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V3 Deployment and Installation

Dinkytown V3 Deployment and Installation Overview

The V3 calculators use JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS to display and run the calculators. There is no longer a requirement for the Java-Plugin (as was the case with our V2 calculators) or any other software to be installed on the end user's computer.

More information can be found at:

Please contact support with any questions you have when deploying or using the calculators. Feel free to contact us via email at or by phone at (612) 331 2291.

How do I install the V3 financial calculators to my website?
How do I apply a V3 maintenance update?
What files are used to display the calculators on my site?
Where should I place the calculator files on my server?
How can I test them on my desktop (without a webserver)?
How do I embed a calculator directly into an existing page?

How do I install the V3 financial calculators to my website?

Here is a brief description on how to deploy the V3 calculators.

  1. Download the latest full installation package for your calculators from your download site, found on your e-mail notice.

  2. Execute the KJECalc.exe to extract all of the required V3 calculators. This is a self-extracting zip file. (Or unzip the KJEUpdate.zip file if you are using a non-windows platform.) If you see a warning message, you can safely continue. When prompted for a directory, you may use the default or enter your own. It is recommended that you extract the update to a new directory and then move the required files to your production or staging environment. One directory will be created with no subdirectories.

  3. Edit the HTML files to match your website, or cut and paste HTML file contents into new pages that have already been created (if you do this, make sure to copy the javascript section and the CSS file section. Your new page must also have a doctype.). Future updates will not require these pages to be replaced or modified, so custom changes will not be lost when you update the calculators. Please note that you can only have one calculator per page.

    Edit the files KJESiteSpecific.js and KJESiteSpecific.css to apply change to the colors, fonts, etc. to ALL calculators. These files will not be replaced (like the html files) when you update and these two files are used by all calculators. So when you add in new calculators any changes you make here will apply to all calculators. These two files have safe items for you to change, in addition you can modify the KJESiteSpecific.css by overriding syles defined in KJE.css. Please note that future updates will impact KJE.css, so no changes to this file are recommended.

  4. Deploy the files to your website. Normally the it is easiest to put all calculator files into a single directory. You can then create links to the calculator pages or the provided calculator index page as needed through out your website.

How do I apply a V3 maintenance update?

If you have previously deployed the V3 calculators, applying a mainteannce update is a pretty simple process. No manual editing is required of any files, the entire update process is accomplished by replacing a set of JavaScript files and one CSS file. To apply an update please do the following:

  1. Download the latest update package for your calculators from your download site, found on your update e-mail notice.

  2. Execute the KJEUpdate.exe file from your download. This is a self-extracting zip file. (Or unzip the KJEUpdate.zip file if you are using a non-windows platform.) If you see a warning message, you can safely continue. When prompted for a directory, you may use the default or enter your own. It is recommended that you extract the update to a new directory and then move the required files to your production or staging environment. One directory will be created with no subdirectories.

  3. Replace the files in your current deployment with the new files provided in the update package. Do not delete existing files from your server, simply overwrite an existing file if a new one is provided in the update package. The update package will only include the JS files and CSS files that are required to be replaced. IMPORTANT! The update package does not contain any HTML files or the KJESiteSpecific.js or KJESiteSpecific.css files. These files should already be on your server and are not required to be changed for a normal update.

When you test the new version of the calculators, make sure that the browser you are using uses the new files instead of any it may have in its cache. You may need to clear the browser's cache (or history) manually to ensure the new versions are loaded.

Please note, if you have a Servlet or other custom deployment, installation instructions for your package will found on your download page or provided separately.

What files are used to display the calculators on my site?

We have HTML, JS and CSS files used to deploy the calculators. Certain files are used by all calculators and each calculator has two files specific to that individual calculator. Please see below for more information about each file type.

Files common to all calculators: The following files are used by all calculators.

Calculator specific files: Each calculator has three files that are specific to the functionality of that specific calculator. The example below is for the Mortage Loan calculator. All calculators follow the naming pattern below with the name of the calculator's HTML file matching the name of the JS file and Params.js file.

Each calculator in your software download package has its own HTML page that the calculator installed on runs within. You can edit these pages to match your website, or copy the code embed a calculator into an page that already existing on your site. This normally is done by a web-developer who is familiar with HTML.

We also provide an index page with links to each of the calculator HTML pages. If your Software package has more than 10 calculators there will be sub-indexes for each category of calculators.

Where should I place the calculator files on my server?

Typically you would copy all of the files provided into a single directory on your webserver that is accessible to the Internet. You would then either create links from on your existing website to pages the HTML files in this directory or embed the calculator directly into an existing page that references your calculator directory.

The most common location would be the subdirectory "calculators". For example:
http://www.yourdownmain.com/calculators

Where "yourdomain.com" is your website. You could then create a link on your existing pages to the index page for the calculators, which would be:
www.yourdomain.com/calculators/index.html

You can also create links to any other calculator pages. Alternatively, you can embed a calculator directly on an existing page and simply reference the files in this directory instead of a link. Please see "How do I embed a calculator directly into an existing page?"

How can I test them on my desktop (without a webserver)?

  1. Download your calculator package from your download link. You should download load the full installation package KJECalc.exe.

  2. Run this program (if you receive a warning message, it is safe to continue). When the program runs, it will prompt you to choose a directory. The default is \calculators which should be ok, but you can change if you wish. Once the program says it is finished you can close it.

  3. To view the calculators open any web-browser, such as Internet Explorer, and enter the following into the address bar and hit enter (if you changed the directory for the install, enter the new directory in place of "calculators"):
    C:\calculators\index.html

  4. Click the links to your calculators. This will run on the calculator on your computer without accessing the internet. If there is a warning message, choose "Allow Blocked Content". This will only happen on some browsers and only when you run it from a laptop or desktop computer (not a website).

  5. You can add the calculator page to your favorites, just like a normal website page. You can also create a shortcut on your desktop by right clicking anywhere on the page and choosing "create short cut".

How do I embed a calculator directly into an existing page?

You can use the code below to embed the calculator directly into a page. The example code below is for the Mortgage Loan calculator, but will work for any calculator with very minor changes. All calculators use the same code except two file reference specific to each calculator. Once this is in place you will not need make any changes to this code to install an update.

  1. Open (or create) an HTML page where you wish to embed the calculator. This can be either an actual page you are editing directly or a page in virtually any Content Management System (CMS) like WordPress or Joomla.

  2. Paste the HTML code into your page. Please note this needs to be pasted in as HTML code, not text on the page:


      <link type='text/css' rel='StyleSheet' href='/calculators/KJE.css' />
      <link type='text/css' rel='StyleSheet' href='/calculators/KJESiteSpecific.css' />

      <noscript><div align=center><div align=center id=KJENoJavaScript class=KJENoJavaScript>Javascript is required for this calculator. If you are using Internet Explorer, you may need to select to 'Allow Blocked Content' to view this calculator.</div></div></noscript>

      <div id="KJEAllContent"></div>

      <!-- Financial Calculators, ©1998-2017 KJE Computer Solutions, LLC. For more information please see: <A HREF="http://www.dinkytown.net">http://www.dinkytown.net</A>-->

      <!--[if lt IE 9]><script language="JavaScript" SRC="/calculators/excanvas.js"></script><![endif]-->
      <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" SRC="/calculators/KJE.js"></script>
      <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" SRC="/calculators/KJESiteSpecific.js"></script>
      <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" SRC="/calculators/MortgageLoan.js"></script>
      <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" SRC="/calculators/MortgageLoanParams.js"></script>

  3. Change the directory (if required) from /calculators/ to the directory where you have the calculator files loaded on your server. If you have the calculator files in the same directory as the calculator pages themselves you can remove /calculators/ and simply have the file name. This is highlighted in GREEN above and needs to be changed in seven locations (five JS files and two CSS files). This will remain the same for all calculators in your package.

  4. Each calculator will use the same code above with only calculator's JS specific file names changed. In the code above you would change MortgageLoan to match the HTML file name that contains the calculator you with to insert. The table below shows some examples of this change.
    Calculator HTML filePrefix to use in code blockCalculator Name
    MortgageCompare.htmlMortgageCompareMortgage Comparison: 15 Years vs. 30 Years
    MortgageRentvsBuy.htmlMortgageRentvsBuyRent vs. Buy
    MortgageLoan.htmlMortgageLoanMortgage Loan Calculator
    MortgageQualifier.htmlMortgageQualifierMortgage Qualifier

  5. Copy the calculator specific Title, Introductory description and disclaimer to the page. This can be copied directly from the HTML page that contains the calculator. For a page in a CMS it is recommended that this text is placed on the page as normal formatted text, not a HTML code block. You can change this text as you see fit, either keeping it as is or modifying to better fit your site's needs. Change you make to this text and disclaimer will not be affected by future updates, your changes will remain intact.