Section Intro: Html Helpers

THE META-HTML LANGUAGE REFERENCE MANUAL

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Section Intro: Html Helpers

Html Helpers

Synopsis:

The following functions all produce HTML as output and are defined in order to help with the creation of forms and tables.

Commands:

forms::multiple-instance-resolve
forms::multiple-instances
forms::standard-buttons
incdir
locale::iso-country-name-to-abbrev2
locale::iso-country-name-to-abbrev3
locale::select-common-country
locale::select-country
locale::select-from-country
locale::select-iso-country

locale::select-iso-country-abbrev2
locale::select-iso-country-abbrev3
locale::select-province
locale::select-state
locale::select-state-or-province
menu
message
meta-html
select-option
show-message

small-caps
source-link
source-of
thisdir
thisdoc
thisfile
thispage
url
verbatim
vertical-table

<forms::multiple-instance-resolve SESSION-PACK DEST-PACK Simple

For every instance of a form in SESSION-PACK, append the elements in order to arrays in DEST-PACK. Thus, if your form contained "name" and "age" input fields, and the user created multiple instances of this form, the output of calling <forms::multiple-instance-resolve mypack results> would be:

RESULTS::NAME[0] ==> Brian
RESULTS::NAME[1] ==> John
...
RESULTS::AGE[0] ==> 38 (i.e., Brian's age)
RESULTS::AGE[1] ==> 37 (i.e., John's age).

You have to call <forms::multiple-instance-resolve> for every form in your page which used <forms::multiple-instances>. Since this requires the use of the session database, you can call <forms::multiple-instance-resolve> from any page at any time to read the contents of the session data, and return the information.

<forms::multiple-instances SESSION-PACK &key [MODIFY-HOOK] [CREATE-HOOK] [REMOVE-HOOK] [METHOD] [ACTION] [ENCTYPE] body </forms::multiple-instances> Complex

Creates a repeating form, allowing multiple entries of data sets. The body of this macro is exactly whatever you might put in a standard FORM body. What is needed here is examples, and there really isn't space for any. Please see the file called multiple-instances.mhtml in the distribution for examples.

<forms::standard-buttons &optional [FORMS-INDEX] Simple

Display the standard buttons for input when performing forms::multiple-instances. If there are no current instances of the form, this produces a language sensitive submit button with the name of "form-create" -- if the instance that this function is called in already has values, then two submit buttons are produced, with names "form-modify" and "form-accept".

If you would like to control the placement of these buttons, then you should set the variable FORMS::NO-SUBMITS. In this case, you are responsible for calling forms::standard-buttons yourself.

<incdir Simple

The Web based pathname to the directory containing the document which is currently being included with <include>.

<locale::iso-country-name-to-abbrev2 COUNTRY-NAME Simple

Returns the two-letter abbreviation of the ISO-3166 country name passsed in COUNTRY-NAME. If COUNTRY NAME isn't an ISO-3166 country name, then it is simply returned as is.

<locale::iso-country-name-to-abbrev3 COUNTRY-NAME Simple

Returns the three-letter abbreviation of the ISO-3166 country name passsed in COUNTRY-NAME. If there isn't a three-letter abbreviation, but there is a two-letter one, then that is returned. If COUNTRY NAME isn't an ISO-3166 country name, then it is simply returned as is.

<locale::select-common-country POSTNAME &optional [SITENAME] Simple

Produce a selection widget suitable for placing in a form which allows the user to select a country from a pull-down menu. POSTNAME is the name of the variable which should be posted when the form is submitted. SITENAME is the name of another variable which can contain the currently selected country.

This differs from locale::select-country only in the number of countries that are displayed.

<locale::select-country POSTNAME &optional [SITENAME] Simple

<locale::select-from-country POSTNAME SITENAME COUNTRY-ARRAY Simple

<locale::select-iso-country POSTNAME &optional [SITENAME] Simple

Produce a selection widget suitable for placing in a form which allows the user to select a country from a pull-down menu which includes all of the ISO-3166 country names. POSTNAME is the name of the variable which should be posted when the form is submitted. SITENAME is the name of another variable which can contain the currently selected country -- this variable must be fully qualified with its package name (i.e., DEFAULT::FOO, or SITE::COUNTRY).

<locale::select-iso-country-abbrev2 POSTNAME &optional [SITENAME] Simple

Produce a selection widget suitable for placing in a form which allows the user to select an ISO-3166 country name from a pull-down menu. POSTNAME is the name of the variable which should be posted when the form is submitted. The long name of the country is displayed, but the short, two-letter version of the country is returned. SITENAME is the name of another variable which can contain the currently selected country.

<locale::select-iso-country-abbrev3 POSTNAME &optional [SITENAME] Simple

Produce a selection widget suitable for placing in a form which allows the user to select an ISO-3166 country name from a pull-down menu. POSTNAME is the name of the variable which should be posted when the form is submitted. The long name of the country is displayed, but the short, three-letter version of the country is returned. SITENAME is the name of another variable which can contain the currently selected country.

<locale::select-province POSTNAME SITENAME Simple

Produce a selection widget suitable for placing in a form which allows the user to select a province name from a pull-down menu. POSTNAME is the name of the variable which should be posted when the form is submitted. The long name of the province is displayed, but the short, two- or three-letter version of the province is returned. SITENAME is the name of another variable which can contain the currently selected province.

<locale::select-state POSTNAME SITENAME Simple

Produce a selection widget suitable for placing in a form which allows the user to select a US state name from a pull-down menu. POSTNAME is the name of the variable which should be posted when the form is submitted. The long name of the state is displayed, but the short, two-letter version of the state is returned. SITENAME is the name of another variable which can contain the currently selected state.

<locale::select-state-or-province POSTNAME SITENAME Simple

Produce a selection widget suitable for placing in a form which allows the user to select a US state or province name from a pull-down menu. POSTNAME is the name of the variable which should be posted when the form is submitted. The long name of the state or province is displayed, but the short, two- or three-letter version of the state or province is returned. SITENAME is the name of another variable which can contain the currently selected state or province.

<menu TITLE &key [NOBR] body </menu> Complex

Create an HTML menu with title, text and links.

Calling sequence:

 <menu "This Is The Title">
   This is link text: target.mhtml
   External Site:  http://www.external.com/welcome.mhtml
 </menu>

<message Simple

Add BODY to the contents of the session variable "message". Also see show-message.

<meta-html Simple

Produces the canonical form of the words "Meta-HTML".

<select-option VARNAME DISPLAY &optional [VALUE] Simple

Use instead of the <option> HTML tag within the select HTML tag.

Creates an option item in the page in which VARNAME is expected to contain the current value of the choice, or nothing, if no choice has been made. If you supply the optional VALUE argument, that value is returned instead of DISPLAY.

If VARNAME contains VALUE, then this option has the HTML SELECTED attribute turned on.

Example:

 <select name=airport>
   <select-option airport Atlanta>
   <select-option airport Boston>
   <select-option airport Chicago>
   <select-option airport "Los Angeles">
   <select-option airport "New York">
   <select-option airport Miami>
   <select-option airport "San Francisco">
 </select>

<show-message Simple

Display the contents of the session variable "message", and then remove that variable from the session. Also see message.

<small-caps &key [UPPER=SIZE] [LOWER=SIZE] [OTHER=SIZE] body </small-caps> Complex

Modify the characters in BODY raising lower-case characters to upper-case, and changing the size of fonts as directed.

For example, this is how the text of "Hello There" can be displayed with lowercase characters as smaller uppercase versions of themselves.

  <small-caps lower=-1>Hello There</small-caps>

HELLO THERE

<source-link TEXT Simple

You write `Click here for source.'

<source-of WEB-PATH HIGHLIGHT-KEYWORDS-P Simple

Display the contents of WEB-PATH in HTML. Use sparingly. If HIGHLIGHT-KEYWORDS-P is non-empty, then make each Meta-HTML function in the displayed text be a link which will display the contents of the the manual page for that keyword.

<thisdir Simple

The fully qualified pathname to the directory containing the currently executing document.

<thisdoc Simple

The complete URL to this document, without the query string or path information.

<thisfile Simple

The fully qualified pathname to the document which is currently executing.

<thispage Simple

The local web-based URL to this document, without the query string or path information.

<url TEXT &key [TARGET] Simple

Shows TEXT as a linkable URL. Example:

 For more information on <Meta-HTML>, see <url http://www.metahtml.org>,
 or send mail to <url info@metahtml.org>.

For more information on Meta-HTML, see http://www.metahtml.org,
 or send mail to info@metahtml.org.

<verbatim &key [QUOTE] Simple

Insert BODY verbatim, avoiding doing any processing on the contents. If the keyword argument QUOTE is given, occurrences of characters with special meaning to HTML are replaced with the HTML code to produce that character in the output page.

Contrast this with comment.

<vertical-table ARRAY-NAME WIDTH LINK EXTRA-LINK-INFO Simple

Lay out a table according to number of columns, but listing each item vertically. The number of items to each column is determined by dividing the total number of items by the number of desired columns.

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