Customizing ToonTalk's HTML Dialogs

Customizing ToonTalk's HTML Dialogs

ToonTalk displays all dialogs based upon HTML files that are user accessible. The current list of dialog files that you can customize are:

starttt.htm This is the most important dialog. It is the one you see when you start up ToonTalk. It has buttons for launching ToonTalk in Free Play or Play Game modes. It can run any of the built-in demos. Options can be set and help obtained. By customizing this file you can change which demos or puzzle sequences are available, hide certain features of ToonTalk, and add new features such as visiting a special pre-built city. To make these changes you need the ability to edit HTML and perhaps to make changes to the JavaScript used on these pages.
askname.htm This is the dialog that asks the user to enter his or her name and select how he or she wants to look.
genpause.htm This is the dialog that is displayed when the user pauses or escapes from ToonTalk.
hndpause.htm This is the dialog that is displayed when the user pauses or escapes from ToonTalk and something in held in the programmer's hand.
savpause.htm This dialog is displayed after saving something.
nosave.htm This differs from genpause.htm in that the option to save the city is not included.
dempause.htm This is the dialog that is displayed when a demo is paused.
messboxc.htm This is the general dialog for putting up messages and asking simple yes/no or OK type questions.
clickme2.htm This is the dialog that is run when the CD-ROM is inserted into the drive if ToonTalk has been installed. clickme.htm is on the CD-ROM and is run if ToonTalk is not installed.
ctypause.htm This dialog is displayed if the loading of a city is interrupted.
loadpaus.htm This dialog is displayed if the loading of an object is interrupted.
savctypa.htm This dialog is displayed if the saving of a city is interrupted.
savobjpa.htm This dialog is displayed if the saving of an object is interrupted.
cpyurlpa.htm This dialog is displayed if the loading of a file over the Internet is interrupted.

JavaScript is used on all the HTML dialog pages. Information is passed the page via window.dialogArguments. This is a string with semi-colons (';') separating different values. To return information to ToonTalk you need to send a string back as the value of window.returnValue and then you need to call window.close(). The string you return to ToonTalk should be a valid command line string.

Note that if you create a specialized dialog page and name it something.htm.tt or something.html.tt (where something can be any valid name) then when doubled clicked, Start ToonTalk will be launched and start with that dialog page.