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FAQ: JSP Export

When I export my Sketchpad document to JavaSketchpad, I get a message saying some objects are not supported. Why?

As a lightweight Java applet, JavaSketchpad supports only a small subset of the mathematical functions and capabilities of The Geometer's Sketchpad. While this set grows and changes with new releases of JavaSketchpad, in general, the applet supports fewer mathematical constructions than the desktop software.

If your sketch contains objects that JavaSketchpad doesn't support, Sketchpad warns you when you export your sketch by putting up the message "Some objects in this sketch are not supported by this version of JavaSketchpad, and will not appear in your applet. (These objects have been selected.)" In fact, both the unsupported objects and their children(*) are selected.

To identify the exact objects which are unsupported:

  • Choose Edit | Select Children so that your selection contains only objects that are children of objects that were unsupported in your sketch (and their children, etc.).
  • Choose Edit | Clear or hit the Delete key to delete those children. Now your sketch contains only objects that can be exported, and the unsupported objects that were the parents of the children you just deleted.
  • Choose File | Save As HTML to export your sketch again. When you get the Sketchpad warning message this time, only unsupported objects will be selected (and nothing else, since you deleted the children of those objects). These are the objects that the current version of the JavaSketchpad applet does not support.

For many unsupported objects, there are various workarounds available. A collection of these workarounds and some tools to help you workaround JavaSketchpad limitations are described in the bottom section of the JSP Authoring section on the JavaSketchpad Links page. For a full list of objects supported by the current version of JavaSketchpad, refer to the Developer's Grammar.

(*) Any object that is dependent on another object for its position or value is called the child of that object. For example, a midpoint is a child of a segment, and a segment is in turn a child of the two endpoints of the segment. For a complete description of parent/child relationships between objects in Sketchpad, see the Sketchpad Help system article Home: Elements: Objects: Object Relationships: Parents and Children.