The
DRP File
DRP Parameters
Custom DRP Parameters
The Droplets .drp file is a small text file that is generated whenever a Droplet application is downloaded onto a client desktop. It sits on the client-side and gives the end-user's Droplets Client essential information about the name of the application, the location of the server-side application logic, the location of skin parameters and the size of the application window. The DRP file is the only thing the Droplets Client needs to present a UI to its end-user.
|
An example of a Droplets application .drp file
DRP files are generated when the end-user first drags the Droplets application icon off of a Web page and onto their desktop. The Web page from which your users drag their Droplets must thus contain logic for generating the .drp. This subject is discussed in detail in the Droplets Platform Deployment Guide.
The DRP file consists of a series of parameter names and values. A set of pre-existing parameters must be included in every DRP file; you can also create your own parameters as necessary.
Important
Note: These variables can be overriden in application skins by placing
a params.txt file in the
application's skin directory, with overriding values for the parameters
listed below. See the Skinning Droplets tutorial
for more information.
DRP parameters
address
The location of the Droplets UI Server to which the Client should speak. Its value can be either an IP address or a URL.
calc
The name of the Droplet application, which must appear as it is registered with the Droplets UI Server. For example, an instance of Droplets Email would be called "email", an instance of Droplets Picture Share would be called "Picture Share", and so forth
height
The height (in pixels) of the Droplet GUI's main window on the client desktop.
icondata
A large block of non-human readable binary data formatted as text. It defines the appearance of the Droplet's desktop icon. This block of data is generated as an .ico file and should then be placed in the .drp file by your Web page. If no icondata is provided in the .drp, the Droplet will present a generic
imagedir
The URL of the folder that contains your application's image files.
imagejar
The file name of your imagejar. For example, myApp_purpleSkin.zip. This file is always in the root Droplets Server directory.
port
The port on which client/server communication will take place. This should almost always be 8194. Keep in mind that HTTP communication over port 80 will be enabled for clients behind firewalls with the specified "port" closed, regardless of the value of this parameter.
title
The text that will appear in the application GUI's title bar.
width
The width (in pixels) of the Droplet GUI's main window on the client desktop.
mainpaneloff
When set to true, this parameter tells the Client not to display any panels or components until the entire GUI has been loaded and is ready to be presented to the end-user. This avoids the unsightly piecemeal presentation of portions of the GUI. Not strictly required but highly recommended that you indicate this parameter and set it to true (by default it is false).
messagefont
This sets the text font within all message pop-up windows that you call using the Application.messageBox() or Application.showErrorDialog() methods. You can use any Unicode-standard font. The value of the parameter should be in the following form: FontName,X,FontSize where X stands for the font's style (P for plain, B for Bold, I for italic and O for bold and italic). For example, the value "Arial,I,12" would render all message pop-up text with 12 point, italicized Arial font.
dialogfont
This sets the text font for all standard dialogs displayed by the client (login, connection error, Save to Webpage, etc.). If the messagefont parameter is not set, this parameter will also determine the font of all message pop-up windows as well. See above for this parameter value's form.
hidestatusbar
This hides the Droplets status bar (the three green dots), which informs users of the URL of the Droplets Server and the amount of bytes sent and received between client and server. Should only be indicated in the rare event that you want to hide this status bar from the end-users. Default is false.
Custom DRP parameters
In addition to the DRP settings above, the "vars" parameter allows you to create custom DRP parameters as necessary for your Droplet application. Perhaps, for example, you need to uniquely identify one instance of the Droplet (as you might with our online photo album, Droplets Picture Share). In this event, you can simply create a new parameter name and assign it a value based on your DRP-generating script's logic.
Vars parameters must always appear in the following format:
vars
Name|Value
An example of a vars parameter that identifies a particular Picture Share instance is shown below:
vars |
Return
to Droplet SDK documentation home.