WHAT'S NEW IN THE WEBEXPLORER What's New in the WebExplorer Version V1.02 ------------------------------------------- Here are the contents of this file: - Software requirements - Product contents - Product changes and fixes - Other product features - Software support - Information about frequently asked questions Then there is the legal stuff: - Product information - Publication edition notice - Distribution notice - Right to use - Acknowledgement IBM WebExplorer is a world-wide web browser for OS/2 Warp. This program supplies a graphically rich, interactive interface to the fascinating world of the Internet. Using WebExplorer you can jump from one Internet location to another by simply selecting highlighted text or images in the main window. The behavior is very similar to that of "Mosaic", a popular program written by the folks at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications in Illinois (NCSA). Software Requirements --------------------- This version will only run on OS/2 Warp 3.0, not previous releases of OS/2. Please reboot after installation. Operating system: This product should only be installed on OS/2 Warp. Do not attempt to install on OS/2 V2.x. The install checks for OS/2 Warp as a requirement. Do not try to circumvent this check since the WebExplorer V1.02 will not run on OS/2 2.x and will cause severe problems during installation with the OS/2 2.x version of the workplace shell. Refer to the Distribution Notice in this document for instructions on obtaining a version of WebExplorer that will run on OS/2 V2.x. TCP/IP: This program requires one of the following - TCP/IP V3.0 which is a part of Warp Connect - Internet Connection for OS/2 which is included in all versions of Warp including Warp Connect - TCP/IP V2.0 If you are using the Internet Connection, you MUST install either the "TCP/IP Base Update" package available via the "Retrieve Software Updates" icon or the fix for APAR PN71501 which is available via anonymous ftp from ftp.ibm.net as pub/pn71501/pn71501.zip. This product requires either the Internet Connection for OS/2 in the Bonus pack of OS/2 Warp or TCP/IP V2.0. If you are using TCP/IP 2.0, you MUST upgrade to the latest Corrective Service Diskette (CSD) for TCP/IP 2.0. The latest CSD is level UN64092 dated 8/30/94. If you are not certain of the CSD level for TCP/IP installed, type "syslevel" at the OS/2 command prompt. CSD UN64092 is available via anonymous ftp from software.watson.ibm.com as files tcp20c1.exe, tcp20c2.exe, tcp20c3.exe and tcp20c4.exe in the pub/tcpip/os2 directory. After installing the CSD you MUST install the fix for APAR PN71501 which is available via anonymous ftp from ftp.ibm.net as pub/pn71501/pn71501.zip. Product Contents ---------------- /bin/explore.exe /bin/explore.ico /bin/viewstrt.exe /dll/WEBEXURL.DLL /help/EXPLORE.HLP /help/WEBEXURL.HLP /help/wereadme.htm /help/README.1ST Product Changes and Fixes ------------------------- Changes from WebExplorer V1.02 to V950814 HTML 3.0 Support WebExplorer now supports selected HTML 3.0 extensions. It will format tables, use specified background and text colors, including colors for default text, default links, and visited links. It will also align images and flow text around them. Enhanced Newsgroup Functions With the URL newsrc:, you can access the Newsgroup Manager. This new feature allows you to list the newsgroups provided by your news server and subscribe to your favorite groups. The Newsgroup Manager monitors your subscriptions and reports the number of unread articles since your last session or update. You can add or delete subscriptions at any time. You are able to access a newsgroup by either selecting it from your list of subscriptions or by going directly to it using the news: protocol followed by the URL. You can load and browse the news articles a portion at a time or all at once. The new Next Thread and Previous Thread navigation functions allow you to read through the various postings and follow a conversation thread more easily. Any recognized protocols within the text are displayed as links so you can go directly to them. You can now send a response to a specific article in a newsgroup, as well as post your own articles. Changes from WebExplorer V1.01 to V1.02: Drag and Drop Support You can use the drag and drop function to capture images and HTML from an open document and place them on your desktop where you can save, maintain, and reuse them. - To capture an image: place the cursor over an image, press and hold the right mouse button, drag the image to the desired location, and release. - To capture HTML: place the cursor anywhere in the document except over an image, press and hold the Ctrl key and the right mouse button simultaneously, drag the image to the desired location, and release. You can also maintain frequently used documents on your desktop by using the URL drag and drop feature. This allows you to drop the URL for a document on a file folder or any other place on your OS/2 Warp desktop to create a URL Workplace Shell Object. - To drag a URL from WebExplorer: move the cursor onto the WebExplorer window over any location except an image, press and hold the right mouse button, move the cursor (and object) to the desired location and release. Once you have created a URL Workplace Shell object you can: - Drop the URL object onto an unopened WebExplorer icon and WebExplorer will open with the document at that URL. - Drag and drop a URL onto an open WebExplorer window and it will open the document at that URL. - Double-click on the WebExplorer URL Workplace Shell object to change the Settings Notebook for the icon. NOTE: Many applications, such as editors, do not allow copy-based drag operations and you will not be able to directly drop HTML, images, or URLs onto them. Instead, drag and drop them to the desktop first and then drag them to the application. Options for Loading Text and Images Text and graphics can now display as soon as they are received from the network. Using the Configure Loading option from the Configure pull-down menu, you can: - Specify whether you want to preview the document before images are loaded (fast load) or wait until the entire document is loaded to see it. - Specify if you want to display images while loading (streaming graphics) or wait until the images are complete before they display. The fast load method displays the text and puts place holders for the images which take longer to load. If the graphics were created with height and width tags, WebExplorer will automatically display the correct amount of space for them. Otherwise, it will reformat the display to fit the graphics as they come in. Streaming graphics is independent of the fast load method. It controls how images are drawn once they begin to display. If you select streaming graphics, you can also whether you want GIF interlaced images to be drawn as precise or smeared. NOTE: The TIFF graphical format is no longer supported. Color Palette Management The -p option allows you to enable color palette management. When you start WebExplorer with this option, it uses its own 'best' set of colors rather than the system default palette or the last palette loaded by another application. Mailto Support There are two ways you can send mail to other users on the internet: - By clicking on a mail address (userid@domain) when it appears as a highlighted link in a document. - By specifying the mailto protocol and a mail address (mailto:user@domain) as a document URL. Select Open document (URL) from the File pull-down menu or use the current URL area under the Tool Bar. Either of these will display a mailto window in which you can type your correspondence. NOTE: You must have your Email address specified. To do this, select Servers from the Configure pull-down menu to get the Configure Servers window. Hierarchical Display of News Reader Articles News reader articles are displayed as a hierarchical tree of conversations. For example, one person posts an article, then someone replies, then someone replies to them, and so on. This function is available to WebExplorer only when the news server supports it. News Posting Support You can post a response to a news group by clicking on an entry in a news group list and selecting "Post to newsgroup(s)". This will display a newspost window in which you can type your correspondence. NOTE: You must have your Email address and News Server specified. Select Servers from the Configure pull-down menu to get the Configure Servers window. Disable/Enable Proxy and Socks Servers Configuration If you need to disable your proxy or socks server configuration to communicate to a specific server, you can use check boxes so that you do not have to re-type the name of the proxy or socks server to reenable it. If you are currently using Proxy or Socks, you will need to check the enable check box in the Configure/Servers menu item. Other Product Features ---------------------- - HTML/2 and HTTP/1 Compliance The WebExplorer supports all markup in the HTML/2.0 standard, including forms, ISO-Latin-1 fonts, inline graphics, glossaries, and more. Since some documents on the Internet are not compliant with the proposed standard, the WebExplorer attempts to clean up the document by introducing markup where appropriate. While we claim to handle all correct markup, we may not handle incorrect markup in the same way that Mosaic does. We also support HTTP/1.0 which includes GET and POST access methods, image maps, and MIME headers. IBM is committed to supporting these public standards as they evolve. - Color WYSIWYG Printing Advanced image processing techniques are used to accurately display images and text on both color and monochrome printers. The entire document is also reformatted on the fly to exactly fit the margins of the printer, producing high-quality output for archival or hardcopy distribution of Web documents. - Total Configurability The size, position, colors, fonts, quick list selections, network servers, and home page are all remembered between uses of the WebExplorer in the EXPLORE.INI file. By using the -i flag when starting the WebExplorer, users can specify a particular .INI file to use. This allows a network administrator to make one copy of the executable file accessible by users, while each user can maintain individual .INI files on their local disk. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) -------------------------------- Question: Every time I start WebExplorer I get following message: "The nameserver gave us garbage. 'File: EXPLORE.EXE' has been abandoned. WebExplorer still works after this message. Answer: This happens when you install the WebExplorer package from ftp.ibm.net on top of a version installed via Retrieve Software Updates. The Retrieve Software Updates version can assume that it is installing on top of the WARP IAK and thus fills in the settings for the WebExplorer program objects as follows: Path and file name: linkup.exe Parameters: explore.exe Linkup is the program that checks for a current SLIP or PPP connection before starting the program given as a parameter. Since TCP/IP 2.0 customers don't have linkup.exe and the WebExplorer package is meant to install on top of TCP/IP 2.0, its install fills out the program icon as follows: Path and file name: explore.exe It does not clear out the parameters entry since the user may have added some. But this causes the problem you see since if you install in the order mentioned above you get: Path and file name: explore.exe Parameters: explore.exe In this case you get the error you're seeing. Thus to avoid this problem just update the settings to use linkup.exe or remove explore.exe as a parameter. The WWW Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document resides on the World Wide Web and is updated frequently. (http://sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/faq/www_faq.html) Product Information ------------------- IBM* WebExplorer for OS/2 Warp Licensed Materials - Property of IBM (C) Copyright IBM Corp. 1994, 1995. All Rights Reserved. *IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. This product includes computer software created and made available by CERN. This acknowledgement shall be mentioned in full in any product which includes the CERN computer software included herein or parts thereof. Publication Edition Notice -------------------------- (C) Copyright IBM Corp. 1994, 1995. All rights reserved. US Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp. Distribution Notice ------------------- WebExplorer is NOT to be redistributed. WebExplorer is copyright material and shall only be distributed from IBM designated sites. You should frequently check the distribution sites listed below for updated versions of this software. Listed below are the IBM designated distribution sites: 1) By anonymous FTP from ftp.ibm.net. Login as user "anonymous". Change directory to pub/WebExplorer. See the README.1ST file which will describe the latest version(s). Download the appropriate file. Unzip this file in a temporary directory and run WEBINST.EXE to install. You must reboot after installing. This ftp site contains versions of WebExplorer that run on OS/2 2.x. Version 1.01 (web101.zip) is the last production version and V950331 is the last beta version that will run on OS/2 2.x. Beta versions have version labels according to the date the code was built. Thus, version 950525 was built on May 25, 1995. New BETA versions are announced by a post to the comp.os.os2.networking.tcp-ip newsgroup. 2) By the "Retrieve Software Updates" icon in the Internet Connection for OS/2 in the OS/2 WARP Bonus Pack. Click on this icon and then select the WebExplorer package to download and automatically install. At times a beta version may be available as well as the production version. You must reboot after installing. Right to Use ------------ You are granted the right to use the this version of the WebExplorer software. You may not disassemble, decompose, reverse engineer, or alter this file or any of the other files in the package. This includes, but is not limited to modifying any icons, menus, or displays associated with the software. This version of the WebExplorer software is provided FOR EVALUATION ONLY and cannot be sold. This restriction does not apply to connect time charges, or flat rate connection/download fees for electronic bulletin board services or Internet dial-in services. This software can not be bundled with any commercial package without express written permission from International Business Machines Corporation. Software Support ---------------- IBM accepts no responsibility for damages resulting from the use of this software and makes no warranty or representation, either express or implied, including but not limited to, any implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This software is provided "AS IS", and you, its user, assume all risks when using it. There is no phone support for Beta versions of WebExplorer. You are encouraged to make use of the Internet Newsgroups for problem determination, frequently asked questions, and bug reports. IBM makes no guarantee to fix any software defects reported in these forums. We ask you to read and post to the comp.os.os2.networking.tcp-ip news group. Please include the Beta version number with your note. You can get the version number by selecting Product Information from the help menu. Acknowledgement --------------- The IBM WebExplorer for OS/2 Warp is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group. The IBM Internet Connection for OS/2 incorporates compression code by the Info-ZIP group. There are no extra charges or costs due to the use of this code, and the original compression sources are freely available from CompuServe in the OS2USER forum and by anonymous FTP from the Internet site ftp.uu.net:/pub/archiving/zip.