The Arakne Environment currently supports only Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000, as it relies on DCOM for the Internet Explorer integration, and this is only found in these operating systems. The system has been tested with the Internet Explorer 4.0--5.5.
The integration with the Internet Explorer is handled through JIntegra, which must be installed. Additionally, the Java Runtime System (version 1.2 or 1.3) must also be installed.
While the system has been tested with 80 MB RAM, it is generally recommended to use at least 128 MB RAM.
JIntegra can be retrieved as an evaluation version from Linar Ltd.. When jintegra.zip has been downloaded, proceed as follows:
Note: This version of JIntegra is a trial version and will expire after two months. If your version of JIntegra expires, Arakne will not run and you will need to download a new version of JIntegra (and copy the jintegra.jar as described below).
Assuming that JIntegra and the Java Runtime System has been installed, the Arakne Environment can be installed using the Arakne Installer.
In the c:\arakne directory, there are three batch files startNameLoc.bat, startMSIS.bat, and startHsHm.bat. Start these batch files in this order, and wait for the servers to be ready.
The Arakne Environment is a system for augmenting Web pages with an open set of open hypermedia structures. Currently, Arakne supports navigational, compositional (in the form of guided tours), and spatial hypermedia. In addition to creating links between or otherwise associating Web pages, annotations can be added to Web pages.
The Arakne Environment utilises the Microsoft Internet Explorer to show Web pages. By controlling the Internet Explorer, the Arakne Environment can modify the Web page currently shown in the Web browser, and thus links and annotations are added to the page.
The original Web page is not modified, only your view of it. If you view the Web page in a Web browser not under Arakne's control (Arakne starts its own Web browser), your modifications will not be visible.
The Arakne Environment is built on a MDI (Multiple Documents Interface) metaphor. Depending on your needs, you will be running one or more hypermedia tools (known as "views") in the same window. In addition, work is done within "sessions" (of which several can active at the same time).
The main purpose for sessions is working with others, but you can of course work on your own within a session.
The Arakne Environment can be started using the runme.bat file found in the c:\arakne directory, provided that the servers are running. It will upon launch check whether its JAR files are current, and if not, automatically retrieve and install them. You will therefore, when running Arakne for the first time, observe that Arakne will be retrieving a lot of files. This is normal behaviour. During each startup, Arakne automatically checks for updates to its core files and retrieves updates.
You will notice that alongside the Arakne Environment window, the Internet Explorer is launched. This is the Web browser integrated by the Arakne Environment, and most work with the hypermedia structures in the system is handled through right-click menues in the Internet Explorer.
When you first start the Arakne Environment, it is likely to look similar to the image above. Move your mouse around the image to get descriptions of individual items.
In the Arakne Environment, all is done within sessions, so in order to commence working with the system, a session must be created. This is accomplished by opening the Session Manager:
In this example, a uncoupled session named my session is created:
This image shows an active session (my session) with the Session Manager opened. Notice that the All Users list in the Session Manager has been updated that the user (in this case bouvin) is online and active. The lower part of the Session Manager contains information on the current session. You can see the members of a session, whether they are active or not, and what kind of hypermedia tools they are using.
Having created a session to work within, the next step to make a context within which hypermedia content can be stored (you cannot launch views until you have created at least one context). Click on New Context (upper left corner), and give it a name (in this example my context).
Finally, it is time to create some actual hypermedia structures! Launch the navigational hypermedia view Navette by the menu: View > Navette.
Navette has little apparent interface - this is because the creation of links and annotations takes place in the Internet Explorer.
In this example a link from the Arakne help page to
the quick guide (this document) will be created.
Select 'quick guide' on the Web page and right-click on the selection. A
context menu resembling the one in the image above (though possibly with a
different number of entries) will appear. Select Arakne - Create
Link. When you do this, a one-headed link will appear in the Navette
window, and your selection will change mark up, as it is now a link. Links are
most fun with more than one endpoint, so go to the quick guide, select 'Systems
Requirements' in the beginning of the document, right-click, and select
Arakne - Add Endpoint.
At this point, your Navette should resemble the one above. You can rename links and endpoints by selecting and re-selecting it (in the Windows and Mac fashion), and delete by right-clicking on it. You can follow links either by clicking on their endpoints in the Internet Explorer, or by using Navette. If there are more than one endpoint to choose from, a dialog will pop up in the Arakne window, allowing you to choose your destination.
Having created a link, the next thing to create is a simple guided tour. Ariadne is launched through the view menu: View > Ariadne.
A guided tour is a number of Web pages arranged in a directed graph. In this case a very simple guided tour will do. Ariadne has a reader and a editor mode, and edit mode is entered by Edit > Editmode.
You add Web pages to a tour either by 'Arakne - Add Page' in the Internet Explorer context menu, or by Edit > Add Page in the Ariadne menubar. You can move the boxes representing the Web pages around on the canvas, and you make connections between pages by double-clicking on the source box (turning it yellow) and then clicking on the destination box.
In the example above, the top page has been selected as the starting point of the guided tour through Edit > Choose as startpage.
When Ariadne is exited, you are asked if you want to save the guided tour. You can also browse your guided tour as a reader (either by clicking directly or by using the buttons at the bottom of the Ariadne window), in which case the boxes representing Web pages changes colour so you can see where you have been.
The hypermedia servers used by the Arakne Environment must be shut down properly in order to save the work you have done in Arakne. Start by writing quit followed by newline in the HsHm window. This will make the hypermedia structure server save its files, so that they are available next HsHm is started. Once HsHm has been shut down, the other two processes (MSIS and NameLoc) can be terminated by pressing Ctrl-C repeatedly in their respective windows or by killing their processes.