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Tigra Status Bar Scroller v1.0 - Documentation

Table of Contents

Description

Tigra Status Bar Scroller is free JavaScript widget for web sites that scrolls text in browser's status bar or title. It is a simple and free way to attract visitors attention. This script is great for hot news ticker, short adverts etc.

Features

Compatibility Table

Tigra Status Bar Scroller can work with any browser capable of generic DHTML.
Script was successfully tested with these browsers:

Platform Browser
MS IE Netscape Mozilla Opera Konqueror AOL
Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP 5.0+ 4.08+
(status bar only)
6+
(for both)
0.9+ 5.0+ n/a 4+
Mac OS 8/9/X 5.0+ n/a 4+
KDE on Linux/FreeBSD n/a 3.0.1 n/a

Files

Tigra Status Bar Scroller script consists of several files. This makes script maintenance easier and reduces network load.
Default distribution package contains:

Where * is a wildcard for any substring.

Document Setup

To make the script to work on your page two code blocks has to be inserted into document source:

Files linkage

Script files should be attached to HTML document with appropriate tags in header:

<head>
	<!-- some header data -->
	<script language="JavaScript" src="tsbs.js"></script>
	<script language="JavaScript" src="template.js"></script>
</head>

There is no naming or location requirements for script files. They can reside anywhere on the server in the folder accessible from the web. If same files are used by several pages of the site then make sure links are correct for all of them.

Examples of correct script file links
Document Location Correct Links
Tigra Status Bar Scroller Script http://www.domain.com/tigra_js/tsbs.js -
Page #1 http://www.domain.com/tigra_js/doc1.html http://www.domain.com/tigra_js/tsbs.js (Absolute w. domain)
/tigra_js/tsbs.js (Absolute w/o domain)
tsbs.js (Relative)
Page #2 http://www.domain.com/dir1/doc2.html http://www.domain.com/tigra_js/tsbs.js (Absolute w. domain)
/tigra_js/tsbs.js (Absolute w/o domain)
../tigra_js/tsbs.js (Relative)
Page #3 http://www.domain.com/dir1/dir2/doc3.html http://www.domain.com/tigra_js/tsbs.js (Absolute w. domain)
/tigra_js/tsbs.js (Absolute w/o domain)
../../tigra_js/tsbs.js (Relative)

Notes:

Initialization

Script initialization block (the constructor) is a JavaScript function that creates one Tigra Status Bar Scroller object instance in the HTML document:

<!-- some body data -->
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
 new TSBScroller(SCROLL_DATA);
</SCRIPT>

It doesn't matter where the constructor is be placed in the document, just make sure it is between <body> and </body> tags.

TSBScroller function receives the only parameter (SCROLL_DATA in the sample above) containing a set of scrolling parameters.

One Tigra Status Bar Scroller object instance can manage only one scrolling location: either title or status bar. So if both locations are to have their own scrollers the page has to contain two Tigra Status Bar Scroller object instances - one for status and another for title bar - thus two constructor lines:

<!-- some body data -->
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
  // title bar scroller constructor
  new TSBScroller(SCROLL1_DATA);
  // status bar scroller constructor
  new TSBScroller(SCROLL2_DATA);
</SCRIPT>

Not more than one scroller instance should be created for each scrolling area (status bar and title bar). Order in which scrollers are initialized is not significant.

Configuring the Scroller

Tigra Status Bar Scroller is configured by scrolling parameters joined into a JavaScript structure and passed to Tigra Status Bar Scroller constructor. Such a structure is named Scroller Settings Structure. Scroller Setting Structure consists of records enclosed in curly brackets ({}) and separated with commas (,). Each record controls certain scrolling behavior aspect and contains a key (string name), a colon (:) and a value. Below is a table of keys currently supported by the structure and their meanings.

KeyDescriptionValues
accepteddefault
message Message string to scroll. Can contain optional message tags. Any string required
speed Scrolling speed in milliseconds per character.
If negative, reverses scrolling direction
An integer 200
blink Blinking parameters: time to show blinking fragment for and time to hide them for.
If an array has the following format: [time to show for, time to hide for]
If a scalar than supposed to be a value for both the times.
An array of two non-negative integers or
non-negative integer
500
intitle A trigger indicating whether the message has to be scrolled in window title bar. If adequate to JavaScript false than status bar is scrolling location true or false false

Here is a sample Scroller Setting Structure code:

var SCROLL_DATA = {
  // Use <blink> and </blink> tags to enclose blinking fragment, 
  // <pause time=ms> to pause scrolling for a time of ms milliseconds
  'message' : " <pause time=1>Scrolling <blink>Status Bar</blink> JavaScript 
	<pause time=3>Scrolling Title <blink>JavaScript</blink>",
  // scrolling speed, milliseconds per char
  'speed' : 200,
  // blinking parameters: [time to show for, time to hide for] or
  // if scalar both time to show for and time to hide for
  'blink' : [500, 500],
  // whether the scrolling goes in window title bar
  'intitle' : true
}

Scroller Setting Structure can have any name, reside in any *.js file(s) or be directly defined in <script> tag of the HTML document. Make sure all files are linked properly and component initialization is in the scope of all structures passed.

Optional Message Tags

Tigra Status Bar Scroller supports simple control tags in message string it scrolls. They are described in the following table:

TagDescriptionSample code
openingclosing
<pause> none Pauses scrolling process in a place where is located.
Requires time attribute to specify pause duration in milliseconds
<pause time=2>
<blink> </blink> Surrounds a fragment of message to blink. Blinking here means replacing each selected character with an underlining (_) for the time specified with Scroller Settings Structure <blink>text 2 blink</blink>

Terms and Conditions

Tigra Status Bar Scroller is FREE for any kind of applications. There is no license fee or royalty fee to be paid at any time for using the Tigra Menu
You may include the source code or modified source code within your own projects for either personal or commercial use but excluding the restrictions outlined below. The following restrictions apply to all parts of the component, including all source code, samples and documentation:

Links and References