#import - T2H

This is a text to HTML #import mode (please read the #import documentation before trying to understand this section.

Sometimes you will wish to simply convert a number of text files to a equal number of html files. In this case you will probably wish to use the /Template switch and create a template for your background colors, titles, headers and footers that you require.

TEXT SPECIFIC DEFINITIONS/OPTIONS

These definitions are specific to the "T2H" import mode. If you can't understand how they work then I suggest you try using /debug or #debug to watch what variables the import uses etc.

• DefineName_BEFORE
  These tags are used to set up any tags before the file is included. By default the font size is decreased and "<PRE>" (preformated text) mode is set up. Modify or set to blank (to do nothing) if you wish.

• DefineName_AFTER
  These tags are used to set up any tags that are required after the file is included. This normally undoes anything you started using the previous define.

• DefineName_BLANK_LINES_TO
  When text is processed in "PRE" mode (see above) you want to leave blank lines as they are. If however you set up the before tags to be "<P>" and cleared the after tags then you could convert blank lines to "<P>, in this way a blank line indicates the end of a paragraph.

• DefineName_ASIS_TAGGING
  The default value for this option is "IMPORT_HTML_BASIC IMPORT_HTML_BOXGRAPHIC_TO_BOXTEXT" which takes care of converting the "&", "<" and ">" characters into their html codes so they they will display correctly in a browser. It also takes care of DOS, Windows or OS/2 "box" graphic characters.

  If your database contains preformatted HTML code (or references PPWIZARD macros) then this default handling would prevent this from working so you would probably want to turn this off, on the other hand you may wish to extend this to other characters (possibly international characters such as umlauts).

  This definition lists zero, one or more names as used on previous "#AsIs SETUP" commands (separated by whitespace). Each is added in turn.

  To prevent all character conversions you should assign an empty value to this parameter.

• DefineName_TAB_CHAR
  Normally tabs are ignored by the import process. This variable allows you to replace them with something else.

• DefineName_HTTP_LINK
  The import mode looks for "http:" type web addresses and by default converts the URL into a hypertext link. You may not wish this so you could clear this variable. You might wish to simply highlight the URL.

• DefineName_FTP_LINK
  The import mode looks for "ftp:" type ftp addresses and by default converts the URL into a hypertext link. Otherwise as per the "_HTTP_LINK" option.

• DefineName_RECORD_FILTER
  This option allows you to modify records before they are written to the intermediate file for processing. The value you supply for this option is a rexx expression that can be interpreted. You could use this to simply drop lines or the data can be modified by you.

  The following rexx variables are relevant:

  • Remove
    If this variable is set to any non blank value then the line will be dropped, the variables value is shown when debugging so it is recommended that the value be the reason for dropping the record.

    If the contents starts with 'EOF:' then the current record and ALL following are dropped.

  • T2hLineNumber
    This is the line number of the current line. Do not modify this variable.

  • T2hFileLine
    This is the line as read from the file. Do not modify this variable.

  • T2hNewLine
    This is the read in line converted to something that will display well in HTML. May have had email addresses etc tagged. This variable may be modified.

  • T2hFilter
    If you don't need to do any more filtering then you can clear this variable. This will improve performance.

• DefineName_PROTECT_START
  By default will be set to the value <?ProtectFromPpwStart>. If you have filter code that wants to generate PPWIZARD commands (or macro references) or your data contains these then you will need to override (clear) this value. Have a look at the multiple HTML pages example.

• DefineName_PROTECT_END
  By default will be set to the value <?ProtectFromPpwEnd>.

EXAMPLE 1

This example imports a file and also extends the translation it will perform to include 2 international characters. For no real reason we will also prevent email addresses becoming "mailto" links and simply highlight email addresses in a different color.

;--- Save current Autotag state, set up international conversion, restore state ---
#AutoTagState +
#AutoTag      'ä'    'ä'
#AutoTag      'ë'    'ë'              ;;Only 2 for this example
#AsIs         SETUP  INTERNATIONAL_SYMBOLS
#AutoTagState -

;--- Update option so as to use the international chars as well as usual conversions -
#define T2H_ASIS_TAGGING     IMPORT_HTML_BASIC                   \
                             IMPORT_HTML_BOXGRAPHIC_TO_BOXTEXT   \
                             INTERNATIONAL_SYMBOLS

;--- Simply for demonstrate puroses, remove email links and make "olive" ---
#define T2H_MAILTO_LINK      <FONT COLOR=OLIVE>{$Url}</FONT>

;--- Import the text file ---
#import README.TXT T2H       ""

EXAMPLE 2

We don't wish to simply use "PRE" as we don't want to end up with long lines scrolling off to the right of the browser. We will simply end each line with "BR" tags, blank lines will output a second "BR" and look like a paragrapth break.

#define T2H_BEFORE <div style="background-color: #fffff7;color:black;display:block;white-space:pre;border:1px solid #800000;padding:5">
#define T2H_AFTER  </div>
#DefineRexx 'T2H_RECORD_FILTER'
   T2hNewLine = T2hNewLine || '<br>'
#DefineRexx
#import Stuff.txt T2h ''

EXAMPLE 3

We will still use a "PRE" in this case (slightly prettier than default), but we will prevent lines from being more than 80 columns long. If you wished continued lines to be displayed differently then this would not take much extra work.

#NextId
#define MAX_COLS  80
#define T2H_BEFORE <pre style="background-color: #fffff7;color:black;display:block;white-space:pre;border:1px solid #800000;padding:5">
#option PUSH DefineMacroReplace=YES       ;;Substitute macros straight away
#DefineRexx 'T2H_RECORD_FILTER' NOPACK
   if  length(T2hNewLine) > <$MAX_COLS> then
   do
       ;--- Line too long, we will adjust! ----------------------------------
       @@Left  = '';
       @@Right = T2hNewLine;
       do  while @@Right <> ''    ;;don't care about trailing whitespace
           ;--- Break off (up to) max characters ----------------------------
           parse var @@Right @@NextBit +<$MAX_COLS> @@Right;

           ;--- Now add to left bit -----------------------------------------
           @@Left = @@Left || '<br>' || @@NextBit
       end;
       T2hNewLine = @@Left;
   end;
#DefineRexx
#option POP
#import Stuff.txt T2h ''

email me  any feedback, additional information or corrections.
See this page online (look for updates)

PPWIZARD Manual

Sunday November 05 2017 at 10:00am