LAVA Web User Interface Guide

Contents

  1. Frequently Asked Questions
  2. Introduction
  3. Requirements
  4. Notes
  5. Example
  6. Features
  7. Known Bugs
  8. Information

1.0 Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Q: How do I start using the simulators?
    A: Press the [Run xxx] button (replace xxx by TEMPEST, SPLAT, SAMPLE-2D etc.) at the bottom of the bottom right frame.
    You might have to press the [Back] button on your browser to get back to the parameter table frame if you don't see the button anywhere.

  2. Q: Can you step me through an example?
    A: Sure, click this     link or scroll down to the example below.

  3. Q: Some of the buttons in the page seem to have disappeared. How do I get them back?
    A: Click a little above the area the buttons should be, and drag downward so as to highlight the invisible buttons. Now the buttons should magically repaint. Another way that works is to do a "Reload Frame." (Blame Netscape and Microsoft for this bug.)

  4. Q: How do I print the graphs outputted by the simulators?
    A: The short answer is "you can't" unless you have a screen capture program.
    The long answer is: due to a security restriction on unsigned Java applets,
    the plots cannot be printed, unless they are part of a HTML file. If you want
    to print out the graph plotted on a applet embedded in a HTML file, you can go
    to the file menu and select Print. If this is unacceptable, let us know.

  5. Q: How come nothing works?
    A: Are you using Netscape 3, Netscape 4.04 or IE 3 or worse?
    Upgrade to the latest versions of Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator

  6. Q: I get javascript: errors. How do I get rid of them?
    A: That's a bug in our interface! (We haven't tested on Macs, or UNIX as much).
    Try the interface on a MS Windows machine (if you have access to
    one), but let us know how you got the error.

  7. Q: I click [Run xxx] but nothing shows up.
    A: Short Answer: Either Java is not installed and enabled, or there's a bug in our Java applet's code.
    Long Answer: Sometimes it takes the simulator up to a minute to process your input, if your simulation domain is large. When the simulator successfully finishes, you will see a "Run OK" status message above the [View plot] button in the lower left corner. Also, the Java plotter may need to download up to 1MB of line or contour data from the server. That can be quite slow over a modem connection. So that maybe that's what's holding it up. In those cases, you just have to be more patient, or grab the files and download and plot them yourself from the [Experiment] => [Files] menu.

  8. Q: I'm stuck in one of the simulators, how do I get out?
    A: Hurry! Click this! You can also click on the [Exit] button in the top frame.
If your question was not answered here, please ask us!

1.1 Introduction

This is the user guide to the web browser interface component of LAVA, called a WUI (Web User Interface). The workspace is built using three languages:

1.2 Requirements

A Java and JavaScript browser is required. A VRML plugin is required to visualize TEMPEST topography.

1.2.1 General issues

1.2.2 Simulator dependent issues

These are mostly Java issues due to failure to support full Java 1.1 API or bugs in Java virtual machine.

SimulatorGeneral commentsNetscape 4Internet Explorer 4Netscape 3Plugin
SPLATtakes time to calculate contours----
SAMPLE-2D-----
SAMPLE-3Dtakes a long time to download file--not compatible
TEMPESTslow loading in Internet Explorernice progress % meterslow loading (stare at gray rectangle) in Internet ExplorerJavascript "network connection" failsVRML plugin required to view topography

1.3 Notes

Some miscellaneous notes.

1.4 Example

This example takes you through the basic steps of a simple simulation, and explains some of the LAVA mechanics.

1.5 Features

1.7 Known bugs and tested cases (as of April 2000)

1.6 Information

Simulator manuals
8 Apr 2000