Allow IE Shortcut menu

If checked the Internet Explorer right-click (shortcut) menus will appear when the user clicks over the pages shown in ALPFrame with the right mouse button. If the application uses its own shortcut menus through the ALPFrame extended DHTML object model this option must be unchecked - i.e. the IE menus must be forbidden in order the application custom menus to work and vise versa..

Deny new windows

If checked new browser windows will be always blocked and the browser will work in a single window only.

Dialog mode

When checked the dialog mode is turned on. In dialog mode the user cannot select text on the page except in TEXT or TEXTAREA elements.

Show status bar on navigation

If this is turned on, no matter what are the window style settings the status bar will be shown when a navigation occurs - i.e. when a page is downloaded.

Configuration ID name

This allows you to assign a name to this configuration set. It is also called APP ID and is internally preserved as APPID (application identifier) in the alpframe.cfg. This name corresponds to the Browser application settings. Through it the ALP applications can configured to require ALPFrame browser explicitly configured for them - e.g. configured with appropriate window style, allow them show own shortcut menus, with reasonable browsing restrictions in order to allow the browser window usage for the purposes defined by the developer only and so on. In other words this application identifier allows the ALP applications recognize the ALPFrame browsers prepared for them and refuse to work in other browsers where they may not be able to work properly.

Why not the user -agent header? The user agent header can be easily faked and cannot be used for security purposes, the APPID on the other hand is passed on a lower level and is thus more secure. This makes its usage preferable when the browser requirements are dictated not only by feature availability but also because of security considerations.

Big icon

Place here relative path to the .ico (icon file) from which the normal (big) window icon will be retrieved. The icon size is assumed to be 32x32 pixels. The path is relative to the directory where the ALPFrame settings are saved - e.g. the directory shown in the top of the page. Note that one .ico file may contain more than one icon images - small and big icon for instance. Therefore in most cases you can specify the same icon file for the big and the small icon. The big icon is visible to the user in full size when he/she switches between applications using Alt-Tab.

Small icon

Place here relative path to the .ico (icon file) from which the small window icon will be retrieved. The icon size is assumed to be 16x16 pixels. The path is relative to the directory where the ALPFrame settings are saved - e.g. the directory shown in the top of the page. Note that one .ico file may contain more than one icon images - small and big icon for instance. Therefore in most cases you can specify the same icon file for the big and the small icon. The small icon is visible to the user on the left side of the window caption (if it has a caption and system menu flag set). generally the small icon is more important, because it is visible to the user all the time, while the big icon is visible only occasionally. If you are in hurry design small icon only.

Startup window style

Go to this screen to edit the ALPFrame startup window size, style and appearance.

Next windows style

go to this screen to edit the ALPFrame common windows size, style and appearance. These settings concern the browser windows opened from a script in a page, from the New window menu item and from links with target that requires a new browser window.

Window startup size

Specify the Width and the Height of the window in pixels. Leave empty to allow the defaults to take effect.

Attributes

These are the Window attributes. They specify how the ALPFrame window will look and behave. If you have Win32 programming experience you can see the CreateWindow and CreateWindowEx in MSDN for details. We strongly recommend the usage of the style presets. The best way to set the window style is to use a preset, then correct the window size and some of the flags. The following flags are most often needed:
Status bar - Enable the ALPFrame window status bar.
Top most - The window will float in front of the other windows on the screen no matter if it is active or not.
Tool window - the window caption is thin.
Centered - the window is centered on the screen when it is initially opened.
Has caption - The window has a caption (required for the elements placed on it)
Minimized - The window is initially minimized.
Maximized - The window is initially maximized.
Minimize box - The window has a minimize button (needs caption).
Maximize box - The window has a maximize button (needs caption).
Resizable - The window has resizable border (mutually exclusive with Border and Dialog frame).
Dialog frame - The window has thick non-resizable border (mutually exclusive with Resizable and Border).
Border - The window has thin non-resizable border (mutually exclusive with Resizable and Dialog frame).

It is recommended to keep the overlapped and application window flags checked.

Presets

These pre-sets will pre-configure the window. You can use them to fill in settings closer to what you need and then you can apply corrections to the size and some flags if needed.

Home page

This is used mostly in autorun/on-the-fly scenarios where the user plugs in a CD or downloads archive, unpacks it and starts ALPFrame.exe from it. The configuration settings edited here are mostly for applications started from shell shortcuts or page links and as they contain URL the HomePage will be ignored. However it is possible to create a shell shortcut that runs ALPFrame without parameters, but sets its working directory to this directory (where these settings are saved). In such case the Home page will take effect and it is a relative path to the page/directory under the directory where these settings are saved. Still it is not likely that this technique will be used by many developers - so the setting is presented "just-in-case". 

Browsing restrictions

On this screen you can create complex browsing restrictions. They will apply when the ALPFrame browser is started with this configuration.

The browsing restrictions allow you forbid/allow certain protocols (for example you can disallow any navigation to http URL) or you can allow certain sites to be browsed and forbid the navigation to the rest.

By default ALPFrame will allow always the application files found in this directory and its sub-directories. The restrictions apply to the external content - e.g. the content which is not part of the application for which this ALPFrame browser configuration is prepared. Therefore very often it is enough to set the Default Policy only.

Default policy

This sets the default ALPFrame behavior for all the external content which is not explicitly included in a profile. ALPFrame always allows the files found in this directory and its sub-directories to be served through the alp:// protocol. The default policy applies to the other content shown in the browser - ALP application from other locations (not under this directory), other protocols (http, ftp, file and so on). Usually you should set a default policy that restricts the browsing to the desired extent and then you can create a number of profiles for the exceptions - e.g. your application may use file: protocol and you will need to allow it in order to allow the application work properly. Also you can allow the user to navigate to certain WEB sites, while the default setting forbids the rest of the WEB in general.

Profiles

You can create as much profiles as you need. The profiles are used to define exceptions from the default policy for certain protocols (such as http:, file:, ftp: and so on) or URL (such as www.yoursite.com). Thus the default policy may forbid any usage of the ALPFrame browser for anything else except the application for which you create this configuration settings, but you may need a set of exceptions: For example you may want to be able to redirect the user to your WEB site(s), to serve some local files not through the alp: protocol but through the file: protocol.

The profiles may be very important when you build an application that works together with an online WEB site(s). In such case it is good to protect the user from hacker attacks, or you may just want to disallow any digression. If that is so you can forbid everything except the site(s) where the online part of the application resides.

Note that it is important to set also ALP Application browser requirements and Configuration name to ensure that the user will not have a chance to avoid the restrictions by opening the application in another browser.

To add a profile enter a name in the text box and click the Add button. To edit a profile click its name. To remove a profile click the Remove link for it.

Policy

Set the ALPFrame behavior for the profile.

Protocols and URL

This list defines the protocols and the URL for which this profile applies. If the URL field contains * the entry applies to the all URL of that protocol. For example Protocol: http and URL: * means "all http content"

To remove an entry clear the protocol name in the Protocol text box of the entry and click Update.

Add new Protocol/URL

Enter protocol name and URL. When you click Update it will be added to the list. For example to add your site (http://www.yoursite.com) to the profile enter:
http in the Protocol box and
www.yoursite.com in the URL box
then click Update.

To add an entry for all the URL of a given protocol enter the protocol name in the Protocol box and leave the URL empty (or enter * in it). For example to allow ftp to any site enter:
ftp in the Protocol box and leave the URL empty, then click Update.

Policies

(note that for the DefaultPolicy the default profile includes everything not listed in an explicitly defined profile and is not part of the application)

Allowed - the browsing to the URL/protocols listed in the profile is always allowed.
Ask first time - The user is asked when he/she refers an URL/protocol listed in the profile. If the user confirms that he/she really wants to proceed, the next time he/she refers an URL/protocol from this profile it will be already allowed without further queries. It is recommended to name well the profiles that use this policy so that the user can understand the meaning of the question. See also the advanced settings in the ALPFrame configuration documentation (for instance you can change the messages texts, but you will need to edit the alpframe.cfg manually).
Ask always - The user is asked each time he/she refers an URL/protocol listed in the profile. Note that this can be quite annoying. This policy usage makes sense in a limited range of scenarios where the user is permitted to browse external content but you want to limit this to the possible minimum. For example in an application used in the company internally it may be needed to allow the user to check some external information one link away, but you want to discourage the user from using the same browser window to follow further links.
Forbidden (message) - the browsing to the URL/profiles listed in the profile is forbidden and a message informs the user each time he/she tries to navigate there.
Forbidden (silently) - the browsing to the URL/profiles listed in the profile is forbidden and no message is shown - just nothing happens if the user enters an URL in the Open URL box or clicks a link that leads to a location described by this profile.