News Ticker - automatic opening and position on page 2

[waidc]

I am wanting to set up a news ticker through our company intranet which will open when a user turns on their computer in the morning, and is positioned just above the windows taskbar on their screen, where it can be visible all day.

So far I've found a great java news ticker, and script to refresh every few minutes, but am stumped as to how to open it in a window at 100% of the users screen width, and position it so it will be just above the taskbar (while everyone in the company has IE4.0+ as their browser, there isn't a standard screen resolution - everything from 640x480 to 1600x1200).

And if this isnt enough - I'm also wanting it to open in a window without location bar, address bar, menu items, or even a title bar if it's possible (so it can't easily be closed and takes up as little room heightwise as possible).

Any assistance you can give me would be greatly appreciated as I am no expert on things like this.

Thanks in advance.

waidc.

 

[GIGN]

So you want to open a window like this:

var NewsWin = window.open('NewsPage.htm','name',params)

params is a string which tells the browser things about the new window:

"fullscreen=yes,menubar=no" etc..
b² - benbiddington@surf4nix.com

 

[waidc]

Thanks for replying.

Yes, I imagine it will be in a window with those paramaters set, although I can't seem to get the window to open at a smaller height setting than 100px and, to be honest, don't really know all the parameters to set.

Finding how to position the ticker on the screen has also eluded me - I seem to recall seeing something where you could set its position by a certain number of px from the top and left, but not by percentage which, since there are different screen sizes in use, wouldn't really work unless I took the other option of having the ticker at the very top of the windows screen instead.

Thanks again - hoping you know a simple solution.

 

[GIGN]

Oh O.K. - you can set top and left - check out:

faq216-329

For more information. You can't have a smaller window than 100px - I thought you wanted it maximised? Hey what you could do is write an hta - which is an application which could be totally customizable - and works like any other application - access to client machine - as well as any web based data.

This way you could have the tiny window that you want, and get completely rid of the title bar - check out hta's at

http://www.msdn.microsoft.com

- or if you like I could write you a demo, let me know. ;-)
b² - benbiddington@surf4nix.com

 

[yahve]

Hey bangers, this sounds very interesting. I have a question for you: could a hta access a databse? Would it be anything like working with asp (vbscript)?

Thanks.
Un fromage havarti en vaut deux.

 

[waidc]

I would be very grateful if you could put a demo together if you don't mind too much.

In the meantime, I'll check out .HTA's at Microsoft's site.

thanks again.

 

[GIGN]

An hta can do anything any ordinary website can do - only it has access to the client machine also. If not run from an intranet though - it is treated like any executable, you are prompted with " run from location -or save to disk" so if people don't know you they won't download it.

In the intranet case though this is not an issue. It just means you have more control over appearance really I guess.
b² - benbiddington@surf4nix.com

 

[GIGN]

Try this out an see if it is what you're kind of after. If the download won't work mail me, and I'l send it to you.
Once you have the files saved somewher, just double-click
"Application.hta" to run - (IE5+ required , though does not need to be running)
:-Q

http://benbiddington.tripod.com/Applications/Application.ZIP

b² - benbiddington@surf4nix.com

 

[GIGN]

Dammit - the file is called news.hta, not Application. Also I just re-ead your original post, which reads "IE4" so this just will not work - unless they wanna upgrade? How many terminals are we talking?

Anyway you will see these things are fully customizable, though there seems to be no way to pop them up the right size, always need to resizeTo with them. ;-)
b² - benbiddington@surf4nix.com

 

[waidc]

That's excellent - thanks for that.

As for the IE4 users - there aren't too many of them and they (well, their machines) are part of a planned replacement programme so everyone should have IE5 in the next two to three months, so will find another solution for them in the meantime if it's required.

Thanks again for your help - if I ever become an expert programmer, I'll be sure to return the favour...