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

#import - T2H

This is a text to HTML #import mode (please read the #import documentation before trying to understand this section. This is a recent addition so please consider this import type "beta code"

Sometimes you will wish to simply convert a 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
  This option can be used to adjust the conversion of what may be problem characters (such as '<' in HTML). By default importing does not handle/convert international characters such as umlauts to html symbols but there is nothing preventing you from doing so.

  This definition lists zero, one or more names as used on previous "#AsIs SETUP" commands (seperated by whitespace). Clear this definition to prevent all ASIS conversions.

  Note that you will probably need to override this value (maybe others as well) if you wished to expand any macros that the imported data might contain (by default this is not done).

• 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 then you will need to override this value. Have a look at the multiple HTML pages example.

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

EXAMPLE

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       ""
    

PPWIZARD Manual

Thursday January 17 2002 at 6:27pm