Hotspots

6.4. Hotspots

In the Free Edition hotspots are not available. You need to upgrade to the full version to use hotspots.

Users can extend the interaction available with the 3DSOM Pro Java Viewer models by defining active regions ('hot-spots') on the 3D model. When the mouse cursor is left stationary over a hotspot region ('hovers') the java viewer will overlay a short text message in a box. When a hotspot region is clicked the web page can be dynamically changed using JavaScript.

TIP:	Use the hotspot editor available from the 3DSOM Pro web site (http://www.3dsom.com/dowload/) to author your hotspots and automatically generate the required html pages and scripts.

Implementing hotspots for experienced programmers

Hotspots are implemented using JavaScript functions called by the applet. If you wish to extend the code generated by the hotspot editor or implement your own hotspots then you will need to know about the following parameters:

onInit: the value of this parameter is a string. The string is sent to the JavaScript interpreter of the browser as soon as the Java applet is up and running. This can be used to hide the applet area (grey box) until the applet is fully loaded.
mouseOverHandler: the value of this parameter is a JavaScript function name. This function will be called when the mouse is hovering over the model. The handler will be called with a single string parameter. The format of this string is "coords=x,y,z;look=u,v,w" where the 3D position of the mouse cursor projected onto the model is (x,y,z) and the direction of sight of the current viewpoint is (u,v,w) in world coordinates scaled by 1000. The handler function should determine if these parameters are to be treated as a 'hotspot' and return the text popup string to be overlaid on the viewer window. Use a zero-length string if no hotspot is to be active. The handler function should also set the window status bar to reflect the text popup (e.g. window.status="axe").
mouseClickHandler: the value of this parameter is a JavaScript function name. This function will be called when the user clicks on the model. A single string parameter is used as for the mouseOverHandler. The handler needs to determine if the input parameters are to be treated as a 'hotspot' and take the desired actions.

If you wish to write your own JavaScript handler functions note that they are called from the applet and execution will return to the applet. If the applet is no longer there (e.g. the function opens a new URL on top of the existing page) the results may be unpredictable in some browsers. Use the setTimeout JavaScript function in these cases to avoid problems.

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