edc2html
is a Perl program that generates an HTML document (composed of
several files) to allow hypertext navigation through a FrameBuilder Element
Catalog specified in a Frame Maker Interchange Format (MIF) file.
It may help the reader to have a basic knowledge of FrameBuilder, the Element Catalog, and how to export a file to MIF. Knowledge of MIF markup is an added bonus, but not necessary.
edc2html
may come out without a public
announcement (especially for bux fix releases). For the latest release and
information on edc2html
, look at my home page at the University of
California: Irvine.
edc2html
generates various HTML files for hypertext navigation of a
FrameBuilder Element Catalog. The files generated are as follows:
html
html
html
html
.html
".
html
Once all the files are generated, one needs only to create a link in the Web server being used to the EDC-HOME page.
edc2html
is invoked from a Unix shell, with the following syntax:
% edc2html
[options] filename
filename is the FrameBuilder Element Catalog, represented in Frame MIF, to be parsed for generating the HTML files. The following is the list of options available:
-allname
filename
ALL-ELEM.html
".
-careful
edc2html
to be wary of end-of-line comments and imported data.
Normally, edc2html
assumes that the MIF file has no MIF markup
characters (`<
`, `>
') in end-of-line comments and contains no imported
data. This assumption increases the processing speed of the MIF
considerably. However, if the MIF file you give to edc2html
contains
questionable characters in comments and/or imported data, then specify
this option.
The MIF generated directly by FrameBuilder does not have markup
characters in end-of-line comments, so the -careful
option is only
needed if import data is included in the MIF.
-descfile
filename
-docurl
URL
edc2html
. The default URL is
"edc2html.doc.html
".
-edcname
string
edc2html
determines the name of the Element Catalog by its filename with the
extension stripped off. If reading from standard input, then this argument
should be specified. Otherwise, "Unknown" is used.
The string " Element Catalog" will be appended to the name of the Element Catalog.
-elemlist
-help
-homename
filename
EDC-HOME.html
".
-outdir
path
-topname
filename
TOP-ELEM.html
".
-verbose
edc2html
is doing.
One can add documentation to the home page via the Element Description File or by manually editting the file.
html
is the file describing the content of element. The element page is
divided into the following sections:
Foo Bar
" will have its element page filename called "Foo,Bar.html
".
The same convention applies to the element.rule page.
rule.html
is the file giving the element's general rule as it appears in the
Element Catalog. The element.rule page is divided into the following sections:
See Special Note in the element page description on the actual filename of the element.rule page.
edc2html
supports the ability to add documentation to the HTML files generated
from an Element Catalog through the -descfile option.
The basic syntax of the description file is as follows:
<?EDC2HTML identifier>
Description of identifier here.
<P>
<?EDC2HTML identifier>
Description of identifier here.
<P>
...
The line
<?EDC2HTML
identifier>
signifies the beginning of the description
text. All text up to the next <?EDC2HTML
identifier>
line or end-of-file is used
as the identifier description.
The identifier can be one of the following formats:
,
identifier,
...
,
'. This allows a
description to be shared among muliple identifiers. NOTE: there should
be NO whitespace between the identifiers and the commas.
If the special element,
-HOME-
, is specified in the description file, then its
description text will be put on the EDC-HOME page.
SGML comments are also supported in the description file. Comments are skipped
by edc2html
. The syntax for a comment is the following:
<!-- This is a comment -->
edc2html
can only handle a comment that spans a single line (to make
the parsing simple). Therefore, the following will cause edc2html
to add
the comment text beyond the first line of the comment to an element
description:
<!-- This is a commentIf you want to put line breaks in the description file without them being applied to an element description, then use the SGML short comment:
that spans more than one line.
-->
<!>
.
The description text can be any valid HTML markup. It is recommended to end each description with the <P> tag so the description is separated from any other HTML markup generated by
edc2html
.
Example:
Miscellaneous Notes:
edc2html
ignores element descriptions that contain only the <P> tag.
edc2html
to generate a file with all elements
Element Catalog with empty descriptions (i.e they only contain the <P>
tag).
edc2html
only cares about the Element Catalog, "<ElementCatalog
...>
", statement in the MIF file. Therefore, it is best to give edc2html
a MIF
file that defines an empty document so unnecessary processing is avoided.
Actually, all you need is a file with only the Element Catalog statement.
edc2html
. You will only get the information of
the elements defined for EDD editting/generation. Of course, if you
interested in the Element Catalog used in EDDs ...