Virtual Apparatus Framework (Implementation Section)


Current Version for Applets
Current Version for Active X controls
Current Version for Macromedia Shockwave Movies:

Current Version for Applets

Version Date Browser/Platform Remarks
Internet Explorer 4.0 Issues (3rd October, 1997) Internet Explorer 4.0 under Windows 95 Without any special fuzz, Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 (Windows 95 version) implemented LiveConnect. If you are running Internet Explorer 4.0 now, you may try some of the earlier links (e.g. those before 15th August, 1997). They do not work for Internet Explorer 3.0 because LiveConnect was Netscape only implementation. They are working under Internet Explorer 4.0 without any change.
version 0.61 (25th August, 1997) Netscape Navigator 3.0 under Windows 95, NT, MacOS;
Netscape Communication 4.0 under Windows NT, MacOS PPC
Internet Explorer 3.0 under Windows 95, NT
The demonstration in Version 0.6 has been improved. The parsing is done in the VAMessenger() function.
(29th August, 1997):A new demo here to show two status bar applets driving each other crazy.
(2nd October, 1997): Tested and verified it runs in IE 4.0 (released version) under Windows NT.
version 0.6 (18th August, 1997) Netscape Navigator 3.0 under Windows 95, NT, MacOS;
Netscape Communication 4.0 under Windows NT, MacOS PPC
Internet Explorer 3.0 under Windows 95, NT
I have enough of the Live Connect stuff!
Instead of using Live Connect, I am using a client-side timer script to repeatedly peek the events to pass it to vaMessenger(). The developer model for "virtual apparatus" still have not changed. As demonstrated, we need not recompile the "status bar" virtual apparatus applet to take advantage of this. All we need is point to the new VirtualApparatus.class.
Demonstration of our first self-brewed virtual apparatus
based on version 0.52
(15th August, 1997) Netscape Navigator 3.0 under Windows 95, NT, MacOS;
Netscape Communication 4.0 under Windows NT
The "status bar" virtual apparatus allows the display of a custom message in the first message box. This can be set using the method displayMessage(Msg). You can start the count down. Currently, it is set to 10 seconds. 2 seconds before the elapse of this time, a message is sent by the virtual apparatus. At the elapse of the time, another message is sent. The count down can be stopped at any time using the stopCounting(Msg) method.

Click here to download/look at the applet's source code.
Demonstration from Visual Cafe (13th August, 1997) Netscape Navigator 3.0 under Windows 95, NT, MacOS; Internet Explorer 3.0 under Windows 95, NT
This demonstration makes use of direct inter-applet communication supported by Sun's JDK, so that it does not have problem of the Applet to Browser communication. However, I don't see how we can hook this to other technology e.g. Active X controls and/or Macromedia shockwave movies. It is included here for information. It is NOT part of our effort.
Version 0.52 (13th August, 1997) Netscape Navigator 3.0 under Windows 95, MacOS
Revoked back to the original VirtualApparatus Class. The security issues disappear when the Applet is accessed across the web. The implication is that the current implementation does not support local access. (To be tested)
Version 0.51 (12th August, 1997) Netscape Navigator 3.0 under Windows 95
If you clicked on the Public method button, a call is made to the virtual apparatus and then the virtual apparatus sends back a message to the browser. Because of security of Java and JavaScript, I am using an observer and an observable class to implement the JavaApplet to Broswer call.
Version 0.5 (1st August, 1997) Netscape Navigator 3.0 under Windows 95, NT, MacOS;
Netscape Communication 4.0 under Windows 95, NT,MacOS
The current demonstration does not do anything special. After loading of the Virtual Apparatus, the Applet registers its presence by sending a message to the VAMessenger(). By clicking on the button on the page, you can send a message to the Applet.
It is a demonstration of the two-way communications of the Virtual Apparatus and the scripting environment.

Current Version for ActiveX controls:


Version Date Browser/Platform Remarks

Current Version for Director Shockmovie


Version Date Browser/Platform Remarks
version 0.1 15th October, 1997 Internet Explorer 4.0 under WindowsNT
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Same as below except this demonstration works with Internet Explorer 4.0 as well.
version 0.1 26th September, 1997 Internet Explorer 3.0 under Windows 95, NT
Netscape 3.0 under Windows 95, MacOS
Same as below except this demonstration works with Internet Explorer and Netscape.
If you look at the source code of this page, you will see a lot of hacking to make it works on both browser.
version 0.1 25th September, 1997 Internet Explorer 3.0 under Windows 95, NT
Same as below except this demonstration works with Internet Exploror only whereas the one below works with Netscape only.
What a pain!
version 0.1 4th September, 1997 Netscape Navigator 3.0 under Windows 95, NT, MacOS;
Netscape Communication 4.0 under Windows NT, MacOS PPC
This demonstrates the communication ability of shockwave movies with our model. A data logger, which is a Java Applet, is used to reflect the messages sent by the test shockwave movie.