this, I set up a test small project to excavate the possibilities of tabs. As I test subject I decided to make a news headline sidebar tab for Poly that also included the possibility to easily login and logout from Poly. The logout function is IMO more useful than the login feature, because there's so scarcely with those logout links on the website; and because I use cookies for logging into Poly.

First of all I hope that the administrators of the site aren't going freak out on me because of this, but Poly was such a good test subject for a sidebar tab. If you find the sidebar offensive or bad publicity for Poly, just tell me and I'll scrap it ASAP.



So what's the clue with this Poly tab?

Here to the left you can see the a closer caption of the main page of the tab. All the news sections available on the main page of Poly are seen there, as well as a login and logout functions and the section for advertising current special news/events/offers (abit like the promotional ads on the main page, i.e. Apolyton 4 years). But this isn't yet everything. By clicking the news category, a list with the appropriate news headlines are loaded into the sidebar (the ones found one the main page). And they also work as links to the website.

I'm sure someone is going to complain that the login box can only be cleared by pressing the "Back" link, but this isn't exactly a high fidelity, Flash animation cluttered, 3D sidebar tab.

All the links and features are working, except that while is was making this, someone had added a news news item, so it's not completely up-to-date.

So where can I get this gadget and what do I need for it?

First of all the tab can only be used with Mozilla or Netscape 6/7. So if you currently only have i.e. MSIE, you can free of charge download Mozilla or Netscape 7. If you already have a suitable browser or just installed one, you'll have to add the sidebar tab ny using the button at Rasbey.com in order to add the Poly tab into your sidebar. The button is only available on my own website; not because of using it as a cheap way to get audience, but in order to make the necessary JavaScript working, I need to have access to < HEAD> section of the HTML document, so you'll have to get it there.

Feel free to ask questions or post hateful comments for the tab. I thought everyone would love tabs. But if you for some reason would have positive feedback, then it's also welcome.

[Rasbelin]

Continued...

Sorry for the heavy graphics, but they were needed for a visual presentation of the sidebar tab.

The new ad theme is currently only available as a Poly tab ad, but I will later on post a new set of ad banners. Patience, please. Here's the current one:



IE and Opera users that don't want to download any browser for just taking a look at the tab, can access it at http://personal.inet.fi/cool/apolyton. I do recommend the use of Mozilla or Netscape 6/7 for viewing the tab, as it will be more useful as a sidebar tab.

[MarkG]

interesting

although i dont see myself using a login box on page other than on apolyton

[ixnay]

That's neat. Not neat enough to warrant downloading another browser, but still neat.

[Alex]

Cool. I like these gadgets. But I won't change browsers.

[Gangerolf]

interesting. not that I'm not happy with the current state of the site

[Locutus]

Originally posted by ixnay37
That's neat. Not neat enough to warrant downloading another browser, but still neat.

I couldn't have said it any better myself...

[Rasbelin]

Thanks for the feedback so far! Yes, you don't have to get a new browser because of this little gadget. Even I can live without it. If there's no users for it, I'm not going to continue updating it, but if there's even a small group of users, then I could consider updating the news items. It doesn't require that much time.

[MarkG]

if you could share some links on how to create it, i could automate the process and make an official apolyton sidebar

[Rasbelin]

It's simple to make a sidebar tab if you just keep in mind the standard width of the sidebar content area (162 pixels, 144 pixels with scrollbar), and you need to have a working JavaScript script. The one I use only initialises an addPanel API call. It's worth to note that all sidebars will work with both Mozilla and Netscape 6/7, so you don't need to check with of the browsers or make separate versions. There's also abit more customisation for those wanting to provide individual content (I guess the Poly tab can be well made by using the standard one, as the content seems to be generated by the mySQL server, so you could try the script I used). The sidebar is very flexible as it supports all mayor standards, but also all MIME types, so one idea I had was to embed ACSR into the sidebar, so that it could be easy to listen to the daily broadcasts. As I didn't develop it that far due to several reasons, i.e. my HTML knowledge is based on 3.2 that already supported several multimedia emdedding options like the EMBED tag, but as I haven't been doing HTML coding for longer periods for many years, I've lost most of my knowledge.

Anyway, here's the JavaScript code inserted within the HEAD tags like any JavaScript...

< script language="JavaScript">
function addNetscapePanel() {
if ((typeof window.sidebar == "object") && (typeof window.sidebar.addPanel == "function"))
{ window.sidebar.addPanel ("Apolyton CS",
"http://personal.inet.fi/cool/apolyton/index.html","");
} else { var rv = window.confirm ("You can't use this sidebar tab without Mozilla or Netscape 6/7."
+ " Would you like to download Mozilla?"); if (rv)
document.location.href = "http://www.mozilla.org/releases/";
} } //-->
< /script>

Do notice that the lines aren't set properly because I just used plain copy & paste, but it should work as it is. Just change the location of the main HTML file to be loaded by default.

And the button...

< a href="javascript:addNetscapePanel();">< img
src="http://personal.inet.fi/cool/apolyton/add-button.gif" border="0">

For more sidebar tabs I recommend having a look at the sidebar listings on dmoz (http://dmoz.org/Netscape/Sidebar). They might provide you ideas about good sidebar content.

So where did I get most of the information?
Netscape DevEdge - My Sidebar Developer's Guide

My two requests for the "official" Poly tab...

1. Could you please include the login and logout My Apolyton features? At least I would find them useful.

2. Please don't clutter it with ads. I recommend that what I already said previously about using the "In focus" (or whatever you call it, but I found "In focus" most suitable and descriptive) section for advertising current special news/events/offers (abit like the promotional ads on the main page, i.e. Apolyton 4 years).

BTW, I almost forgot to mention LiveSidebar provides an online sidebar tab making wizard, if you get lazy enough. I haven't used it or looked at the site so much. AFAIK it only has a sidebar directory based on the dmoz raw data, the wizard, forums and links to the 2 Netscape documents (I didn't mention the second one because it's oudated and doesn't provide any information worth reading).

[Rasbelin]

I forgot to mention that you can easily find the JavaScripts also in the source code of Rasbey.com. BTW, the HTML code is currenty a real mess, but I suppose no one cares. At least you should find the script for the HEAD section easily, if you don't get it right from above.

[MattyBoy]

Nice work, Ras.

[Rasbelin]

Thanks, Matty!

I haven't now continued updating the sidebar in the case Markos is going to make an official one.