Website Authoring with Haptek's VirtualFriend™ 2


Users of this document must have a web author licensed version of VirtualFriend 2.x., the full version download, and an intermediate to advanced level familiarity with the software. In addition, experience creating web pages and uploading files to the web is necessary to use VirtualFriend on a web site.  This document is divided into sections for easy reference; the sections are listed in the table below.
 

Opening VirtualFriend and the Big Edit Window
Creating a .htacces File
Loading Your Web Page

Opening VirtualFriend and The Big Edit Window


1. Open VirtualFriend by double-clicking the VF icon on your desktop or by accessing the program through the Windows Start menu.

        The VirtualFriend interface window appears.
        You may want to click the Shut Up! button, so you can have quiet while you work.

2. In the upper left corner of the interface window, click the Exclamation Mark button to access the control panels.

3. Keep clicking the Exclamation Mark button until the Authoring control panel appears on the right side of the interface window.

4. In the Authoring control panel, click on the Big Edit Window button.

        The Big Edit Window appears with lines of  highlighted text, which are the sentences (and character commands) for the
        current VirtualFriend demo.

5. In the Big Edit Window, delete the highlighted text.

        Note: The script is not permanently deleted; it will reappear in the Big Edit Window when you close the program. The empty
        Big Edit Window is where you will add the text and commands for your Email Movie.

6. Drag the Big Edit Window to a comfortable location where you can use it and work with the VirtualFriend character.

7. Create your script in VirtualFriend using the key frames, shapes, skins, and backgrounds you wish.

        Note: Your potential viewers may have the Lite version of the software, which has fewer options for morphs and textures.
        They might not be able to see all of the skins and shape textures you program into your script.

Save the script on your harddrive as a .vfe file. Be sure to type the .vfe extension in the file name to correctly save the file.

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Creating a .htacces File

Create a .htaccess file for your website by doing the following:

1. In the VirtualFriend Authoring control panel, click on the Make .htaccess button.
        A file named .htaccess is created on your harddrive.

        Note: The .htaccess file must be included in every directory on your website that contains a VirtualFriend script. If your
        web site is already using a .htaccess file, append the contents of Haptek's .htaccess file to your own.

2. Build an HTML page, and include your script as a link.

        Example: You save your VirtualFriend script as hello.vfe and are making a page titled index.html. On the HTML page, create
        a link to hello.vfe. If hello.vfe and index.html are in the same directory, the raw HTML will look like this:

            <A HREF="hello.vfe">Click Me</A>

        If you’re building your page in an html editor such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator, enter the words click me,
        then highlight and link them to hello.vfe.

3. Locally test your HTML page by viewing index.html (or whatever name you give it) with your browser, and click on the link.

        VirtualFriend will launch and play your script.


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Loading Your Web Page


Where and how a website is hosted determines the method and software that you choose. Send your script, webpage, and .htaccess file to your website using file transfer protocol software. Two popular programs are CuteFTP or WSFTP Pro, available from www.cuteftp.com and www.ipswitch.com respectively.

1. Upload your index page, script, and the .htaccess file to your website.

        Note: Ideally, your .vfe script and index page are in the same directory. If not, be sure to keep the .htaccess file with the vfe file,
        rather than with the .html file.

2. Check that all your files have read permissions established for the public. (With most FTP files, the default is read only.)

3. Check that your link works by performing the following:

            VirtualFriend will launch and play your script.

            Example web pages that demonstrate the previous techniques are at http://www.haptek.com/demos/vf2.0