November 2013 [Cradle-6.8.2]

Displaying Diagrams in Web Browsers

Cradle can display diagrams in web pages:

• By printing a diagram to SVG from WorkBench or from a custom web UI
• In the static, hyperlinked, websites produced by the Web Publisher tool
• When viewing a diagram in a custom web UI

Cradle renders diagrams using SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), an XML-based file format developed by the W3C from competing formats submitted by Microsoft and Macromedia (VML) and Adobe Systems and Sun Microsystems (PGML) in 1998. Microsoft joined the SVG working group in 2010.

Inside diagrams rendered in SVG, Cradle embeds a link in each symbol name that will open the associated data definition or specification for the symbol and, for those symbols that have them, Cradle also embeds a link in a symbol’s number that opens the lower-level diagram (if any) associated with that symbol.

Support for SVG in web browsers was originally provided by a plug-in supplied by Adobe Systems. This plug-in is included in the Cradle software distribution. It is not installed by default. Most modern web browsers now have built-in support for SVG, with the exception of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) which only included support for SVG from IE version 9 onwards.

So, to view Cradle diagrams in your web browser:

• If you use IE 8 or earlier, install the SVG plug-in from Adobe Systems, also supplied by 3SL
• For all other web browsers, SVG diagrams should display automatically

There is a backward compatibility issue that can affect some Firefox users. Users of Firefox from the earliest versions (Firefox 1 or 2) may still be using configuration files that were initially created by those earliest releases. If so, you may encounter problems displaying SVG.

If you believe that Firefox is not displaying SVG correctly, then:

1. Open your mimeTypes.rdf file, typically held in:
   C:\Documents and Settings\...\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\...\
2. Search for any definitions that include SVG, such as:
   

   <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:application/xped"
        NC:fileExtensions="svg"
        NC:description="SVG Document"
        NC:value="application/xped"
        NC:editable="true">
     <NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:application/xped"/>
   </RDF:Description>

3. If you find any, delete them
4. Restart Firefox

In this issue:

1. 3SL Newsletters
2. Receive Your Own Newsletter
3. Newsletter Contents
4. 3SL Website
5. Need Help?
6. Status and Stability with Dashboards
7. Top Newsletter Articles
8. New Cradle Products
9. 3SL Website Shop
10. Колыбель Викторины в России
11. Want a Free Training Course in the US?
12. New in the Cradle Group on LinkedIn
13. Do You Want Windows XP?
14. Do You Want Office 2003?
15. Cradle on Linux
16. Displaying Diagrams in Web Browsers
17. Acrobat Compatibility
18. Mixed Office Installations
19. Old Versions of Cradle