Download vlibrary.zip, unzip and copy the vLibrary folder to a local or network drive. The folder contains the files sidebar.htm, bulletinboard.xsl and two subfolders, images and stylesheets.

To enable the active desktop background right click the desktop and select Properties.

• on Windows 9x select the Background tab then click Browse and open vlibrary\Sidebar.htm.
• on Windows 2K/XP select the Desktop tab then click Browse and open vlibrary\Sidebar.htm

The three Sidebar components should be displayed along with the sample Bulletin Board entries shown above from fhctech.blog-city.com.

Sidebar Updating

To update the desktop after sidebar.htm has changed, open the display Properties Background/Desktop page, select an alternative file, click Apply, then reselect and open vlibrary\Sidebar.htm.

The Sidebar has two configuration parameters that control its alignment and colorscheme. The values can be changed by editing the specified file with Notepad.

File: vlibrary\stylesheets\library.css

Parameter: float

Values: left, right    

/*
For left-alignment specify the float property value: left;
for right-alignment specify the float property value: right.
Select, then refresh the desktop (F5) for changes to take effect.
*/

#Sidebar {
  float: left;
  width: 25%;
  margin: 1em, 0.8em;
}

File: vlibrary\sidebar.htm

Parameter: css file name

Values: default.css, navy.css, teal.css, xp.css          

<!-- The colorscheme alternatives are: default.css; navy.css; teal.css; and xp.css -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="stylesheets/default.css" type="text/css" />

The Front Desk is shown in the adjacent figure with the Navy colorscheme. The Front Desk can be enabled or disabled via the Display property in library.css. The message text can be customized via a string variable in sidebar.htm.

Display: block, none     File: vlibrary\stylesheets\library.css

/*
To show the Front Desk specify the display property value: block,
to hide the Front Desk the display property value: none.
Select, then refresh the desktop (F5) for changes to take effect.
*/

#FrontDesk { display: block; }

Message String: sWelcomeMessage    File: vlibrary\sidebar.htm

//The Front Desk message text string can be edited. It should remain on one line however.

sWelcomeMessage = "Welcome to the Family History Center. We have a variety of resources to facilitate your research, please don't hesistate to ask for assistance or more information. Our staff looks forward to helping you."

The Bulletin Board is shown in the figure with the teal colorscheme. The Bulletin Board can be enabled or disabled via the Display property in library.css. The Blog's RSSummary URL address must be specified by the variable sBlogURL in sidebar.htm.

Display: block, none     File: vlibrary\stylesheets\library.css

/*
To show the Bulletin Board specify the display property value: block,
to hide the Bulletin Board specify the display property value: none.
Select, then refresh the desktop (F5) for changes to take effect.
*/

#BulletinBoard {display: block; }

RSSummary URL: sBlogURL    File: vlibrary\sidebar.htm

//The Blog address should be edited. The default, 'http://fhctech.blog-city.com/index.rss' is functional and can be used for testing.

sBlogURL = 'http://fhctech.blog-city.com/index.rss'

The Bulletin Board brings the content of a hosted weblog to the Windows desktop. Blog entries are summarized and presented with hyperlinks that can be followed to display the full entry text.

A commercial blog hosting service, blog-city.com, offers a free blog that is used to generate Bulletin Board content.

To create a Blog-City Weblog:

1. Sign-up for a free Blog at www.blog-city.com
2. Open the Blog site at: <your blog name>.blog-city.com
3. Enter an email address and password in the Login Console area to access the blog site administration tools.
4. Configure the Blog following the suggestions in the Blog-city Configuration section below.
5. Create Blog entries with the embedded title format described in the Blog-city Entries section below. Entries > Write a new Blog entry > enter text and click Save and Publish
6. View the blog site home page, http://fhctech.blog-city.com, to verify successful content creation.
7. View the blog summary page in Internet Explorer to verify its rss feed: http://<your blog name>.blog-city.com/rss/index.rss. Main blog RSS Feed: » http://fhctech.blog-city.com/index.rss LinkBlog RSS Feed: » http://fhctech.blog-city.com/rss/linkblog.rss
8. Update the default sBlogURL string variable in vlibrary/sidebar.htm and reload the active desktop background.
   

The fhctech demo blog is at: fhctech.blog-city.com

The fhctech blog summary feed is at: fhctech.blog-city.com/index.rss

Entry Title

Only the Blog entry title is published in the free Blog-City.com RSS feed at http://fhctech.blog-city.com/index.rss. As a result it's necessary to use a workaround to create both an entry title and summary for the Bulletin Board.

The procedure is to add a custom '[summary]' tag in the Blog entry title to separate the Bulletin Board entry title from the Bulletin Board RSS summary. The Blog entry title should be formatted as: (Bulletin Board entry title text)[summary](Bulletin Board entry summary text).

The first sample blog entry title is:
New Desktop Bulletin Board[summary]Congratulations, you've created a new Windows desktop Bulletin Board. Click the title for more information.

Entry Text

The blog entry text will not be displayed on the Bulletin Board however it can be viewed by clicking the entry title on the desktop. This will display the entire entry in a browser window.

Notes:

• Don't forget to click the Save & Publish button after creating or editing a blog entry.
• Blog visitors can register on the blog home page to receive email notification when entrys are added.

Configuration suggestions:

format has been changed...are these still available?

Options > General > Comments? - No public comments
Options > General > Page Title - FHC Bulletin Board entries

Options > Home Page > No. Blog entries - 6

Options > Profile > Enable Email Alerts - No
Options > Profile > Directory - uncheck 'Yes list me in the public directory'

Notes:

• Don't forget to click Save Settings after making configuration changes.
• Do not save & publish 'My Blog Header Blog,' otherwise it will be displayed on the Bulletin Board. It should only be saved as a draft.

The Storage Area shown in this figure uses the XP stylesheet, xp.css. Its position is fixed near the bottom of the desktop and provides space for four Windows shortcut icons that must be postioned manually.

The Storage Area can be enabled or disabled via the display property in library.css. The message text can be customized via a string variable in sidebar.htm.

Display: block, none    File: vlibrary\stylesheets\library.css

/*
To show the Storage Area specify the display property value: block,
to hide the Storage Area specify the display property value: none.
Select, then refresh the desktop (F5) for changes to take effect.
*/

#StorageArea {
  display: block;
  position: absolute;
  bottom: 90px;
}

Message String: sStorageMessage    File: vlibrary\sidebar.htm

//The Storage Area message text string can be edited. It should remain on one line however.

sStorageMessage = "Please take your data with you. We can not guarantee the availability or integrity of files left on this computer."