HTDB : Docs : Designer's Guide : The Scripting Language
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An initial cut at describing the logic control capabilities of the HTDB scripting language.

The HTDB scripting language is purposefully quite simple, but extensible. The following constructs make up the entirety of the language:

  • define
  • include
  • if/elseif/else/endif
  • while
  • loop
define

htdb resource documents are composed of one of more blocks of script called resources. such blocks are initiated when #define is found, and terminate at the occurence of another define, or the end of the file.

comment lines are those which have the # character in the leftmost column. comments may be interspersed within a resource block.

example: 


#define	pageTitle	this is a test page
#define	pageColor	#cfcfcf

#
#	this is a comment
#
#define	index.html
	<html>
	<head><title>${pageTitle}</title></head>
	<body bgcolor=${pageColor}>
		hello world

include

a great strength of the HTDB system is the flexibility of the designer to templatize layouts and/or include elements across many documents. the #include directive is used to "suck-in" resource common definitions to make them available to a document.

example: 


#include macros

#define  index.html
	${somethingDefinedInTheMacrosResourceFile}

if/elseif/else/endif

example using the environment variable _current_month: 


#live	if (getval(_current_month) == Jan)
	the month is January
#live	else if (getval(_current_month) == Feb)
	the month is February
#live	else
	the month is ${_current_month}
#live	endif

yields: 


	the month is November

example using the function function random(): 


#live	if (random(10) > 8)
	BIG
#live	else if (random(10) > 4)
	MEDIUM
#live	else
	SMALL
#live	endif

yields: 


	SMALL

loop

example: 


#live	loop(i, 1, 10)
	${i}<br>
#live	endloop

yields: 


	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
	6
	7
	8
	9
	10

example using loop and functions: 


#live	loop(i, 6, 12)
	${num2month(${i})}<br>
#live	endloop

yields: 


	June
	July
	August
	September
	October
	November
	December

example using loop and functions as loop limits: 


#live	loop(i, 1, ${random(12)})
	${num2month(${i})}<br>
#live	endloop

yields: 


	January
	February
	March
	April
	May
	June
	July
	August

while 


${define(randImage_1,139)}
${define(randImage_2,97)}
${define(randImage_3,68)}
${define(randImage_4,61)}
${define(randImage_5,65)}


#live	while (t = randImage_*)
	randImage_${t}:
	<img src="/images/random/_${randImage_${t}}.jpg"
		width="75" height="75">
#live	endwhile

yields: 


	randImage_1:
	
	randImage_2:
	
	randImage_3:
	
	randImage_4:
	
	randImage_5:

alternate implementation using looping and random: 


${define(loopStart, 1)}
${define(loopEnd, 5)}


#live	loop (i, ${loopStart}, ${loopEnd})
	randImage_${i}:
	<img src="/images/random/_${random(200)}.jpg"
	width="75" height="75">
#live	endloop

yields: 


	randImage_1:
	
	randImage_2:
	
	randImage_3:
	
	randImage_4:
	
	randImage_5:

   
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