Which Browser?
All upgrades and improvements to the IADB are initially developed and tested using the
Mozilla Firefox
browser. Then, as time allows, further work is undertaken to try and ensure that all essential elements of
the IADB are also compatible with Microsoft Internet Explorer, and then Opera. This means, that at any given time, it
is likely that some parts of the IADB might not work correctly, or at all, in Internet Explorer or Opera. All IADB
users are therefore encouraged to use Firefox to access the IADB.
General Browser Settings
The IADB uses JavaScript, cookies and popup windows, so all of these need to be enabled in your browser.
To ensure that you always see the latest version of each IADB page, page caching should be turned off or
minimised, both in your browser and your proxy server (if you are using one). Do not use the navigation
buttons (Home, Back, Forward, Reload) of your web browser whilst using the IADB.
IADB Matrix Editor
This version of the IADB includes a native DHTML editor for Matrix diagrams which offers many new or improved
features compared with the
Matrix Editor Plugin used by earlier versions. All users are advised to use the new DHTML matrix editor, but
if you would like to continue to use the Matrix Editor plugin,
please click here
to download a zip file containing the plugin. Unzip the downloaded file into your browser's
Plugins folder, normally c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins and then restart Firefox. Once you have
logged into the IADB, go to User Settings on the Utilities menu and select Plugin as your
matrix editor. Please note that once matrix diagrams have been edited and saved using the new DHTML editor, they
will no longer be editable in the plugin editor.
SVG Graphics
SVG (Scaleable Vector Graphics) is an open source XML based standard for vector graphics on the web developed
under the auspices of the World Wide Web Consortium (see http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/
for more information). Within the IADB, plans may be edited and displayed in either SVG format or native DHTML format
(choose between the two in the User Settings dialog accessed from the Utilities menu). Illustrations are always
displayed in SVG format. In Firefox, the browser's native SVG implementation is used to display SVG plans and
illustrations, but if you are using Internet Explorer you will need to download and install
the free Adobe SVG Viewer plug-in. The latest version of the viewer can be downloaded from http://www.adobe.com/svg.
Under Windows, preview version 6 of the viewer has been
found to be the most stable. This can be obtained from http://www.adobe.com/svg/viewer/install/beta.html.
Please note that Adobe has announced that support for its SVG Viewer will be discontinued in 2008.
Other Helper Applications
There are several other applications which, although not required for the core functionality of the IADB,
can make life easier. All of these applications can be downloaded free of charge from the Internet.
- Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader
Externally generated documents stored within the IADB will
normally be in PDF format. To view these you will need the free Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader. Most modern computers
have this installed but if not, you can get it from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/main.html.
- PDF Creator
PDF Creator is an open source application which can be used to generate PDF
files from within just about any Windows application with a Print command. Within the IADB it is particularly
useful for creating IADB report publications in PDF format. It installs a 'virtual' printer driver which makes
creating a PDF version of a document as simple as printing it.
For more information see http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/.
- IrfanView
IrfanView is a freeware raster graphics viewer and batch processor. It offers
a simple and efficient way of resizing and converting a wide range of graphics formats ready for uploading into
the IADB. For more information and to download IrfanView, see http://www.irfanview.com
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