Screen-flickering when Mousing-Over Java applet

Poster: tavalanche
Dated: Wednesday February 21 2007 - 16:48:36 GMT

Hey guys,

I'm STRONGLY considering purchasing your DHTML solution to implement drop-down menus on the new Intranet design I'm developing for my company. I have it up in the rough-draft design right now & it's working great except for 1, little problem. Everytime I mouse-over a menu & it drops down over a java, stock-ticker marquee I have in the design as well - the screen flickers. It only does this for the drop-down menus that dropdown over the stock-ticker marquee (applet); all of the other ones that don't drop down over the applet function fine. The stock-ticker marquee I'm using is the "News & Quotes Java Ticker" found here (http://www.stockapplets.com/news-quotes-java-ticker.php).

My current design is currently online on a development server that's behind our company's firewall, so I know you won't be able to access it & take a look for yourself. Hopefully you've experienced problems like this before from past users, and have a quick-fix file you can just send me. If not, I can breifly post the design outside of our firewall so you can view the source-code for yourself, and send you its link. Any & all help would be VERY-MUCH appreciated..! Thanx-so-much...


- Tavalanche

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Wednesday February 21 2007 - 21:16:30 GMT

Hi,

Unfortunately without being able to see what's going on we really wouldn't know what is causing the problem. If you could provide a test page, maybe with just the menu and the applet in the correct positions we could take a look. You can try this but it's about Mac I think, and don't know if it's really related to what you see.

http://www.milonic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7616

Ruth

I see your point; here's a link to what I have..

Poster: tavalanche
Dated: Thursday February 22 2007 - 17:04:13 GMT

Thanks SO MUCH for the swift & timely reply; that means a great deal to me.. I see what you mean regarding not having a visual to look at, and have therefore posted our design exclusively for you to look at outside of my company's firewall. It can be found at this link:

http://www.pike.com/tav/tavs_design-1.html


Please take heed to what happens when you mouse-over either the "Forms & Info," "Departments," or "Supervisors" tabs (the flickering). I also took a look at the link you provided regarding the Mac probelm, but (as you said) don't think it's related to my problem. I'm developing (for the time being) solely for Microsoft-based web environments, and the problem I'm experiencing is happening in IE. Thanx-a-Million..!


- Tavalanche

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Thursday February 22 2007 - 19:32:51 GMT

Hi,

I am passing this off to Milonic. I see the flicker in IE6 which is WinXp, but not IE5.5 which is Win98se [but my 5.5 doesn't show the overfilter code [shadow, alpha and such] I don't have any idea if that has anything to do with it, but you might try to remove the overfilter code just to see if that stops it. Either way, I don't know that this something I could figure. So, Milonic will have to take a look. They are usually pretty quick with a response/fix.

One thing I notice when I view source is the styles and submenus are in a table cell set off by script tags, and then you have the main menu below that on the page in a different table. I'm not sure why you are putting the submenus into a table???

There are two ways to put the menu into a table:

1. put the main menu in the table cell where you want it to appear with a drawMenus(); inside script tags - [as you seem to have it now] - Then, put the styles and submenus into a separate file making sure there's a drawMenus(); at the end and save it as ??? subs.js or something. Finally, call the menu files, [excluding the main which is in the cell] call the other files the first thing after the body tag. You have the milonic_src.js and mmenudom.js file calls up there.

2. You can put buildAfterLoad=true; right after the _subOffsetLeft=-2; at the top of the style area, and then just include the main menu back in the file with the subs, and then put the calls for all the menu files into the table cell where you want the main menu to appear.

I don't know if that will make a difference on the flickering issue or not.

Ruth

Poster: tavalanche
Dated: Friday February 23 2007 - 1:17:30 GMT

Gotcha. I'll try those 3 possible fixes & let you know my results. Thanx for passing that on to Milonic for me too btw; I'm curious to hear their thoughts regarding the matter.

I was initially having a little trouble setting up a page with 2 menus on them & was somewhat under.the.gun time-wise (deadline, etc.), so I just went with the first implementation I got running. Now that I've had a little time to go back & read like I wanted to, I follow you clearly on the methods you listed in your reply. I take it I would simply create several subs.js files for each heirachy level I'll need (due to my links, because I'm using document-relative links instead of absolute), right?

Thanx,


- Tavalanche

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Friday February 23 2007 - 5:15:48 GMT

Hi,

I'm not really sure what you are asking. You really only need one subs.js file, that file would have all the submenus that the main menu would call and also the styles. So, you'd just have two files, one with everything but the main, and one with the main. You can of course just put the main menu on the page, or in a .js file and call it in the table cell. So, let's say you named it embed_main.js Then right after the body tag you'd call



And in the table cell you'd call



Now, do you want two menus on the page? That is very easy to do.

Let's say you want to put a horizontal menu where you have it and a vertical menu at the left in a table cell there. Just create another 'main' menu, but make sure you don't name it the same as the first, say name it mainV or something. Place it there just like you placed the first main menu. You can either use the same subs.js file putting whatever sub menus it needs in it and whatever styles or and this is sometimes easier you can create a styles_data.js file which has only the styles, then a subs data file with only the subs, or you could create two sub data files if you have totally different subs for each main menu, and two files for the main menus since they will be in different areas.

If you want that and can tell me how you want it set up, I'll be glad to do a 'demo' for you.

Ruth

Poster: RegGFX
Dated: Friday February 23 2007 - 16:43:36 GMT

We have been having the same problem with Menu flickers over Java Applets For a couple of years now. In the past support has never been able to provide a remedy or a fix. Unfortunatally i could never provide an Intranet URL because we have a secured site.

My management got frustraited and told me to find another menu.

If i could just get the Flicker to stop they would let me use the menu again.

So please share with me anything you find.

Note: We placed our menu in a table cell as well and it did not fix the flicker problem.

Again please reply with how you fixed the flicker problem.

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Friday February 23 2007 - 20:34:10 GMT

Hi Tavalanche,

I've been trying to work on your page - Milonic has the info but I decided to see if I could find out something, but I've run into a problem.

I was able to substitute a couple of .swf files I have for the ones on your site which I couldn't get to work on my desktop, but I can't find any kind of free scrolling stock ticker applet to substitute for the one you have and I can't get that one to function on my desktop. Without having a ticker running, preferably the one you have, though I think any would probably work, I can't try things to see if I can figure a fix.

Do you by chance know where there is a free ticker I could use in place of yours?

Ruth

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Friday February 23 2007 - 22:12:05 GMT

Hi Again T,

I got one so I'll experiment. I found that it can't find the ticker.class so that's why it won't work.

Ruth

Poster: RegGFX
Dated: Friday February 23 2007 - 23:41:16 GMT

Hi Ruth...

Could i send you an example of our Java Applet we are having trouble with the flicker on?

If we could find a remedy then perhaps my team won't put the Milonic Menu on the shelf.

Please let me know the best way to send you an email with an attachment for you to test and see the flicker as well.

Or maybe we can just use your findings and implement those changes...

Thanks

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Saturday February 24 2007 - 3:20:12 GMT

tavalanche,

Well, though I don't have a fix, I did find that it is the applet and not flash. You can put flash there and there's no flicker. But, any applet I tried the flicker happens. I'll post that to Milonic.

Here's info about the menu and flash activation

http://www.milonic.com/activateflash.php

And, here's an example of the menu over flash

http://www.milonic.com/over.php

RegGFX,

Sure, you can send me the flash and I'll see what I can do.



Ruth

Poster: tavalanche
Dated: Tuesday February 27 2007 - 3:52:33 GMT

Thanx for all of your help Ruth.. I'll come up with something. Have a Good One!

Poster: RegGFX
Dated: Tuesday February 27 2007 - 16:40:51 GMT

Hi Ruth...
Just an FYI that i sent my menu_data.js and a trial version of the Embedded Java Applet that the Milonic Menu is having trouble overlaying to the email you provided.

Please let me know if you got it.

I appreciate any suggestions or ideas to work around this.

If we can find an alternative or suggestion, or maybe tweak my menu_data.js file so that it may not flicker as much if at all,
my managers will elect to stay with the usage of the milonic menu.

Please let me know.

Thanks

P.S.
I feel confident milonic can help me come up with a solution that is acceptable to my management.

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Tuesday February 27 2007 - 17:17:24 GMT

Hi,

Sorry, I should have posted I got it. I'm just starting now, I didn't check mail to real late last night Being sleepy is not condusive to solving problems I'll let you know one way or the other if I Figure out anything.

Ruth

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Wednesday February 28 2007 - 19:51:26 GMT

RegGFX

I got the email, and I sent a response but I keep getting it back as undeliverable.

Can you contact me again with an email to which I can respond?

Ruth

Poster: Andy
Dated: Thursday March 1 2007 - 10:02:27 GMT

Hi,

Just been reading through the lines here.

Anyway, looks like you need to activate your Java Applet in order to remove the flicker.

There is more information on this here: http://www.milonic.com/activateflash.php although it states Flash, it also works for Java too.

HTH,
Andy

Poster: RegGFX
Dated: Thursday March 1 2007 - 18:21:40 GMT

Actually we are doing this as well with the Java Applet as well. And the flicker is still happening.

We are calling it via filename.js

If you would like Andy i could email you the same files that were sent to Ruth.

Do you have an email i could safely send an attachment of my menu_data.js file plus a trial version of our embedded applet?

Thanks

Poster: Andy
Dated: Monday March 5 2007 - 16:15:17 GMT

The Java Ticker is now active by default. This is causing the flicker.

Whwn I click on the Java Applet (to activate it) The page does not flicker when I open menus.

Looks like the activation code isn't working properly and may need tweaking.

Poster: RegGFX
Dated: Monday March 5 2007 - 18:27:33 GMT

Hello...
Just an FYI on the Milonic Menu Flickering over our Java applet....

We are calling it via filename.js
Same as you would for an embedded Flash Object.
(thus activating it)

And the milonic menu still flickers for us.

Would you like the same email sample file i submitted to Ruth as well?

Thanks for any help.

Poster: Andy
Dated: Tuesday March 13 2007 - 10:53:15 GMT

Your Applet is not activated for me, thus causing the flicker

Poster: RegGFX
Dated: Tuesday March 13 2007 - 16:03:52 GMT

Hello...
I'm sorry if there is some mis-understanding but we are Activating our applet ourselves.

If you, after you install the sample zip file i sent to Ruth, you need to embbed the applet just as you would a Flash Object. Which is what we are doing. The trial version does not auto set up the activation.

You will still need to take the object and code it into an embedded js script.

Then you will see that it is truely activated and the Milonic menu still Flickers over the object.

I can send you a documented video file showing our delima.

Were you able to install the trial zip file? and use our menu_data.js sample to see the flicker?