TurboSite Quick Setup Guide
This guide will assist you in setting up TurboSite as quickly as
possible. Every attempt has been made to cover necessary topics
fully but if you find this guide to be unclear or incomplete please write
to TurboSite Questions
(Response@intellisoft-inc.com) and we will respond as soon as possible.
Loading TurboSite onto your
server
First you will need to create a text file and name it 'mylist.txt' or
whatever. In this file you may enter up to 50(or 10 if a demo version) items
that you wish to accelerate. Please enter the full addresses of the items
and enter only one item per line. Because of Java applet security restrictions,
you can only enter items that are from YOUR site. Also, you may enter up
to 50 items. If you do not need 50 items then just stop entering new lines
and save the file. Please see the example file called mylist.txt if you need
more assistance.
Second you will need to upload the text file that you just created and the
TurboSite class (TurboSite.class) file to your server using your
preferred FTP program. These files should be uploaded to the same directory
that your html documents reside in. This is for simplicity as
this avoids using additional html parameters to make TurboSite function.
Next you will need to upload all of the *.gif files that came with
your TurboSite package to the same directory that you just placed the TurboSite
class file in. If this is not done then TurboSite will stall out when
you attempt to use it. After the class file and all *.gif files are
placed on your server then you will need to move on to the html code necessary
to use TurboSite.
Necessary HTML code for using
TurboSite
Now that all of the necessary files are on your server you will need to modify
your webpages to use TurboSite. First we will look at an example
and then attempt to explain each item of the code:
<CENTER>
<APPLET code=TurboSite.class id=TurboSite
width=110 height=32>
<PARAM name=UserName
VALUE="http://www.intellisoft-inc.com/mylist.txt">
<PARAM name=Copyright VALUE="(c)Copyright
1998 Intellisoft, Inc."> TurboSite needs Java to run.
</APPLET>
</CENTER>
This is the code that you would use. You would need to modify the
parameters and etc... For each page that you wish to use TurboSite on you
will need to copy this code and paste it on your page so that it appears
at the bottom of the page.
Some assumption has been made that the user of TurboSite is at least
familiar with HTML code. If you are not familiar with it or not very
comfortable with it then please send a brief email stating that you would
like a personalized example for one of your pages and include the address
for that page in the email. Also, please include a list of pages or
graphics that you would like accelerated and the directory in which your
HTML documents reside with the email. We will copy the page from
your site, add the TurboSite code to the page, and email the example page
back to you free of charge.
Now to the code. <CENTER> is simply for centering the applet
in the center of the document - it is not necessary but is preferred. If
you decide not to center then also remove the </CENTER> tag as the
two are used as a pair and whatever is between the two tags is centered.
<APPLET code=TurboSite.class id=TurboSite width=110
height=32>
The <APPLET code... > tag is what tells a browser about the Java
applet. This line must be typed in exactly as it appears for TurboSite
to work. This line basically says "go look for TurboSite.class in the directory
that I am currently in and make sure that the file actually is TurboSite
and not a renamed file and give TurboSite 110 by 32 pixel space to display
in on the screen." It is recommended that this line be copied and pasted
to each page that TurboSite will be used on so that typing mistakes and problems
may be avoided. This line remains the same for every user of TurboSite.
<PARAM name=UserName
VALUE="http://www.intellisoft-inc.com/mylist.txt">
The <PARAM name=UserName ...> tag is used to tell TurboSite the
name of the authorized site using TurboSite. The tag should appear
as shown with changes made to the VALUE= to reflect the full
address of your site as shown above and the location of your list. In the
case above if you typed in the address shown then you would see the list
of addresses that are accelerated at Intellisofts' site.
<PARAM name=Copyright VALUE="(c)Copyright
1998 Intellisoft, Inc.">
The above line needs to be included in the HTML code exactly as shown
or TurboSite will not start.
TurboSite needs Java
to run. </APPLET>
The line line above needs to be included in the HTML code as a courtesy for
your sites visitors. This line lets any visitors that come to your
site know that TurboSite is on your site but that they need to enable Java
in their browser or use a Java capable browser.
The </APPLET> tag at the end
of the line is necessary to close the <APPLET> code and must be
included.
After filling in all of the tags all that you need to do is upload your pages
to your site just as you normally would. TurboSite may be used
on multiple pages on your site - as a matter of fact it is strongly
encouraged. On each page simply paste in your applet code and upload
each page to your site.
Troubleshooting TurboSite
It may be necessary to troubleshoot TurboSite or you may wish to verify that
TurboSite is indeed working. The easiest way to see that TurboSite
is working is to access any of your pages on your site with Netscape 3.0
or higher. Netscape will show you in the status bar at the bottom of the
browser window what TurboSite is doing. It will tell you if TurboSite
is attempting to read a file from your site. Also with Netscape you
may select 'Show Java Console' from the 'Options' menu. This will show you
any errors that TurboSite may have handled and will show if TurboSite is
not running because of an incorrect password.
An easy way to see if TurboSite is working is simply to view the TurboSite
icon that appears on the page that TurboSite is on. The needle on the gauge
moves every time a page is accessed. If you have a slow connection
then the needle will move slowly as the needle can only move as fast as TurboSite
accesses pages.
One of the best ways to see that TurboSite is working is to use Netscape
3.0 and the Windows Explorer together. You simply open up the directory
on your hard drive where your cache file is and then go to Netscape and clear
cache then check your hard drive to make sure that the cache is indeed empty.
You should set the memory cache as low as possible to be able to see
the effect that tells you that TurboSite is working.
Now use Netscape to go to one of your pages that uses TurboSite. You will
see the cache begin to fill up as the page loads but you should see files
being added to the cache as the TurboSite needle moves. You can double
click on any of the files in the cache and open them up. Some of the
files in the cache will be files from your TurboSite parameter list that
is part of the page that you are currently viewing.
You may use Internet Explorer 3.0 and up for troubleshooting but you will
need to enable "Java logging" and review the log file that Internet Explorer
writes.
A Few Pointers
1) Do not use TurboSite for accelerating large graphic files. Any file
larger than about 75k takes a while to download and prevents other items
in your list from being accelerated. If you do wish to accelerate large
graphic files then please put them at the end of your list. This will
allow all of the small stuff to be accelerated first. Also, most browsers
now support progressive loading of images so that the image slowly becomes
visible. It is much more effective to have all graphics and text loaded
on a page with a large progressive image slowly appearing than it is to have
a large image immediately visible while all of the text and small
images slowly appear.
2) TurboSite is most effective on pages where a visitor may spend a lot of
time such as a large index page or a page with a lot of text. This
is simply because the longer the user is on a TurboSite page the more items
that TurboSite can load from your list. On these type of pages you
may want to take advantage of the time to load those large graphics that
you may have.
3) Banners take time to load from other sites. If you can avoid
the use of banners you will find that TurboSite will begin much more quickly
as it does not have to wait as the users browser finishes accessing another
site to load the banner. If you must use banners and you can do it, try putting
the TurboSite code before the banner code on your page. This will load TurboSite
first and let it begin rather than waiting for a banner to load first
from a busy banner site.
The FAQs' about
TurboSite
1) My site is hosted on a UNIX server - will it work on my site?
1a) Absolutely! TurboSite is a Java applet. This means that it
does not depend on your server to operate but it depends upon the websurfers
browser. If a visitor to your site has a Java enabled browser
then TurboSite will run and begin caching pages. All that you need to do
as the webmaster is place the Java class file on your site and add the html
code to each page that you wish to use TurboSite on.
2) Will my sites visitors need to be running Windows for TurboSite to work?
2a) No. Java is a platform independent language. The TurboSite
applet is platform independent and will run under any browser that supports
Java. There are different flavors of Netscape and Internet Explorer for the
different platforms such as UNIX and OS/2 but if your visitors have Java
enabled TurboSite will work.
3) How does TurboSite deal with graphics or frames that appear on multiple
pages? Does it reload them every time?
3a) TurboSite uses the websurfers browser to cache the pages that it
grabs. If a websurfer visits a page and leaves only to return later
then that same page appears more quickly in their browser because it was
already in their browsers disk cache. TurboSite works very similar to this
by loading the pages that your visitors might visit next in the background.
These pages are stored in the browsers cache and when the browser needs
to display them, it calls them up. Therefore a repetitive graphic
throughout a site is efficient because it only needs to be grabbed by TurboSite
once.
4) How many links may I enter on my list of objects that I would like
accelerated?
4a) The demo version is good for 10 links. If you choose to order TurboSite
you will be able to enter 50 links. The upgrade is simple - you will only
need to add links to your existing list and upload the new Java class
file.
5) Can I use TurboSite on multiple pages thus giving me more than just 10(or
50) accelerated items?
5a) Yes and no. It is strongly encouraged that you use TurboSite on
more than one page because it will continue downloading links that it did
not get if it has not finished all of the links on your list. But TurboSite
works from a central list so it will only load what is on the list.
6) Can I use TurboSite more than once on one page?
6a) This is definitely not recommended.
7) Why isn't there a version of TurboSite with more than 50 pages and items?
7a) Through trial and error it was found that anything greater than approximately
50 items is not efficient because visitors leave before everything is
accelerated.
8) What is the largest graphic that I should try to accelerate?
8a) Anything greater than 75k becomes inefficient as TurboSite spends all
of its' time downloading one graphic and steals precious time from other
items. The most efficient use of TurboSite is to use it to grab
multiple smaller items or the page and allow the browser to download
the large graphic. This allows your visitors to begin reading your pages
much more quickly as most everything else is already on screen.
9) If I want to accelerate more than 50 pages is there a way that
I can do it?
9a) Yes there are several ways of obtaining more than 50 accelerated links.
If you would like, we can make a special version for you with as many links
as you would like. There is also another technique that is available
which we will not explain here.
10) Do I need to enter 50 links on my list or can I only enter what I need?
10a) TurboSite will handle up to 50 links so if you only need 15 at
the time then simply enter fifteen links and leave the rest blank. It
will not hinder performance or cause any errors.
11) What if I have other questions about TurboSite?
11a) Please feel free to email
TurboSite Questions. An
answer will be sent to you as soon as possible and the question and answer
may be added to this page.
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