| Java menu knowledge base
XIXL - reading menu content
Menu content may be read from an external source or from parameters. Which is better?
- A parameter index may appear to load faster because the applet
doesn't wait while it loads the external file; however a parameter
index will also make your HTML file larger and slow down the loading
of the page.
- A parameter index will give the index loading priority over
images contained in the HTML page outside the applet. If your page
has byte-heavy graphics, a parameter index may be preferable.
- Netscape 4 may be sensitive to some firewalls (if particular
firewall settings are used) and an external index file may fail
to load, causing the applet to redirect to the escape page you have defined. This problem appears to be rare. A parameter index may be preferable (a) if you have no control over the network and (b) your target audience are business users rather than home users.
- Netscape 6 has trouble reading applet parameters, especially
if there are a lot of them. If you have large index files and
Netscape 6 compatibility is mission critical, external indices
may be preferable.
- External indices can be ZIP-compressed (around 85% size-saving),
which is a massive advantage for external sources, especially if you
have large amounts of menu content.
- Dynamic generation of menus (e.g. from databases) is possible
with both parameters and external sources; however using external
sources is more elegant, allowing you to separate HTML-generation
scripts from menu-generation scripts.
- External file format is easier to maintain and edit in the
long term, because parameters require renumbering after new elements
have been inserted. For maintenance and editing purposes, you are
advised to use external file format, even if you convert this to
parameters every time you release a new version of your website
or web application.
- If you are using non-Roman character sets (e.g. Asian or East Mediterranean character sets) and IMINT.COM applets
which do not support the menusourcetype parameter with
multiple external read algorithms and the menuencoding parameter, you will require parameter indices.
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