Re: the "Cheetah files" (part 1)

On Thu, Oct 02, 2003 at 01:07:29PM +0200, deelan wrote:
> #if $seq
> <ul>
>   #for $item in $seq
>     <li><a href="read?id=$item.id">$item.title</a></li>
>   #end for
> </ul> 
> #else
>   <p class="info">No message found.</p>
> #end if
> 
> ugly and messy.

I've always done it this way.  I think DTML has some special variables
to cover this situation, if I remember right.  But whenever something
is "ugly", the easiest thing is to encapsulate it in a method:

$html_list([
    "Item 1",
    "Item 2",
    ], "<P> No message found,</P>")

where the method might be:

#def html_list($items, $messageIfNone=None, $listType='U'>
## $listType may be 'U' or 'O'.
#if $items
<${listType}L>
#for $item in $items
<LI> $item
#end for $item
</${listType}L>
#elif $messageIfNone
$messageIfNone
#end if $items
#end def html_list


I would also use a method to generate the hyperlinks.  My favorite is:

def href(url, label, quoteLabel=True, **attributes):
    """If both 'url' and 'label', return a typical hyperlink.
       If 'url' but not 'label', make the label identical to the URL.
       If 'label' but not 'url', return the label instead of a hyperlink
           (assume the link is disabled or not implemented yet).
       If 'quoteLabel', HTML-encode the label.  Otherwise assume it's
           already encoded or doesn't need it.
       If '**attributes', convert to hyperlink attributes, URL-encoding
           both the key and the value.
    """
    if   url and label:
        pass
    elif url:
        label = url
    elif label:
        return label
    else:
        return ''
    if attributes:
        atList = []
        for key, value in attributes.iteritems():
            tup = quoteUrl(key), quoteUrl(value)
            s = '%s="%s"' % tup
            atList.append(tup)
        atString = ' '.join(atList)
    else:
        atString = ''
    #url = quoteUrl(url)
    if quoteLabel:
        label = quoteHtml(label)
    return '<A HREF="%s" %s>%s</A>' % (url, atString, label)

Here are a few other functions I use frequently:

def mailto(address, label=None):
    label = label or address
    if '@' in label and '@' not in address:
        raise ValueError("arguments in wrong order")
    return '<A HREF="mailto:%s";>%s</A>' % (address, label)

def chattyMailto(address, label):
    if '@' in label and '@' not in address:
        raise ValueError("arguments in wrong order")
    return '%s &lt;<A HREF="mailto:%s";>%s</A>&gt;' % (label, address, address)


def menu1(*items):
   """A simple but elegant horizontal text menu (normally of hyperlinks)."""
   return "&nbsp;|&nbsp;\n".join(items)

def anchor(name, quote=True):
    """Make the target of a "#fragment" URL."""
    if quote:
        name = quoteUrl(name)
    return '<A NAME="%s"></A>' % name
        


-- 
-Mike Orr (aka. Sluggo), mso@xxxxxx  (iron@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
   http://iron.cx/     English * Esperanto * Russkiy * Deutsch * Espan~ol


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