More than a browser
Sidewinder can operate in three modes: embedded inside Internet Explorer, as a standalone browser and as a desktop application framework.
With Sidewinder you can browse ordinary web pages as normal, either in the standalone mode or embedded within Internet Explorer. But Sidewinder can go much further, and when using its unique desktop application mode, a simple XHTML document becomes a full internet-focused desktop application, that can dock to the side of the screen, auto-hide, be set transparent or opaque, and more.
Standalone browser mode
Sidewinder can be invoked as a standalone browser from your Start menu; a menu item will have been added when Sidewinder was installed.
In this mode, Sidewinder has three dockable child windows:
- Output window, showing general application logging messages;
- Errors window, containing details of errors in HTTP operations or during XML parsing;
- Events window, displaying XForms events as they occur in the document (due to performance considerations, event logging must be enabled manually by pressing F9).
Furthermore, the standalone browser mode contains a syntax-highlighted source view, which shall gradually evolve into a full featured editor.
Embedded mode
When using Internet Explorer, navigating to a document that has an XHTML MIME type (i.e., a type of application/xhtml+xml) will cause Sidewinder to handle the document, embedded within IE. (A server will know that IE can accept XHTML documents because Sidewinder modifies the accept headers.)
Desktop application framework mode
In this mode Sidewinder turns an XHTML page into a full desktop application, with the option to dock the application to the side of the screen, make it auto-hide, have other applications that are underneath it show through, and so on.
For more information on what parameters can be used, see Appendix 1.
