Thanks for talking this out with me. The set/invoke method seems to work. I
worry that the scope of the name getting set is not well controlled, but
don't see this as a real barrier.
Thanks
-Ben
Christoph Reck
<Christoph.Reck@g To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
mx.net> cc:
Sent by: Subject: Re: Question/Idea
Christoph.Reck@es
rin.esa.it
04/02/2001 03:57
AM
Please respond to
velocity-dev
Hi, I'll try to clarify/help-out on the velocity usage for your
requested examples.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>[snip]
> #table($title, $data):
> #columns
> <TH>$row.one</TH> <TD>$row.two</TD>
> #end
> #end
>
> where table might be defined as
>
> #vmmacro(table, $title, $data, $columns)
> <TABLE>
> #foreach ($row in $data)
> <TR>
> #parse($columns)
> </TR>
> #end
> </TABLE>
> #end
>[snip]
The #parse above needs to be done using a context tool (we had some
discussions of providing an #eval directive... But now with the
methods velocity.app.Velocity.java class, this is easy to create.
The just turn the #table macro call around and bingo:
#set( $columns = '<TH>$row.one</TH> <TD>$row.two</TD>' )
#table($title, $data, $columns)
The second example is just as easy turing your suggestion
inside-out:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote in a latter mail:
>[snip]
> I don't know if a different example will help or not. Here the idea has
> nothing to do with tables or row. Here the idea is to reuse the HTML
layout
> needed to throw box around some element.
>
> #vmacro(boxIt, $width, $body)
> <table width=$width cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr><td bgcolor
="
> #000000">
> <table cellpadding=5 cellspacing=0 border=0 width="100%">
> <tr>
> <td bgcolor="#f0f0f0">
> $body
> </td></tr></table>
> </td></tr></table>
> #end
>
> Now its arguable that there is enough layout there to make desire reuse.
> The normal macro system seems to handle this too, what I am suggesting is
> that when you call such a thing you can specify the body inline.
>
> #boxit("90%")
> #body
> <p>This is the stuff that gets put inside a box</p>
> #end
> #end
>[snip]
> Did I make things better or worse? :)
I've found velocity to be a great and simple language. Extensions
are made with context tools, and in some seldom cases with additional
user created directives (methodolgy to do so must be enhanced a bit
- e.g. the way of spcifying the valid directives...).
If you change your point of view a bit, you will see things clearer
(and simpler... :)
In the boxit example above just do:
#set( $body = '<p>This is the stuff that gets put inside a box</p>' )
#boxit("90%" $body)
Ben, not some things on punctuation, you have some extra commas and
a stray colon in your examples. I guess the commas will make the
parser bark; whereas the extra colon will show up in the generated
output (velocity is gigo :). I used the single quote in my
#set( $columns = '...' ) recommendation to keep the parser from
interpreting the code within; the macro body of #table must use
a context tool to merge the content. Also note that velocity is
not yet 100% consistent to whitespace handling, indented directives
make ugly output, I currently use a trick to overcome this, e.g.:
---
#vmmacro(table $title $data $columns)
<TABLE>#* a line-spanning coment here gobbles the next indent spaces
*##foreach ($row in $data)#* this comment makes the next a new line *#
<TR>
$merger.render($columns, " ")
</TR>#* ... same as the comments above (you can leave the texts away)
...
*##end#**#
</TABLE>
#end
---
And the above will produce nicely created output from your (nicely
formatted) input! I have posted a suggestion on whitespace handling
on standalone directives to avoid the need of extra #*comments*#
to achieve ones needs... and will follow this up now that the initial
release has been completed (it requires an overhaul that was to risky
for a pre 1.0 change).
Hope this helped,
:) Christoph
