Using Whiteboard

Whiteboard is a new plugin that allows you to post notes to the Web folderfrom a forms-enabled WWW browser. Usage is fairly simpleand configuring your server to use it even simpler.

THE BASICS:

How does I use it?

Whiteboard accepts the following data:
http://your.server.ip/post/make.ns?user=|A User Name|&title=|Note Title|&text=|Note Text|sent as a GET command from a form.

You can either access Whiteboard's pre-designed form by goingto the root level of Whiteboard (http://your.server.ip/post/)or you can create your own form in a HTML page in the Notepad. Note theuse of the SSI <OUR_IP> to return thecurrent address of the server. Also note the presence of the requiredvariables and the correct file name (make.ns)and that the method is GET.

[HTML HEADER]
[BODY and FONT TAGS]
<P><FORM ACTION="http://<OUR_IP>/post/make.ns"METHOD=GET>
<INPUT TYPE=text NAME=user VALUE="" SIZE=20>
<INPUT TYPE=text NAME=title VALUE="" SIZE=30>
<TEXTAREA NAME=text ROWS=12 COLS=24 WRAP=virtual></TEXTAREA>
<INPUT TYPE=submit NAME=Submit VALUE="Post Note">
<INPUT TYPE=reset VALUE="Clear Form">
</FORM></P>
<P><A HREF=http://<OUR_IP>/html/index.html>Home</A>
[REST OF BODY]

How do I post with it?

When you are presented a form, simply fill it out appropriately and pressthe Submit buton. You will then recieve a confirmation message. The nexttime you Re-load your default page (or wherever you have a list of notesmade available), the new note will show up as being available.

Some Notes:

  1. Note Titles: The first two spaces in a note title posted by a WWW client are replaced with underscore characters to help prevent overlap between the names people give their postings and also to quickly identify notes posted from the WWW.
  2. Maximum Length: I have not encountered one but I haven't tried very hard. Supposedly, some older browsers won't post a GET URL longer than 255 characters but I have yet to see this. I know Whiteboard can handle them but I don't know what it's maximum length is. If you find one, please let me know and I'll include it in the documentation or fix it if possible.
  3. Reloading: On occasion, accessing the Home link at the bottom of the confirmation message will not cause the browser to reload the home page and your new note willnot appear to be there. After going to the default, reload again before panicking that your post didn't go through.

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