PPWIZARD is a free preprocessor for HTML, REXX, Visual Basic or any text files.

Switch /Copy

This is a PPWIZARD command line switch. You can set up your own default switches in the "PPWIZARD_OPTIONS" environment variable or in project files.

This processing mode switch indicates that you simply want the input file copied from one place to another (source and destination filenames don't need to have the same name).

All following input masks are processed in "COPY" mode, the "/output" switch determines the destination directory and filename (it would normally include "*.*").

This can be used to syncronise .GIF, .JPG or other binary files with a local homepage image. The file will be copied only if the source date/time stamp or file size differs from the destinations (that is PPWIZARD does not care whether the source is newer or older than the destination).

This switch can be used any number of times and will affect all input masks that follow. For backwards compatability, if an input mask is found before any processing mode switch then the last instance of a processing mode switch is used these.

EXAMPLE OF USE

You might already have a directory tree which is an image of your web site (contains images and html etc). This is useful for local testing and simplifies things when updating your web server.

You might wish to make a copy of this tree and call it "source" and call the original "destination" (this directory is never modified by you). You did this to "keep things together" rather than separate the images and other files from the source html (which you will pass through PPWIZARD).

Now you can use ppwizard to "make" the images (copy" them when changed) as well as generating pure html from html with ppwizard commands imbedded. Note that I recommend using ".it" for "source" html but if this causes problems then there is no need (ppwizard does not care what extensions you use - as long as you don't forget which is which!).

Note that if you wish to use graphical HTML editors you should have a look at the "/HideCmd" switch.

The use of separate tree, the "/COPY" switch and "/HideCmd" would be a good approach if you wish non-technical people to maintain the source (or maybe while you get used to PPWIZARD and test it out).

If you currently use an FTP program to update the image then I suggest that you use the site syncronisation tool called "SITECOPY" (freeware, available for Windows, OS/2 and UNIX). This tool does all the work for you, uploading new or changed files or directories and deleting obsolete files or directories. If you use WINDOWS I have a free self installing download that makes it extremely easy to setup (unlike the official download...).

PPWIZARD Manual

Thursday January 17 2002 at 6:27pm