Every page on the main server that uses the document interface displays a graphic across the top of the page, just below the standard navigation bar (HOME, MYMHC, DIRECTORIES, etc.). We refer to this element as the banner. The banner on the page you are reading now is the image:

Every page which uses the DI will have a banner image by default. This image can be turned off or changed for an individual page using the .BANNER command.

The default banner image can also be changed for an entire set of pages. The format of a banner.txt file is quite simple. Comments begin with #, and anything else is assumed to be the banner description. The banner description must consist of the URL of the graphic file, followed by its width, height, and alternate text to be displayed when the image is not loaded.

For example, this is the banner.txt file that appears at the topmost level of the Web site, /banner.txt:

# Default banner description for this and all child directories.
# Whenever an SHTML file does not specify a banner image with the
# .NAVBAR or .BANNER command, this info gets used.
#
# Format:  ImageLocation Width Height AltText
/grafx/banner_dflt.gif 277 29 Mount Holyoke College

This file tells the document interface to use the image /grafx/banner.gif by default in any page, in any subdirectory. This image's width is 277 pixels, and its height is 29.

The other file that is still supported, though not recommended, is .banner.gif. This file becomes the default banner for the directory it appears in, as well as any subdirectories. It has several drawbacks which make it undesirable, however:

• Most importantly, there is no direct way to create a .banner.gif file from a network connection to the Web server. This is because files with names starting with a period are not displayed when using a network connection. It's possible that you may have a .banner.gif file in a directory and not even realize it! The only good way to create an image file starting with a period is to rename (mv) an existing file using Unix.
• There is no good way for the document interface to know what the width and height of the image are. You need to use the .BANNER command in every file for which the .banner.gif gets used. Otherwise, the document interface assumes the image is 277 by 29 pixels, and it may get squashed or stretched by the browser.

Suffice it to say, it is far easier to use the banner.txt file.

To use a different banner on a particular page, refer to the .NAVBAR command.

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