AntWorld FAQ (June 2000)

Contents

General

1. What is AntWorld about?
2. What about privacy?
3. What software is required to use the AntWorld?
4. Can I use AntWorld from behind a firewall?
5. The program is very slow!
6. I have a question...

Antscape (the AntWorld client)

1. Do I need to download anything?
2. How to download Antscape (the AntWorld client software)?
3. Where do I get Java Virtual Machine?
4. How to configure Antscape?
5. Where can I obtain more information about how the AntWorld works?
6. How to upgrade Antscape to a new version?
7. What's that "profile" thing?
8. Sometimes after I quite Antscape for UNIX, and start a regular Netscape session, I find that I can't work. What goes on?
9. It does not work!
10. It still does not work!
11. How to uninstall Antscape?
12. What exactly does Antscape do to my Netscape's preference file? Why?
13. Why does Antscape asks me to grant various permission when it first starts up?
14. How to use AntWorld with Microsoft Internet Explorer?

What is AntWorld about?

During a quest, please judge pages you have found. Judging a page works a bit like a bookmarking -- it enters the page into the quest profile along with your judgment, and allows you to easily return to it in the future. But it also allows AntWorld to learn more about your needs in this quest.

AntWorld tries to match the goals and findings of your current quest and those of other AntWorld quests -- both run by you and by other AntWorld users. It creates a suggestion list for you, consisting of the pages that were judged as useful in your current quest and other quests similar to it.

What about privacy?

You even can use AntWorld without creating an account, as user guest or demo. (No password is required). However, this will make it impossible for you to resume your quest in the future.

The program is very slow!

Can I use AntWorld from behind a firewall?

If you use AntWorld without installing the AntScape client, no special preparations are needed at all, besides whatever you--and everybody else at yoru site--do to tell your browser how to find the gateway.

If you want to use AntScape, you need to make sure that AntScape can figure where the gateway is by reading your browser's preference file. This is how you can do it:

1. Run Netscape without AntScape, but if under MS Windows 9*, using the already created antworld profile. Make sure you can access web sites outside of your organization. If you can't edit the data in the Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies menu according to your site administrator's instructions.
2. Exit Netscape.
3. Start AntScape. AntScape will read the proxy data from your netscape preference file and use them to connect to the Web.

Note that, as you can see in the Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies menu, there are two different types of specifying the proxy server: "Manual Proxy Configuration" and "Automatic Proxy Configuration". So far (early May 2000), AntScape can only understand the former, and even that is not throughly tested, as we don't have a firewall here.

I have a question...

How to upgrade Antscape to a new version?

1. You can download antworld.exe (on an MS Windows PC) or antworld.tar.gz (on a UNIX mahcine), and follow the regular installation instructions, skipping steps that are not applicable (i.e., you don't need to recreate the AntWorld profile).

2. In many cases, you can upgrade simply by downloading a new version of local.jar. Go to the directory where you originally installed AntScape (on a MS Windows machine, probably c:\program files\antworld); make sure that there is indeed a file named local.jar in that directory; and replace it with a new version of local.jar downloaded from our web site ( http://aplab.rutgers.edu/ant/download/local.jar) or FTP site ( ftp://aplab.rutgers.edu/pub/ant/local.jar).

   (Note on downloading: some web browsers may not like people downloading JAR files; they give various weird error messages, etc. It usually helps to press a Shift key on your keyboard simultaneously with clicking the mosue button. You may also use your favorite FTP problem instead of the web browser; just make sure that you download the archive in binary mode!)

I am using Netscape browser under Microsoft Windows 9x. I have noticed that once I have created a new profile, "antworld", as you instructed, my Netscape behaves differently, even in non-Antworld sessions: when I click on the "Netscape" icon, it brings something named "Profile Manager" and asks me to "choose a profile". I don't understand what a "profile" is, and I want that "Profile Manager" to go away!

You must be one of those users who use Netscape for MS Windows, but don't make use of its "profile" feature. What is a "profile"? Since, unlike UNIX, most flavors of Microsoft Windows have no separate user accounts, Netscape allows you create several different "profiles". For each profile, a separate user preference file, history file, etc., exists, so that Netscape on the same PC could be used by different people at different times without interfering with each other. (This feature, of course, is not necessary in UNIX Netscapes, since in any UNIX system each user would already have a separate account, and Netscape would keep the user's file in his a private directory).

If you have not explicitly created any Netscape profiles on your PC before installing the AntWorld client, your Netscape probably had only one profile, named "default". This means that when you clicked on the Netscape icon, Netscape would immediately run using that "default" profile.

Once you installed the AntWorld client and created the "antworld" profile, your Netscape realized that you have multiple profiles --and for this reason every time it starts, it asks you which profile to use. What can you do about it?

• Perhaps you could decide that having profiles is a good thing, after all. You'll just keep selecting "default" every time you want to use Netscape in the non-AntWorld mode; and perhaps one day you'll create several more profiles, one for each family member or coworker using the PC -- then you'll have way more choosing to do!

• Or you can stay convinced that the original, profile-less Netscape was a better value for your money. That's your right, of course. If you want Netscape to behave this way again, it's easy to arrange, as follows:
  1. Click on the Netscape icon on your MS Windows desktop. A pop-up menu will appear.
  2. Choose "Properties" in the pop-up menu. A new window will appear.
  3. In the "Properties" window, select the tab labeled "Shortcut".
  4. Edit the "Target" entry box, so that instead of

     C:\someDirectory\netscape.exe
     

     it will say

     C:\someDirectory\netscape.exe -P"default"
     

  5. Click "OK".
  This will ensure that in the future when you click on the Netscape icon, Netscape will be invoked in the "defaut" profile. (The above description is for MS Windows 95. The interface may be somewhat different in other versions).

Sometimes after I quite Antscape for UNIX, and start a regular Netscape session, I find that I can't work. What goes on?

Probably, the Antscape session was interrupted abnormally, so that Antscape could not restore the Netscape's preference file, and Netscape is still trying to talk to the now-nonexistent Local Ant Proxy Server. (This is probably never an issue in Microsoft Windows Antscape, since it uses a separate user profile for AntWorld searches). To restore the preference file, run Antscape again and exit is in the "normal" way -- by clicking on "File" and then "Exit" in the Netscape menu.

Alternatively, you could go to Netscape's "Edit | Preferences | Advanced | Proxy" menu item, and set it to "direct connection to the Internet" (instead of "manual").

Antscape seems to use the AntWorld database at your site at Rutgers. How can I set up my own AntWorld database for me and my coworkers?

If you are adventurous enough (or are paid by the hour for installing software) and have a powerful enough computer, you can set up your own AntWorld Organizational server with an AntWorld Database server. Please read the installation instructions.

It does not work!

This is a common problems checklist:

• Are you using a recent version (4.05 or above) of Netscape Navigator?
• You cannot run Antscape simultaneously with a "regular" Netscape session. Had you quitted Netscape before starting the AntWorld (typing antscape.sh in UNIX or clicking on the "AntWorld" or "Antscape" icon in MS Windows)?
• If you are running Netscape under some kind of Microsoft Windows, have you created the profile antworld? Please check whether directory C:\Program Files\Netscape\Users\antworld and the file Prefs.js in it exist.
• If you are using Netscape under some flavor of UNIX, make sure that you can run Netscape successfully from this account (i.e., PATH, DISPLAY, etc. are correctly set), and have done so already. If you have, the subdirectory .netscape must exist in your home directory, with the file preferences.js

It still does not work!

1. In Windows Explorer, go to the directory C:\Program Files\Antworld
2. Start ("open", in MS windows parlance) the script antscape.bat

How to uninstall Antscape?

Just remove the directory you have created during installation, with all its contents:

rm -rf antworld

There are two ways to uninstall the AntWorld client (Antscape):

Method 1: Using the AntWorld uninstall function (recommended).

Go to the directory where you have installed the AntWorld client (by default, C:\Program Files\AntWorld), and run the following command:

   jre uninstall -idb install.idb

Method 2: Using the Windows uninstall function:

1. Go to Start Menu-> Settings->Control Panel-> add/remove programs
2. Choose AntWorld
3. Click on the remove button.

What exactly does AntWorld do to my Netscape's preference file? Why?

1. Codebase principal support should be enabled. The AntWorld uses fairly "activist" JavaScript code in the console window: it resizes, moves, opens, and closes Netscape windows trying to optimize screen layout, and monitors your Web browsing done in the document window, and controls the URL loaded in the document window when you use console navigation tools. Generally, JavaScript programs may not be allowed to do all this unless either they are signed, or the browser has codebase principals support enabled (so that you the user can simply tell it to allow all scripts coming from a certain URL to engage in such suspicious activities). Since December 1999, the javaScript used in the standard version of AntWorld is signed, so strictly speaking enabling codebase principals support is not necessary anymore. However, doing this may still be useful on some machines with malfunctioning Netscape security.

2. Netscape should be told to route all requests through the Local Ant Proxy Server (LAPS): a program that runs on your computer when you use the AntWorld, analyzing your requests (see the architecture document for details) and inserting ant icons in the documents you view next to the links to suggested pages. (You can see these settings if you go to Netscape's Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies menu)

These settings are controlled via the preference file (~/.netscape/preferences.js in UNIX, something like C:\Program Files\Netscape\Communicator\Users\antworld\prefs.js in Microsoft Windows 9*). These are the lines that the antscape program adds (or replaces) in that file:

user_pref("signed.applets.codebase_principal_support", true);
user_pref("network.proxy.ftp", "localhost");
user_pref("network.proxy.ftp_port", port);
user_pref("network.proxy.http", "localhost");
user_pref("network.proxy.http_port", port);
user_pref("network.proxy.no_proxies_on", "");
user_pref("network.proxy.type", 1);

Here port is the port on which the local Ant Proxy Server is currently running.

After you finish browsing and quit Netscape, the program automatically shuts down LAPS and resets the preference file to the normal values (no proxy server, no codebase principal permissions). It won't try to reset other values, so if you made any changes to the Netscape preferences during your AntWorld browsing, they will be preserved!

Operation from behind a firewall. If you use the AntScape client on a computer that communicates with the World Wide Web via a gateway in a firewall, AntScape's proxy management is somewhat more complicated. On startup, it finds out from your preference file what host and port you use for the gateway, and instructs LAPS to use that gateway to talk to the Web. Thus, each document request sent by your browser first goes to the LAPS and then to the firewall gateway.

Why does Antscape ask me to grant various permission when it first starts up?

On some systems, certain permissions may also be useful to allow the JavaScript code resize the console and document windows the way it wants.

How to use AntWorld with Microsoft Internet Explorer?

1. You need to download Coroutine for Java from Neva Object Technology, and install it according to the instructions found on their site.

   When installing the DDE Coroutine, take a note where it places its class files. Typically, if you don't have the environment variable CLASSPATH set on your PC, the classes will go under C:\Windows\JavaCls0 (i.e., a subdirectory named com will be created under directory.) The location may be different if you have CLASSPATH set.

2. Go to the directory where you have installed Antscape (typically, C:\Program Files\AntWorld), and modify file antscape.bat so that the classpath option to JVM included the JavaDDE class directory. For example, if your antscape.bat contained the line

   "jview" /cp:p "c:\Program Files\AntWorld\local.jar" \
   local.LocalProxyServer %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
   

   you may replace it with

   "jview" /cp:p "c:\Program Files\AntWorld\local.jar;C:\windows\JavaCls0" \
   local.LocalProxyServer %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
   

3. In the same antscape directory, modify the configuration file antscape.cfg so that it contains the directive

   BrowserType="msie"
   

   (this will cause Antscape to start MSIE automatically) or

   BrowserType="none"
   

   (this way Antscape will start no browser).

4. When you start Antscape by typing antscape.bat, it will print out the port number LAPS listens to. Write down that number and then, in IE, go to Tools | INternet Options | Connections | LAN Settings and set proxy host to localhost and proxy port to the value you have written down.

Written by: Vladimir Menkov. April 1999--May 2000.