Coyote HTML Utilities

The 2.0.0.120 releases (and later) of the Coyote web server include a number of utility subroutines that are designed to make generating dynamic HTML easier.  These routines are each designed to generate HTML source code elements that are then inserted into Coyote active server pages or mv/Web generated pages using standard Coyote insertion points.

Source Code Included

Source code included with PicLan-IP may be freely modified for use only with the PicLan-IP suite of software products.  You may not use any of the source code, techniques, or algorithms outside of the PicLan-IP suite of software products without written permission of Modular Software Corporation.

• If you are fixing a bug, please send us a copy so that we can merge it in with the general PicLan-IP release
• If you are adding functionality, make a new subroutine with a different name
• Always store your subroutines in your own data files in your account and not in the PICLAN-IP account.

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HTML Utility Subroutines

HTML Element Builders General tags Hypertext links Form input fields Checkboxes Tables General Table Creation Table of Checkboxes Form retrieval functions Table of Checkboxes

 

General Options

Many of these utility subroutine have general purpose option specifications that control how data is formatted.  These common options are:

Q

Quote displayable data into HTML.  When you specify this option, punctuation characters in displayable data variables will be replaced with HTML "quote strings".  For example a < character will be replaced with a &lt; sequence.  You should specify the Q option is your caption is intended to be printable text that does not include HTML tags.  If you wish to use HTML tags within displayable data variables, then you will have to HTML quote your printable text manually using the PL_QUOTE(...) function and not specify the Q option here.

 

Multiple options are specified as a string with spaces between options. Options are not case sensitve.

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Utility Subroutine Definitions

PLH.BLD.HREF(OPT,
             LINK,
             CAPTION,
             EXTRA,
             RESULT)

This very simple subroutine will build an HTML "hypertext link" element.  The parameters are:

OPT	Q Quote the CAPTION variable into HTML.
LINK	The file name path to include in the href= URL field.
CAPTION	A string that will be displayed as a link.
EXTRA	Extra text that can be include in the HTML tag.  This can be used for JavaScript source code other other HTML extensions.
RESULT	The resulting HTML source code.

 

PLH.BLD.CHECKBOX(OPT,
                 NAME,
                 CAPTION,
                 VAL,
                 RESULT)

This very simple subroutine will build an HTML "checkbox" input field.  The parameters are:

OPT	Q Quote the CAPTION variable into HTML.
NAME	The field name that will be used to post the value back to the web server.
CAPTION	A string that will be displayed after the checkbox.
VAL	The value that will be posted back to the web server if the box is checked.  If this field is NULL, then the web browser will post the value "on".
RESULT	The resulting HTML source code.

 

PLH.BLD.TABLE(OPT,
              TBL.OPTIONS,
              N.COLS,
              COL.WIDTHS,
              CELL.CONTENTS,
              CELL.OPTIONS,
              RESULT)

This subroutine will build a table.  You can use this routine to build simple HTML tables.  A simple table is an HTML element that has a fixed number of rows and columns.  This function does not support tables with header fields or tables with cells that span multiple rows or columns.

Table specification are supplied as dynamic arrays.  These can be arrays of attributes, values, or sub-values.  You must use the same level of dynamic array (either attributes, values, or sub-values) for all of the supplied dynamic array parameters.

OPT	Q Quote the CELL.CONTENTS variable into HTML. V Lay the table cells out vertically.  In this mode, cells will fill the first column first.  Without the V option, cells will fill the first row first.
TBL.OPTIONS	HTML options that are included in the <table ...> tag.
N.COLS	The number of columns to build the table as.
COL.WIDTHS	This is the width of the HTML columns expresses as a dynamic array. If you specify integers, then these values represent pixes.  If you specify percentages (ie. 25%) then this represents percentages.
CELL.CONTENTS	This is the content of the HTML cell.
CELL.OPTIONS	Test that is to be included in the <td ...> tag.  This allows you to arbitrarily include HTML source text that is specific to a single cell.  Uses for this include setting alignment, background colors, and other display and formatting strings.
RESULT	The resulting HTML source code

 

PLH.BLD.CHECKBOX.TABLE(OPT,
                       NAME,
                       TBL.OPTIONS,
                       N.COLS,
                       COL.WIDTHS,
                       CELL.CONTENTS,
                       CELL.OPTIONS,
                       INITIAL.VALS,
                       RESULT)

This subroutine will build a table of checkboxes.  You can use this HTML element in place of a <select ...> control to get user input.  While a table of checkboxes uses more screen real estate, it may be easier for some users to use and look better.  Some of the parameters of this subroutine call are passed directly to the PLH.BLD.TABLE(...) subroutine.

OPT	Q Quote the CELL.CONTENTS variable into HTML. V Lay the table cells out vertically.  In this mode, cells will fill the first column first.  Without the V option, cells will fill the first row first. VB Lay the table cells out vertically with rows delimited by <br> tags instead of table cells. VT Lay the table cells out vertically with columns containing sub-tables. This allows for a more natural "tab order" for keyboard users.
NAME	The form field name used when building checkbox elements.  The table will be build using NAME as the prefix for each checkbox input field.  You must specify a unique name.
TBL.OPTIONS	HTML options that are included in the <table ...> tag.
N.COLS	The number of columns to build the table as.
COL.WIDTHS	This is the width of the HTML columns expresses as a dynamic array. If you specify integers, then these values represent pixes.  If you specify percentages (ie. 25%) then this represents percentages.
CELL.CONTENTS	This is the content of the HTML cells as a dynamic array.
CELL.OPTIONS	Test that is to be included in the <td ...> tag as a dynamic array. This allows you to arbitrarily include HTML source text that is specific to a single cell.  Uses for this include setting alignment, background colors, and other display and formatting strings.
INITIAL.VALUES	A dynamic array of integers which specify which cells are to be initially checked when the page is first displayed.
RESULT	The resulting HTML source code

 

PLH.GET.CHECKBOX.TABLE(NAME,
                       N.CELLS,
                       DELIM,
                       RESULT)

This subroutine will retrieve the values that were checked from a previously submitted table built with PLH.BLD.CHECKBOX.TABLE(...).

NAME	The NAME used in the call to PLH.BLD.CHECKBOX.TABLE(...).
N.CELLS	The number of cells in the table.
DELIM	Either an AM, VM, or SVM specifying how the RESULT variable is built.
RESULT	A resulting dynamic array of indexes of which checkbox were checked.