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jbooster is an advanced Java applet(client) / servlet(server) system designed to speed up the internet experience of visitors to a web site. A JBoosted web site hosts a Java servlet which anticipates the pages a visitor will choose to follow. The servlet then sends those pages to the visitors web browser via the jbooster applet. For the visitor it appears as though each page is instantly loaded when they click on the link. The visitor is completely unaware that there is anything different about the web site, apart from its astonishing download speed! From the web site administrator's point of view the jbooster system is remarkably easy to install and configure. Since it is Java based, it is platform independant and will run equally well on Linux, NT, Solaris OS (etc) based web servers. The jbooster client and administration applets will run on Java(1.1) enabled web browsers (all 4.0+ browsers and many 3.x browsers). There are no configuration files on the server to edit. Almost all configuration can be done via the control panel. Consequently the install process is the relatively simple task of adding the applet tags to each page(or including them in the footer!), and running the install programs. (Those using remote servers can install jbooster by ftp'ing the jbooster applet, swbooster and jbooster folders in the appropriate locations on the web server.) N.B Since jbooster is a servlet based system the host web server will need to have Java servlets enabled. This requires the Java runtime environment and Java Servlets (3rd party products) to be installed. Both can be obtained, Java free of charge from http://java.sun.com, and servlets from any number of companies, in some cases free. (See Servlet software).
The jbooster servlet maintains a separate link profile for each page that hosts the jbooster applet. By tracking the path of each user through the web site it builds up a profile of the most popular destinations from each page. It loads pages to the browser according to the current page profile. This behaviour can be customed (see configuration). The process is entirely automatic and it is not necessary to manually register pages with the servlet. New pages will automatically register themselves via the jbooster applet. The applet is only 10kb so has almost no noticeable effect on download time. Having loaded once, it remains in the browser until it is closed down. So subsequent pages do not need to download the applet again. The applet can be set to pause a specified number of seconds before it begins to download new pages, and/or autodetect when the host page page has finished downloading (see configuration). In order not to affect the look of host web sites, the jbooster design team created the applet to take up 0 width and 0 height. However even at 0 width and 0 height most browsers will display a single pixel. By default jbooster makes this pixel white, but this can be set to whatever color the web administrator chooses.. When a page is loaded for the first time it has no profile. In this situation jbooster will look through the current page for links to pages on the same server, and then load those up. In some situations this may be the desired behaviour all the time (eg a search results page). Using the configuration applet the jbooster applet can be set to ignore page profile information and always parse the current page for links.
The demonstration version of jbooster is identical in almost all respects to the licensed version. However it will display a message in the browsers status bar that it is a demonstration version. In addition to this, after approximately 60 days the applet will cease to run in the browser. The exact period of time remaining before the applet ceases functioning can be seen in the Java console (see Using Java Console) when jbooster is running. The licensed version of course has no such restrictions and can be purchased from the JStuff web site. Once purchased a license key will be sent by email. This can be entered via the license tab on the control panel.
Before installation begins, servlets must be operational on the web site. Because different servers and servlet implentations are different, JStuff is unable to take care of this step. Please refer to the Sun web site and documentation for the Java installation, and to the servlet vendor's documentation for the servlet's installation procedures. A commen problem encountered after the jbooster install, is that the jbooster applet and admin applet cannot find the servlet (JBServlet.class). By default the applets look to /servlets/swbooster.JBServlet but on some servlet implementations the servlet alias is "servlet." In this case the servletPath parameter to the applets should be set to /servlet/swbooster.JBServlet. Installing jbooster Using the Install Programs The install
software is Java based, however if Java is not installed the install
software can pre-install it. (NB jbooster will only run if servlets
are enabled on the web server, and Java on the computer hosting
the web server.) The jbooster control panel (controlpanel.html and adminApplet.jar) by default will be placed at site root though it is possible to put them anywhere as long as they are both in the same directory. Preferably they should be in a password protected directory, however if directory listing on the web server is turned off and the two are placed in a location not linked to on the site, this is probably security enough.
Installing jbooster on a Remote Server To install jbooster run the client install and servlet install programs. When prompted for the web root and servlet root directories as described above, install into separate empty directories. Inside the directory that client install program installed to, will be the jbooster.jar, adminApplet.jar, readme.html, controlpanel.html, and the folder, jbooster. Inside the directory servlet install program installed to, will be the swbooster folder. The swbooster folder can be simply ftp'ed into the remote servers servlets root directory as is(e.g e:\inet\wwwroot\servlets\swbooster). The jbooster folder must be placed at the web site root directory (ie Where the index.html or default.html file is. eg c:\inet\wwwroot\jbooster). If the web server is hosted on a Unix/Linux system it is necessary to set permissions. Do this by "chmod"ing the sPrefs.sp file in the jbooster folder and jbooster.bst, next.bst, and aPref.ap files in the jbdata folder with 777. Preferably the jbooster folder should not be web accessible (ie. Like a cgi-bin directory, the visitor should not be able to browse the directory, though the servlet should.). Though using the control panel it is possible to shift the location the servlet looks for the jbdata folder.(See Control Panel) The controlpanel.html, adminApplet.jar and jbooster.jar should be placed at site root. Though by changing the parameters to the applet it is possible to put them in a different place if so desired.
Installing the Applet Tags on the Web Site After the folders are in the correct location and file permissions are set correctly, the following tags should be placed on each web page.
Though the applet is invisible on the page and can be placed anywhere, at the bottom of the page is best. If your page has a footer included using SSI / asp or similar technologies then this is the perfect place to put the applet. It need only be installed there, rather than on each individual html file.If the site uses frames then a copy of the applet should placed on the pages that are linked to and appear in the "main" frame. Only one copy of the applet should be running at one time. Thats it, having done this, jbooster should be installed and operational.
jbooster will download html pages without regard to whether they are generated by cgi/servlets/asp/cold fusion etc. From each of those html pages it will download all files with the following extensions:
One custom file
type can be selected per page, by default this is set to .qt or
.js, but any extension can be set. This is done via the applet preferences
tab on the control panel.
On it's own jbooster is a powerful tool for any site author/administrator, but its ease of configuration, and number of configuration options, make it even more powerful. The jbooster Control Panel can be accessed via the administrators browser at http://www.yoursitename.com/jbooster/controlpanel.html. It is a very large applet and so may take up to 30 seconds to load. Once loaded you will see a list of all pages jbooster is currently maintaining profiles for. By selecting from that list you can see which other pages are frequently visited from there. The settings for each page's applet, can be individually edited from here, as can the overall servlet settings. Applet
Settings
Servlet Settings
In addition to setting the jbooster applet settings from the control panel, some preferences can be sent to the applet by adding <param> tags to the html page. (See setting html parameters.) Parameters that Manipulate the URL In general,
only if the host site uses URL rewriting will these HTML parameters
be necessary. However if the site uses forms, then you will probably
need to use some of them. Often a web site which uses CGI, or similar
server side scripting, will add information to the end of a page's
URL. Such information includes the output of forms, userIDs etc.
Thus the URL www.jstuff.net could become www.jstuff.net?phone=12345678&uid=#4567a3Xc1.
In this situation jbooster servlet will faithfully note that it
has not seen this page address before and create a new links profile
for it. But this could mean that jbooster will create as many links
profiles as past visitors to the site(since each will likely have
a different user ID, and enter different data into a form.) In this
situation it is necessary to manipulate the URL before jbooster
servlet sees it. There are three ways to do this, the "userID",
"truncateURL" and "removeFromURL" parameters.
userID
Parameter jbooster applet will scan the URL of the current page and if it finds the stated userID, will remove it before registering itself with the jbooster servlet. It will then add the userID to the end of any page URLs it requests for download from the server. When it adds the user ID back on, it will precede it with either an ampersand mark(&) or a question mark(?). This parameter is intended for use on web sites which use URL rewriting to pass user IDs and session information between browser and server. The contents of the parameter will need to be set in the same way the URLs are rewritten for this to work properly (ie via a CGI script or something similar). An example might make all of this clearer.
Of course though
the parameter is called the userID parameter it could just as easily
be used to hold session IDs or some other information. truncateURL
Parameter The action of this parameter is much simpler than that of userID. It will merely cut off anything after the URL of the current page, before it registers itself with the jbooster servlet. http://www.cardatabase.com/cgi-bin/cars.cgi?moreDetails=true&carID=12234&uid=1235 This can be used in conjunction with the userID parameter such that pages pre-downloaded according to links profile information would be appended with the userID in the userID parameter. removeFromURL
Parameter The action of
this parameter is different to truncateURL in that it will remove
from the URL only a specified string of text. This can also be used in conjunction with the userID parameter such that pages downloaded according to profile information would be appended with the userID in the userID parameter. Other Parameters filex
Parameter Another scenario
in which this parameter could be used, is where there are only a
few possible destinations for the user from the current page. As
an example, an e mail form page usually results in either a "mail
was sent successfully" or "mail could not be sent,"
page. Once again, if the site uses URL rewriting it is possible to dynamically determine this parameter, and it can be used in conjunction with the userID parameter. The format of the filex parameter is: <PARAM name="file0"
value="/apple.html"> The parameters must be named from 0 upwards. If there is a break in the sequence, jbooster will ignore any file parameters after the break. Links can be document relative or site root relative. Any links to external web sites (on different sites) will not be loaded. servletPath
Parameter
Should this
not be the case, say if swbooster.JBServlet is in a directory called
"other" within the servlets directory, you would need
to add this parameter to each applet. The format of
the servletPath parameter is:
Most Java enabled web browsers have a "Java Console." Java error messages as well as other information will often be displayed here. The console allows the user to see what is happening inside the Java virtual machine on their web browser. If the "Send Output toConsole" box is checked on the jbooster control panel, a log and and any error messages from the applets operation's on that page will be posted to the console. If the site is running a demonstration version of jbooster, the applet will display the date on which jbooster will expire in the console. Some versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer are different, but in general the Java console can be enabled and displayed in the following way: Internet
Explorer: Netscape
Navigator:
The jbooster
applet need not be at the web site root necessarily. To change where
the web page loads it from the CODEBASE tag needs to be edited.
Set at "/" it will look for at at web site root. If set
to "." it will look for in the same directory as the current
page. In other situations it can be set much the same as you might
set as image tag, document relative or site root relative. There
is no need to put a trailing "/" however. Nor is there
a need to put "jbooster.jar" since the ARCHIVE tag sets
this. In the situation where the userID parameter is set with , UID=madonna, and the servletPath parameter with, /servlets/jstuff/swbooster.JBServlet, the entire applet code on the html page would be as follows:
Servlet software comes in two forms, stand alone Java and servlet enabled servers, and servlet add-ons for existing web servers. These companies all provide servlet software that can be downloaded from their web sites. http://www.caucho.com
- RESIN (Stand alone server and add on)
Any questions,
comments, or problems regarding jbooster should be directed to:
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