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The NTS Page Producer Wizard main goal is to create a group of HQL pages using a Structure file of page names and a Template file. The Wizard is using a To Do List to do its magic.
The To Do List has the following steps: Select Project, Use Structure, Use Template, Output folder, Produce Pages, and Exit. Note: Future function will also have a Convert step for converting HQL pages to HTML pages.
The first step is to select a Project. From here you can also create a Project or delete a Project. The Project is stored in a XML file, named after Project in the Project Path. This path can be configured from the System | Configure menu option Input tab. A Project includes three items: The Structure path and file, the Template path and file, and the Output path. You can add and maintain as many Projects that you want.
What is a Structure? It is a simple CSV (ASCII comma delimited) file and can be edit in either a standard ASCII editor like NotePad or WordPad. However if you have Excel loaded it will properly be set as the defaulted editor for CSV files. That is OK since you will have the feature of using the cells in the Excel spreadsheet as a guide to build your web site Menu Structure.
A Menu Structure represents the inner page connection of your web site. It starts with a home (that is normally the index.html page). Like any Windows program you will have a root menu. The NTS Page Producer Wizard has the System and Help menus as its root menu.
So the CSV file will in the first line have:
The Wizards New Button will create a sample Structure file and launch the CSV editor so you can edit the file per your spec.
If you already have a Structure file you can use the Browse button to locate the file and the View button to launch the CSV editor with the selected file. From the System | Configure menu and the Editor tab you can associate a CSV editor to edit the Structure files.
From the Use Template step you can select a pre-existing Template to build your web site from or you can let your Wizard produce one with the New button. From the System | Configure menu and the Editor tab you can associate an HTML editor to edit the HQL files. Remember the HQL file is nothing more than an HTML file, with HQL code.
<html>
<head>
<title>{PAGEID}</title>
<style type="text/css">
<!-- A:hover {background: #FFFF00;} -->
</style>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#C1F5F5">
<table width="100%" border=2 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3 bgcolor="#FFFFCC">
<tr>
<td width="1%" valign="top" bgcolor="#76828F">
</td>
<td width="71%" valign="top" bgcolor="#FFFFCC">
<table cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3 border=0 width="100%">
<tr align="left" valign="top">
<td bgcolor="#76828F">
<font face="Arial" color="White">
{PAGEID}<br>
</front>
</td>
</tr>
<tr align="left" valign="top">
<td>
<#hql
$lf = <br>;
Echo 12/27/2001 2:06:04 PM + $LF;
Echo $LF;
Echo Menu File="{HOME}design.csv" PageID="{PAGEID}"
Extension="html" Direction="Horizontal"
Border="0";
Echo $LF;
#>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>
<#hql
Echo Include {HOME}copyright.txt;
#>
</body>
</html>
You can easily role you own HQL template. Remember the effort you put into this page will be duplicated into all the pages in the Project so creating a real nice basic Template is worth a million.
Before we can start producing the HQL pages the Wizard will need to know where to save all the files. Use the Browse button to locate the appropriated folder.
Note: If an HQL file is already present in the Output folder the Wizard WILL NOT overwrite the current version. The reason should be clear and that is that you may have edited the file. If you need an updated version either delete the current version of the HQL file or use the {+01} revision function of the Structure file.
If the Structure file is not found in the Output folder it will be copied to the folder. If an older version of the file is found it will be overwritten.
Yes we are now ready to Produce some HQL pages. Use the Start to begin the production. You can cancel at any given time with the Stop button.
After a Project has been setup you can in step one select the Project, click on the Produce Pages label in the To Do List to go directly to this step, hit the Start button and you are in business.
Use the System | Configure menu to display the XML setup. Each tab will explain the function of the tab and its settings.
Use the System | Project Setup to display the current Project XML setup. Each tab will explain the function of the tab and its settings.
{ More about the Tools menu to come at a later time }
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