Build Notes
This implementation of Minesweeper utilised the following technologies:
Java, HTTP, PHP, XML, Browser Cookies, JavaScript, HTML, CSS and Apache on Linux
In order to support the widest range of Web Browsers and Operating Systems, the front end is implemented in a Java Applet. Any Java compliant browser with a Java Runtime Environment of JRE 1.1 or greater should be capable of running the game.
The game's User Interface was written entirely in Java (mostly utilising the Applet and AWT packages). Rather than relying on clients downloading and installing custom library (eg. Swing) to support some of the more complex user interface components (eg. image buttons), several classes with functionality similar to those provided in the Swing library have been written specifically in AWT and distributed with this application.
The Netscape JavaScript package is utilised by the Applet in order to enable interaction with the client browser's Cookie Object to store user-specific High Scores.
The central High Scores list is maintained in XML format on the web server. A PHP script is responsible for updating the XML, making use of a pure PHP XML parser called "xml2Tree" written by Bill Softky (see Links section below).
The Applet imports a freeware lightweight XML Parser written in Java called "NanoXML 2 Lite" created by Marc De Scheemaecker.
Certain browser specific code was included in the Applet to accomodate for non-standard JVM's on the client's browser (this handles in particular, the Internet Explorer JVM's non-standard implementation of Event propagation and unusual Frame rendering behaviour).
>> Top
Links