Controlling the Display

This page is divided into a field reference section and an example setup section.

Example Display Setups This section uses HTML 3 elements; if it doesn't make sense on your browser, look at this text version. Desired Setup Field has value of: _show _returndocurl _showformat _show[n] _title _show_vals _showtext[n] Return some static document to the user true the URL not set Return an HTML document as specified in an external file with variable instantiation true not set the external file not set Return an HTML document specified inline with variable instantiation true not set the HTML of the document (in symbol encoded format) not set Return some fields to the user in the default format true not set the fields you want displayed or "all" not set Return some fields to the user in the default format and with a custom title and some text afterwards true not set the title the fields you want displayed or "all" the text you want put at the end Nothing returned. This may cause warnings on browsers and is not generally recommended. Return a message that says thank you instead. not set The Display Fields These fields control what is sent back to the commenter. _show Meaning: If the value is not true nothing is returned to the commenter otherwise it is as defined below. Applies: when "_returndocurl" is "inline" Default: false _returndocurl Meaning: If the value is "inline", then an HTML document is dynamically generated as per the below control fields. If the value is a URL, then the document at that URL will be returned to the commenter. Note that when the value is a URL, "_show" needs to be true in order for it to work. Applies: Always Default: "inline" _showformat Meaning: If this field is present, then its value is interpreted as the full path to an external HTML file which is to be used as the format for what is displayed. Variable-encoded format conversion is performed on this file. Applies: when "_returndocurl" is "inline" Default: not present Errors: if the specified file does not exist or is not readable, an error will be reported and all processing will terminate. _show[n] (_show1, _show2, ...) Meaning: If "_show1" is present, then these fields are displayed in order in a HTML document. Variable-encoded format is used as is symbol-encoded format. Applies: when "_returndocurl" is "inline", "_show" is true, and "_showformat" is not present. Default: not present _title Meaning: The title of the html document returned to the commenter. Applies: when "_returndocurl" is "inline", "_show" is true, and "_showformat" is not present. Default:"Comments". _show_vals Meaning: When the designer does not wish to specify format of the HTML document explicitly, a default can be used. The values of the fields in this whitespace-separated list are the fields to be show to the commenter, in that order. "All" causes all the fields to be shown in some order. Applies: when "_returndocurl" is "inline", "_show" is true, "_show1" is not present, and "_showformat" is not present. Default:Default is the field "comments". _showtext[n] (_showtext1, _showtext2, ...) Meaning: HTML lines to append to the HTML document returned to the commenter (in order) when the default format is used. Variable-encoded format is used as is symbol-encoded format. Applies: when "_returndocurl" is "inline", "_show" is true, "_show1" is not present, and "_showformat" is not present. Default: "Thanks for your comments!" See Also Controlling the appending to a file Controlling the sending of electronic mail Variable encoded format Symbol encoded format

Copyright © by James Hoagland
www.hoagland.org | webmaster@hoagland.org

27 June 1995