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Webcam32 - Webcam page design

The purpose of these pages is to provide suggestions for Webcam32 page design.  These pages assume you are already familiar with the concepts of Web browsers, Web servers and the HTML language.

The

The single most important HTML tag used with Webcam32 is the <IMG> tag.  The IMG tag is used to include a graphical images on your web page.  The here.  In summary, the format of the tag is

<IMG SRC=URL ALT=text
WIDTH=width HEIGHT=height BORDER=border>

The ALT, WIDTH, HEIGHT and BORDER attributes are optional but the SRC attribute is required.
 

SRC The URL of the image on the Internet
ALT Text for missing image or tooltip
WIDTH The fixed width of the image
HEIGHT The fixed height of the image
BORDER The size of the border around the image if the image is also a hypertext link

 

SRC

The SRC attribute names the URL of the image.  The image may be local to the source HTML file or may be remote and point to an image on a remote machine.

A local SRC URL might be coded as:

<IMG SRC="webcam32.jpg">

meaning obtain the image from the file called webcam32.jpg on the same machine and in the same directory as the current HTML file.

A remote SRC URL might be coded as:

<IMG SRC="http://mymachine.mydomain.com/webcam32.jpg">

which states that the image for the current page should be obtained from the machine mymachine.mydomain.com and the file webcam32.jpg.

Both these forms can be used with Webcam32 when the image obtained from the camera is being copied to the Webserver via FTP by Webcam32.  If Webcam32 is being used in its direct HTTP mode, then the URL specified by SRC should contain both the machine name and the TCP/IP port number of the machine on which Webcam32 is running and listening.  For example, if Webcam32 is running on the machine mymachine.mydomain.com and is listening on TCP/IP port 99, then the following tag could be used:

<IMG SRC="http://mymachine.mydomain.com:99">

ALT

The ALT option allows text to be displayed in the image area before the image has been loaded into the browser from the Webserver.  Additionally, the ALT supplied text is displayed as a tooltip (popup) when the mouse is moved over the image.  It is always a good idea to include this option.

Example:

<IMG SRC="http://mymachine.mydomain.com/webcam32.jpg" ALT=" Surveyor Corporation">

Surveyor Corporation
 

WIDTH, HEIGHT

The WIDTH and HEIGHT parameters specify the fixed width and height of the picture from the camera.  If these options are omitted, the page can not be correctly drawn until at least enough of the image has been received from the webserver by the browser to allow the browser to know how to layout the page.  Specifying the width and height allows the browser to allocate sufficient space for the image such that it can layout the page without delaying the display until the image has arrived.  If the width or height specified is different from the actual width and height of the image, the image will be scaled to fit the sizes defined in the web page.  This allows both thumbnails and blowups of your Webcam32 captured images to be included in your page.

Example:

<IMG SRC="http://mymachine.mydomain.com/webcam32.jpg" WIDTH=228 HEIGHT=61>

BORDER

The BORDER attribute, if used with an image link, will result in a fixed, visible border to be displayed to show that the image is in fact a link.

Example:

<IMG SRC="http://mymachine.mydomain.com/webcam32.jpg" BORDER=5>

LOWSRC

This attribute is only valid for Netscape browsers but will not interfere, if coded, with Microsoft browsers.  Its purpose is to display a low-grade image quickly before the real image is loaded.  In reality, it can be used to load ANY image and, once loaded, the real destination image will then be loaded and replace the low-grade image.  This is useful if the Webcam32 generated image may not be available (eg. you are using Webcam32 as an HTTP server and the server is down).  If coded, at least SOME image will be displayed.

Example:

<IMG SRC="http://mymachine.mydomain.com/webcam32.jpg" LOWSRC="http://mymachine.mydomain.com/wait.jpg">


 

Image Updates

For more information on Image Refresh techniques, please visit the next page.