Core Command Reference

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Introduction

This command reference lists the commands that are contained in the core module of the overLIB plugin utility (see the file plugin_description.html for a descirption of the rationale and the approach taken to achieve this capability). This module contains most of the functionality that was present in versions 3.50 & 3.51, with the exception of the styling commands. The CSSCLASS Commands are now part of the core module and the CSSSTYLE Commands have been placed in its own plugin (see the documentation for CSSSTYLE Commands). Some additional features that are felt to important have been included in the core module. To make use of these commands, you need to insert the following line in your HEAD section:

<SCRIPT TYPE="text/javascript" SRC="overlib.js"></SCRIPT>

This statement must be included with all of the other plug-in modules and must come first. The other plugins can then be loaded in any order that you want.

Remember that commands are always in uppercase (case-sensitive) and can have none or more parameter values.

Download this module as a zip file.

There are multiple ways to customize overLIB and using a long command line to invoke overLIB is NOT the recommended way of calling overLIB. The suggested method for customizing overLIB is to use one of the following three approaches:

  1. Make the changes that you want in the default variables themselves. The default variables are those that are prefaced with ol_ and are located near the beginning of each module. This approach, of course, means that you are modifying the overLIB code.
  2. Define your default variables in a separate Javascript block like this: 
    <SCRIPT TYPE="text/javascript">
<!--
var ol_width=300;
var ol_fgcolor='#ffffcc';
var ol_bgcolor='#666666';
//-->
</SCRIPT>
    This block can come either before or after the core module is loaded as long as you are not setting either the ol_texts and/or ol_caps arrays. If these are being set, then you'll have to place this code block after the core module loads.
  3. The approach that is recommended for those who are uncomfortable making changes in the code or are not that familar with Javascript is to use the overlib_pagedefaults routine that is in the core module. I recommend that this routine be called by placing the following little script block after the core module loads (or after all modules load if you're also specifying parameters that are pertinent to those modules): 
    <SCRIPT TYPE="text/javascript">
<!--
overlib_pagedefaults(WIDTH,300,FGCOLOR,'#ffffcc',
   BGCOLOR,'#666666');
//-->
</SCRIPT>
    You'll notice that this routine uses the same command line structure that an invocation of overLIB does. It will change the default variable settings only for the current page and must be used on each page where you want these changes to be effective. This command could also be used in an onMouseOver or onClick event attached to a triggering link. This is particularly useful for those parameters that behave like toggle switches because now you can effectively toggle that behavior off and on. This method and method #2 don't involve any permanent changes in the overLIB code.

An overLIB popup is usually closed by invoking the nd() routine on mouseout. This closing routine takes an optional time (in msecs) parameter, as in nd(300), which specifies a 0.3 second delay in the closing the popup. If there has been any delay scheduled for showing the popup, this closing delay will be cancelled.

General Information

Additional features included in the core module that weren't included in version 3.51 include:

Leading Argument
A few statements are needed about the change in behavior that was introduced with version 3.51 of overLIB and this core module. In previous versions of overLIB, the leading argument had to be either a string value or the parameter INARRAY. In version 3.51, this requirement was removed. The only absolute requirement now is that if you are supplying a string argument to the overLIB call, it must be the first argument. In particular if no string is being supplied to overLIB then any of the other parameters can be supplied in any order. In addition, a leading number which falls outside the range of a valid command can also be used as text for the popup. Numbers between 10,000,000 and 10,001,000 are reserved for commands. The INARRAY or FUNCTION parameters don't need to be the leading argument. Note: any HTML markup that is contained within the string argument supplied to overLIB should convert the characters that deliminate html tags (<...>) to their entity references (&lt; and &gt; respectively). Better yet, your should define a separate text variable in a SCRIPT block within the HEAD section of the document and pass that to the overLIB call. If you do this then you don't need to replace the HTML delimiting characters by their entity references.

This same requirement pertains to the overlib_pagedefaults routine. If you supply a string argument in a call to this routine, it will become the default setting for the ol_text variable rather than the normal 'Default Text' string.
onLoad Handlers
In IE and Opera 7.x, if a direct call to overlib(), nd(), or cClick() is assigned to the onLoad event associated with the BODY tag, then these calls will be handled within OLonLoad_handler() since they are not functional until the loaded flag (olLoaded) is set within this handler. Unfortunately, OLonLoad_handler() is not called until after all other onLoad events have been called. Consequently, if a function which calls one of these overLIB functions is assigned to the onLoad event, then the call must be preceded by the statement olLoaded=1; for these functions to work as intended. This step is not required for Gecko-based browsers which use W3C methods to set this flag before any other onLoad events are called.. In addition, in keeping with the diminishing support for Netscape 4.x, nothing special is done for that browser other than setting the loaded flag to true at the end of the Core Module. None of Plugins set or reset this flag so if there is a delay, which is highly unlikely, calls using these plugins may not work correctly until everything has loaded.
overDiv Container
With v4.10 or later of the core module, the overDiv declaration statement is no longer necessary , since the overLIB code will dynamically create this container in all supported browsers if it isn't included in the document already. However, it is strongly recommended that the user get in the habit of including this statement just after the BODY tag:

<div ID="overDiv" style="position: absolute; visibility: hidden; z-index: 1000;">
</div>

Behavior, Positioning and Sizes

STICKY
Makes the popup stick around until closed.
Variable: ol_sticky
WIDTH pixels
Sets the width of the box to the size given by the value pixels, a number.
Variable: ol_width
HEIGHT pixels
Sets the height of the box to the given value pixels, a number.
Variable: ol_height
LEFT
Makes the popups go to the left of the mouse.
Variable: ol_hpos
RIGHT
Makes the popups go to the right of the mouse.
Variable: ol_hpos
CENTER
Makes the popups go to the center of the mouse.
Variable: ol_hpos
ABOVE
Makes the popups go above the mouse. Note: The HEIGHT of the popup is automatically accounted for internally when positioning the popup.
Variable: ol_vpos
BELOW
Makes the popups go below the mouse.
Variable: ol_vpos
OFFSETX x
How far away from the pointer the popup will show up, horizontally. A number whose default value is 10.
Variable: ol_offsetx
OFFSETY y
How far away from the pointer the popup will show up, vertically. A number whose default value is 10.
Variable: ol_offsety
AUTOSTATUS
Sets the status bar's text to the popup's text. Overrides STATUS.
Variable: ol_autostatus
AUTOSTATUSCAP
Sets the status bar's text to the popup's caption. Overrides AUTOSTATUS and STATUS.
Variable: ol_autostatus
SNAPX grid
Snaps the popup to an even position in a horizontal grid.
Variable: ol_snapx
SNAPY grid
Snaps the popup to an even position in a vertical grid.
Variable: ol_snapy
FIXX position
Locks the popups horizontal position, a number in pixels. Overrides all other horizontal placement commands, except RELX which takes precedence. This position is relative to the upper left hand corner of the document.
Variable: ol_fixx
FIXY position
Locks the popups vertical position, a number in pixels. Overrides all other vertical placement commands, except RELY which takes precedence. This position is relative to the upper left hand corner of the document.
Variable: ol_fixy
RELX position
Positions the popups horizontal position, a number in pixels, relative to the upper left hand corner of the browser window. Overrides all other horizontal placement commands, including FIXX. Negative values will position the popup from the browser's right hand edge (as in this example which positions the popup 100 pixels from the right).
Variable: ol_relx
RELY position
Positions the popups vertical position, a number in pixels, relative to the upper left hand corner of the browser window. Overrides all other vertical placement commands, including FIXY. Negative values will position the popup from the bottom edge (as in this example which positions the popup 100 pixels above the bottomw edge of the browser window).
Variable: ol_rely
FRAME frame
Controls popups in a different frame. Make sure you have the <DIV> tag in the target frame as well. The frame parameter passed to this command should not be a text string, but a frame reference. Example: overlib('Text', FRAME, parent.below), assuming you have a frame called below. [NOTE: The Cross Frame Support Module must be loaded before this command will be active. See the previous link for more information.
Variable: ol_frame
TIMEOUT millisecs
Makes the popup go away after the requested delay, a number. 1000 millisecs is about 1 second.
Variable: ol_timeout
DELAY millisecs
Makes that popup behave like a tooltip. It will popup only after a certain delay specified in millisecs, a number. One second is 1000 millisecs.
Variable: ol_delay
HAUTO
Automatically determine if the popup should be to the left or right of the mouse. This command switches the current state of this parameter to its opposite state. Default value is off (0).
Variable: ol_hauto
VAUTO
Automatically determine if the popup should be to the above or below of the mouse. This command switches the current state of this parameter to its opposite state. Default value is on (1) for this module. Note: this is opposite from the default state in overLIB.
Variable: ol_vauto
CLOSECLICK
Force users to click on "Close" to close sticky popups. This command switches the current state of this parameter to its opposite state. Default value is off (0) which means that you close a sticky popup by mousing over the "Close" text.
Variable: ol_closeclick

Colors, Fonts and Images

FGCOLOR color
Color of the inside of the popup box, a string value. Default is '#CCCCFF'.
Variable: ol_fgcolor
BGCOLOR color
Color of the border of the popup box, a string value. Default is '#333399'.
Variable: ol_bgcolor
TEXTCOLOR color
Sets the color of the text inside the box, a string value. Default is '#000000'.
Variable: ol_textcolor
CAPCOLOR color
Sets the color of the box's caption, a string value. Default is '#FFFFFF'.
Variable: ol_capcolor
CLOSECOLOR color
Sets the color of the close text, a string value. Default is '#9999FF'.
Variable: ol_closecolor
TEXTFONT font
Sets the font to be used by the main text, a string value. Default is "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica".
Variable: ol_textfont
CAPTIONFONT font
Sets the font of the caption, a string value. Default is "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica".
Variable: ol_capfont
CLOSEFONT font
Defines the font for the "Close" text, a string value. Default is "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica".
Variable: ol_closefont
TEXTSIZE size
Size of the main text's font, a number. Default is 1. This value is too small to be easily seen when you use CSSSTYLE and will have to be reset.
Variable: ol_textsize
CAPTIONSIZE size
Size of the caption's font, a number. Default is 1. This value is too small to be easily seen when you use CSSSTYLE and will have to be reset.
Variable: ol_captionsize
CLOSESIZE size
Size of the "Close" text's font, a number. Default is 1. This value is too small to be easily seen when you use CSSSTYLE and will have to be reset.
Variable: ol_closesize
FGBACKGROUND picture
Defines a picture to use instead of color for the inside of the popup, a string value. You will most likely want to set FGCOLOR to '' or the color will show as well. Default is the null string ('').
Variable: ol_fgbackground
BGBACKGROUND picture
Defines a picture to use instead of color for the border of the popup, a string value. You will most likely want to set BGCOLOR to '' or the color will show as well. When having a Close link, Netscape will re-render the table cells, making things look bad. Default is the null string ('').
Variable: ol_bgbackground
CAPICON url
Displays a small icon before the popup caption, a string value giving the URL of the image. Default is the null string (''). The formatting of this image differs from the way it was in version 3.51 of overLIB. Here, there is a 5 pixel horizontal spacing around the image and it is aligned to the middle of the text in the caption.
Variable: ol_capicon
BORDER pixels
Makes the border of the popups thicker or thinner, a number. Default is 1.
Variable: ol_border
BACKGROUND picture
Instead of using the table box as background, your picture will be used, a string value giving the URL for the picture. Default is the null string ('').
Variable: ol_background
PADX left right
Pads the background picture with horizontal whitespace for text placement. Both values are numbers. Default is 1. Note that this is a two parameter command.
Variable: ol_padxl and ol_padxr
PADY top bottom
Pads the background picture with vertical whitespace for text placement. Both values are numbers. Default is 1. Note that this is a two parameter command.
Variable: ol_padyt and ol_padyb
FULLHTML
Allows you to control the html over a BACKGROUND picture completely. Default value is off (0). The html code is expected in "text". If you employ this parameter, it is best to put the html code into a separate string variable defined in a script block and supply that as the first argument to the overLIB call. If you put it directly into the overLIB call, then you should convert the characters that deliminate html tags (<...>) by their entity references (&lt; and &gt; respectively).
Variable: ol_fullhtml

Miscellaneous

Info Object
This object contains the core level version number, whether this is a pre-release version, the major and minor numbers of the release, the revision number of the release, and the function meets(requiredCoreVersion), which returns true if this release meets the requiredCoreVersion number, othewise it returns false (even when there is no parameter specified). This information is contained in the global variable olInfo.
CSSOFF
Turns off CSS features and resorts to standard html tags. This is the default for all popups unless you specifically invoke one of the other styling parameters (CSSSTYLE, CSSCLASS, or CSSW3C). The command CSSCLASS is no longer needed since this capability has been incorporated into the core module. It has been ketp, however, for backward compatibility.
Variable: ol_css
CELLPAD normal, 5, 10, and 20 pixels of padding; can also have variable padding
Padding, in pixels, for the main body text in a popup. Default value is 2. There can be from one to four additional values following this command. If there is more than one value, then their interpretation will follow the rules of CSS. If four values are specified then they must be in the order TOP, RIGHT, BOTTOM, LEFT, which is the conventional clockwise order of CSS (see the last link above). If three values are specified, then the first one refers to the TOP padding, the second value is the RIGHT and LEFT padding amounts, and the last value of the three is the BOTTOM padding. When two values are specified, the first value is the TOP and BOTTOM padding, while the second value is the LEFT and RIGHT padding. With a single value, the padding is applied equally on all sides. This feature isn't available in Netscape 4.x. If there is more than one padding value, only the first one will be applied in Netscape 4.x.
Variable: ol_cellpad
CAPTION title
Sets the caption of the popup, a string value. Default is the null string ('').
Variable: ol_cap
CLOSETITLE title attribute
Sets the text string of the TITLE attribute on the close event if CLOSECLICK is 1. Default value is "Click to Close". If you don't want any TITLE to show, then set this variable to the null string.
Variable: ol_closetitle
CLOSETEXT text
Replaces the text "Close" with something else, a string value.
Variable: ol_close
COMPATMODE treats custom classes & nd() like v3.51
Render custom classes in a manner similar to that implemented in v3.51 of overlib. Default value is off (0). When used in the command line it will switch the associated variable to its opposite state.
Variable: ol_compatmode
DONOTHING example
As the name implies, this command does absolutely nothing at all. It was introduced because it was requested by an experienced user of overlib in order to make programming shell wrapper functions easier. There is no associated variable associated with this command.
FOLLOWMOUSE example
Sets whether the popup should follow the cursor. Default is true (1). When used on the command line, it will switch the current state of the associated default variable to the opposite state.
Variable: ol_followmouse
NOCLOSE
Doesn't display the text "Close" on stickies with caption. When used on the command line, it will set event handlers so that you can close your popup by mousing over it and then off of it. This will also cancel any TIMEOUT that has been scheduled for your popup.
Variable: ol_close
MOUSEOFF example  example (with 1 sec delay)
Will apply the same event handlers that are applied when using the NOCLOSE parameter to a sticky popup that may also have a "Close" text. Default is off (0). When used on the command line, it will switch the current state of the associated default variable to its opposite state. This feature is disabled if the overLIB popup and source code are in different frames or windows.

The MOUSEOFF command will now accept an optional parameter, which specifies the delay in closing the popup (in milli-seconds) when a user mouse's off of the popup so that he/she can return to click on any specified links that were in the popup. It is used like this: overlib(..., MOUSEOFF, 1000, ...). Like the TIMEOUT command, any delay that is specified with this command is cancelled when mousing back onto the popup and becomes reactivated when mousing off of the popup again.
Variable: ol_mouseoff
INARRAY id
Tells overLIB to read the text from the ol_texts array, located in overlib.js (or on page). This parameter can be used instead of text. id is the index of the element within the ol_texts array that you want. Note: in javascript, arrays start with an index value of 0. Also, this parameter no longer needs to be the first argument in a call to overLIB. Example: overlib(INARRAY, 1).
Variable: ol_texts
CAPARRAY id
Tells overLIB to read the caption from the ol_caps array. (See description under INARRAY).
Variable: ol_caps
FUNCTION functionname
Calls the specified function and takes the return value as the text that should be displayed in the popup. The function is called when the overLIB command parser runs.
Variable: ol_function

This parameter can be called in one of four different ways:
  1. FUNCTION showMe
  2. FUNCTION showMe(ONE, TWO)
  3. FUNCTION myFunctionCall ++
  4. FUNCTION noparameters

++ where myFunctionCall is the string "showMe('One','Two')"
STATUS text
Sets the text in the browsers status bar to text, a string value. Default is the null string (").
Variable: ol_status
WRAP example
Will cause the popup to be 'shrink-wrapped' around its content so that it is no wider then is necessary. Default value is off (0). When used on the command line it will switch the current state of the associated default variable to its opposite state.
Variable: ol_wrap

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