Drop-down menu: X-Bar Ultramenu IIS: Version History

Added in version 8.1

Rollover launching is now available on Microsoft and Symantec java interpreters.
Extensive modifications have been made to improve layout and performance when used with JRE 1.3.

The following list covers the differences between the first series 7 "Ultramenu" and the new series 8 "Ultramenus".

Enhancements
1. Signing is no longer required - this is a major technology breakthrough
2. True type fonts and any other fonts supported by the client system can be displayed on the applet (except for a few old browsers)
3. The number of files required for deployment has been reduced
Omissions
1. A left click is now required for initial menu launch - mouse movement only launches menus after the first click
2. Animated submenu opening (fly-ins and explosions) has been removed
3. Text/query fields are no longer supported; associated XIXL commands such as FIELD and CALL have been removed
4. Animated icons and other images are not yet supported
5. Right click and remote submenu launching are not available

The following list covers the differences between the series 6 "Powerbars" and the first series 7 "Ultramenu".

Additions
1. The supported version of XIXL has been roughly quadrupled in size with an extra 30 or so commands for defining the appearance and functionality of individual menu items
2. Approximately 20 exposed methods have been added to allow full dynamic manipulation and editing of the menu
3. The entire layout of individual menu items has been reconceived in which all the sub-elements of a menu item (e.g. icon, label, tag, arrow) have 8 optically reconfigurable states and can be more precisely laid out
4. History-tracking has been added, as well as disabled menu item states, so that menu items (and their sub-elements) now have normal, active, visited and disabled states (all optical reconfigurable), and each of these four states has a mouse-over and non-mouse-over state
5. Optional fly-in submenus are supported (submenus spiral into position)
6. All images (including icons, backgrounds, arrows, tags, separators) can be animated
7. Image handling has been reconceived, with a multi-set preloaded image pool from which image sets can be drawn for all the optional graphics effects
8. Three user-definable sound effect events are available
9. The applet can create redefinable multi-angle colour gradients, striations and striated gradients as backgrounds to menu items and submenus, allowing fast automatic creation of highly professional, polished and distinctive menu appearances
10. Menu item functionality has been enhanced so that submenus can function as pop-up forms with form element support added
11. Triple-state checkbox menu items are now available
12. Checkbox menu items can be optionally grouped as radio buttons
13. Checkboxes can have typical generic icons, or you can use your own image sets
14. Menu items can have input fields attached to them - this can be used to set up multiple search facilities, password entry fields, conditional database querying and any other typical form functions for which text input is used; input fields are sizeable
15. Individual menu items can be edited, hidden, revealed, disabled and enabled (and otherwise dynamically manipulated)
16. Topbar separators are now available
17. Separators can be user-defined images if desired
18. Separator layout has been reconceived and improved
19. Topbar down arrows to mark nodes are now available
20. All arrows can be multi-state user-defined images if desired
21. Mouse-over effects have been enhanced, with the addition of various rectangular boxed effects
22. Mouse-over script triggers have been added - a simple mouse movement over an entry can now be harnessed to your own scripts
23. Discontinuously numbered parameter indices are now supported, improving database-friendliness
24. Default frame target can be defined in parameters to reduce index file size
25. Submenus can be launched in response to a right-click (in addition to the existing mouse-over and left-click options)
26. URL-encoding of URL's is supported
27. There has been widescale rewriting and reoptimisation of the code, so that the overall bytesize increase for the new features has been kept to a minimum
28. Scrolling submenus
Omissions (compared to X-Bar Powerbar I)
1. Stylesheets: the XQ version has 2 styles only - top level, and submenus.
2. The START command has been removed (use the onLoad parameter)
3. The colourscheme parameter and multiple default colour schemes have been removed
Other differences
1. Applet default initialisation has been rethought so that the default appearance (with no parameters) is entirely different
2. Default bullets and node arrows look different
3. The HEIGHT command has a different effect
4. Almost all parameters have a different name (even when their effect is the same)

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