This Netscape plugin provides keyboard support for Webulator/400.
These instructions are for both the Windows 3.1 and Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME
versions of the keyboard plugin.
Table of Contents
Supported Browsers
Because keyboard support is implemented as a Netscape plugin, it is platform
specific and is not supported by all browsers. The supported browsers are:
- Windows 3.1
- Netscape Navigator 3.0
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0
- Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME
- Netscape Navigator 3.0
- Netscape Communicator 4.x
- Netscape 6.x
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x, 4.x, 5.x and 6.x
- Windows XP
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x
Ensure the Server Code is Up-to-date
You must either be running Webulator 2.0, Webulator 1.1a (or later), or
install a Webulator PTF. You can check your Webulator/400 1.1 version by
typing:
DSPDTAARA DTAARA(WWWSERVER/VERSIONWBL)
You can get the version 1.1 PTF at
ftp://ftp.inetmi.com/pub/webulate/wbl110001.txt.
Installing The Plugin for Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP
1 - Getting the Plugin Installation Program
The plug-in install program may be downloaded by clicking on the link below.
As with any download request, a browser save dialog is
presented. Refer to your browser for assistance in downloading and
saving files as you may be required to perform a "Save Link as"
operation if the browser save dialog is not received. Please remember
where you save the installation program.
2 - Close Your Browser
You must close your browser before the next step. The plugin will not be
recognized until you close your browser and restart it.
3 - Run the Installation Program
Execute the installation program which was downloaded in step 1.
Follow the directions provided by the installation program.
- Press Next > on the welcome screen when you have verified that you have closed all of your browser windows.
- Press Yes when you have read and accepted the license agreement.
- Select the directory that you which to have the plug-in and helper application installed, or leave the default, then press *Next*.
- Select if you want to have the standard or alternate keyboard. The alternate keyboard uses the Ctrl key as the Enter Key, then press Next.
The plug-ins have now installed. In addition to the installation
directory, the Netscape plug-in has also been copied to the plugins
directory for the latest Netscape and Internet Explorer installed on
your machine, if found.
If you have more than one version of Netscape on your machine you will
need to copy NPwsky32.dll to the plug-ins directory for each
browser. The plug-ins directory is found below the directory where your
browser program file (EXE) is.
Updating the Plug-in
Periodically the plug-in may be updated. The update can be found on this
page. You may want to bookmark this page.
Uninstalling the Plug-in
The plug-in and helper application can be removed from your system by
selecting "Webulator/400 keyboard plugin" in the Add/Remove Programs
dialog found in control panel and pressing Add/Remove.
Installing The Plugin for Windows 3.1
Download the Plugin
Please select the desired version of the plugin based on operating system
and browser.
Close Your Browser
You must close your browser before the next step. The plugin will not be
recognized until you close your browser and restart it.
Unzip the Plugin
Using pkunzip or WinZip, unzip the file you downloaded. Place the DLL
into your plugins directory. The plugins directory exists below the
directory where your browser program file (EXE) is. The exact
directory depends on which browser you use and how you installed
it. Some example directories are:
"c:\Program Files\Netscape\Navigator\Program\plugins"
"c:\Program Files\Netscape4.0\Communicator\Program\plugins"
"c:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\plugins"
"c:\netscape\plugins"
Make Sure the Browser Recognizes the Plugin
Restart your browser and choose Help|About plugins from the menu. If
you are using Netscape Navigator 3.0, you should see an entry that
saysI/NET Webulator/400 Keyboard plugin. If you are using another
browser, you should see an entry that says
application/x-webulator400-keys. If you do not see one of these
entries, your browser does not recognize the plugin and you may have
copied the DLL to the wrong directory.
Webulator/400 Version 1.1 Setup Notes
Note that the first three steps in this section do not apply if you
have installed Web Server/400 version 1.3a or Commerce Server/400
1.0b. You can check the version by typing:
DSPDTAARA DTAARA(WWWSERVER/VERSION)
If you have installed Web Server/400 1.3a or Commerce Server/400 1.0b
over a previous version, you will still need to migrate your
configuration using the steps in this section.
Create plugin.wky
Create a file named plugin.wky in your document root directory on
your AS/400. If you have not changed the defaults, this will be
/WWWServ/WebDocs. This file can contain any data you like; it must
exist, but the contents are not important. *PUBLIC or WWWUSER must
have all authority to the plugin.wky file for the plugin to work.
Add a Content Type
Using the WRKWWWCTP or ADDWWWCTP command, add a content type of
application/x-webulator400-keys and an extension of wky.
Set the Configuration
Either start the server or make the configuration changes take effect
using the SETWWWCFG command.
Change to Webulator/400 URLs
When you enter a URL to send your browser to a Webulator/400 session,
add the query string KEYBOARD=Y to activate the plugin. An example URL
might be host/www5250/?KEYBOARD=Y.
Webulator/400 Version 2.0 Setup Notes
Webulator/400 Version 2.0 has keyboard plugin support built into it.
However, there is still some setup that must be done in order to get it
working.
Location of the plugin.wky file
Version 2.0 allows you to specify the exact location of the plugin.wky
file by running the CHGWBLSVR command. The location can be either an
absolute URL (e.g., http://www.inetmi.com/plugin.wky) or a relative
URL (e.g., /plugin.wky). Please note that Webulator/400 Version 2.0
cannot serve the plugin.wky file to the browser. If you specify a
relative path for the plugin.wky location, the server will redirect
all plugin.wky file requests to either the "Fall-thru path for HTTP"
or "Fall-thru path for SSL" location.
Enable Webulator/400 sessions to use the keyboard plugin Version 2.0
allows you to configure each session to use the keyboard plugin
through the WRKWBLSSN command. When enabled, all users will
automatically try to load the plugin without having to change the
Webulator/400 URL.
Purpose Of The Plugin.wky File
Netscape developed plugins to give third party developers a way to
extend the capabilities of the browser. A plugin is invoked when a
HTML EMBED tag is encountered inside a HTML file being rendered by the
browser. Part of the EMBED tag is the name of the file that the plugin
will render on behalf of the browser. In the case of the Webulator/400
plugin, the name of the associated file is plugin.wky. The
Webulator/400 keyboard plugin is a little different than most other
plugins in that it does not read nor render the contents of the
associated file. It instead monitors the use of the keyboard looking
for predefined keys to be pressed.
It appears that the rules associated with the plugin file are browser
dependent. Netscape browsers wait for the plugin to request data
before trying to open the file. Since the Webulator/400 plugin never
requests data from the browser, the file is never opened. Microsoft
browsers act a little different. The browser itself tries to open and
read the plugin file before it will load a plugin. This means that the
plugin.wky file must exists with data in it and be accessible through
the browser before a Microsoft browser will load the Webulator/400
keyboard plugin.
Using the Plugin
For usability, it is recommended that you enable javascript for any
Webulator/400 urls for which you plan to use the keyboard plugin. This
will attempt to automatically set the keyboard focus to the correct
form control, reducing your need to use the mouse.
The following list is all the eligible AS/400 keys and their
respective mappings:
- Enter - Enter key (Ctrl if using the "Alternate keyboard" plugin)
- F1 through F12 - F1 through F12 keys
- F13 through F24 - Shift F1 through Shift F12 keys
- Page Up - Page Up Key
- Page Down - Page Down Key
- Attention - Esc key
- System Request - Shift Esc Key
In addition, the following browser keys will be remapped when using the
keyboard plugin.
- Scroll browser contents down - Ctrl Page Down instead of Page Down
- Scroll browser contents up - Ctrl Page Up instead of Page Up
- New line inside multi-line text field - Ctrl Enter instead of Enter
You will now see a combo box, a push button and the Webulator/400
keyboard icon when using the plugin. The combo-box contains the
virtual keys you have defined for the current URL. You can still limit
the keys available to a user or change descriptions through this mechanism.
TroubleShooting
There are several steps to configure and install this plugin and if
any are not correct, it will not work. Fortunately, once you have the
plugin correctly installed for a given browser, you will not have to
worry about it for each Webulator/400 session.
Issue
The browser does not show the plugin in Help|About in Netscape.
Solution
Make sure you COMPLETELY shut down the browser and restart it. If you
leave even one browser window open, it will not recognize the plugin.
Make sure you have the correct version of the DLL. If you are using a
16-bit browser, you must have the plugin for Windows 3.x. If you are
using a 32-bit browser, you must have the plugin for Windows
95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP.
Check to see if your browser is on the list of supported browsers.
Because this plugin is platform specific, it will not work
with all browsers.
Make sure you copied the DLL into the proper directory. See
Installing the Plugin for help with this. Note that we
have seen problems with
Netscape Navigator 2.0 recognizing any plugin when installed on a
network drive. We had to workaround this by installing the browser to
a local drive.
Issue
The browser says "Plugin Not Loaded" or "The data that the plugin requested,
did not download successfully."
Solution
The browser may not be able to find the plugin.wky file. Make sure it
is in the document root and that it is available to the browser. You
can check the access log to see if the server was able to successfully
send it. In the case of Webulator/400 version 2.0 use, you should also
make sure that the server of choice is prepared to serve the
plugin.wky file and that the Fall-thru path for HTTP and
Fall-thru path for SSL configuration values are set to properly
redirect the
request for the file to the proper server URL.
The content type may not have been set correctly. Use WRKWWWCTP to
check the entry. See Configuring Web Server/400 for more help with
this.
Issue
Everything looks fine, but pressing a key just elicits a beep or does not
do anything.
Solution
You probably have are running an older version of the plugin. Download
the latest version of the plugin and install it on your PC. If you are
using Netscape 6.x, you must also have Webulator/400 PTF WBL200033
installed. If you are using Internet Explorer version 5.5 or above,
you must have the latest ActiveX enabled plugin and Webulator/400 PTF
WBL200026.
Issue
Everything looks fine, but pressing the F1 key in Internet Explorer
version 4.x displays the browser help screens.
Solution
The keyboard plugin relies on the browser to give up control of the
keyboard keys that are defined by the plugin. Internet Explorer 4
forwards the key request to the plugin but, unfortunately, executes
its own functionality for the F1 key (display the IE4 program help)
before passing it along. Since this is completely browser dependant,
we can only hope that Microsoft will develop a fix in one of their
future builds of the browser.
Issue
You receive plugin errors when running Webulator/400 in multiple
browser windows.
Solution
The plugin requires that it gains access to the keyboard. Multiple
instances of the plugin cannot gain access to the keyboard when
running under Microsoft IE 5.0. The current version of the plugin fixes
this problem
Issue
The plugin displays slowly under Internet Explorer 5.
Solution
The current plugin for Internet Explorer 5 is an ActiveX control. If
the most recent plugin is not installed, the browser will use the
Netscape plugin, however this causes a delay. Download the latest
version of the plugin and install it on your PC.
User Feedback
Send any feedback related to Webulator/400 keyboard support I/NET support.
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