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Posted to user@velocity.apache.org by Darin Kelkhoff <da...@sportingnews.com> on 2001/11/20 20:50:24 UTC

silent notation

dear list,
	is there anyway to adjust the behavior of silent notation?  i ask because 
we've often in the past (not with velocity yet) had the problem of where we 
are displaying a table, and if there are no contents within a cell, the 
bgcolor of the cell doesn't show up (in some browers, at least), so we always 
show a <BR> or a &nbsp; in the case that a value does not exist where we're 
showing it in a <td>.

i'm digging the silent notaion of velocity, so i don't have to write if/else 
structs to hide a variable with no value, but i'm wondering if it (silent 
notaition) could be set up to output somethign like a <br> or &nbsp; 
(whatever i spec'ed it to be in the properties file)...

for example, id use it like this:

	<td class=c1>$!foo.bar</td>

so that if $foo.bar was null, i would get the result

	<td class=c1>&nbsp;</td>

instead of

	<td class=c1></td>

so that our styles (bgcolor) would still take effect inside the td.  i 
imagine it could have other useful applications in other useful applications.

does somethign like this already exist that i'm just missing?  is it 
something others might find useful?

thanks,
--darin

-- 
Darin Kelkhoff
darink@sportingnews.com
Programmer
The Sporting News
www.sportingnews.com

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Re: silent notation

Posted by Nathan Bubna <na...@esha.com>.
yeah, this was an issue for me some time back...
what's worked (most of the time) for us is to use a velocimacro...

#macro( loudnull $a)
#if($a)#if ($a != "")$a#else--#end#else--#end
#end

where #loudnull($somenullreference)  outputs '--'

there has been some past weirdness about how variables passed as arguments
to a macro test in the #if() statement (esp. in $validRef.thisReturnsNull
situations), but i don't remember where that's at.  there was some talk of a
future null token to make the #if behaviour clear, but i don't think that's
happened yet.  anyway, try that out and see if it works for you.

Nathan Bubna
nathan@esha.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Darin Kelkhoff" <da...@sportingnews.com>
To: <ve...@jakarta.apache.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2001 11:50 AM
Subject: silent notation


> dear list,
> is there anyway to adjust the behavior of silent notation?  i ask because
> we've often in the past (not with velocity yet) had the problem of where
we
> are displaying a table, and if there are no contents within a cell, the
> bgcolor of the cell doesn't show up (in some browers, at least), so we
always
> show a <BR> or a &nbsp; in the case that a value does not exist where
we're
> showing it in a <td>.
>
> i'm digging the silent notaion of velocity, so i don't have to write
if/else
> structs to hide a variable with no value, but i'm wondering if it (silent
> notaition) could be set up to output somethign like a <br> or &nbsp;
> (whatever i spec'ed it to be in the properties file)...
>
> for example, id use it like this:
>
> <td class=c1>$!foo.bar</td>
>
> so that if $foo.bar was null, i would get the result
>
> <td class=c1>&nbsp;</td>
>
> instead of
>
> <td class=c1></td>
>
> so that our styles (bgcolor) would still take effect inside the td.  i
> imagine it could have other useful applications in other useful
applications.
>
> does somethign like this already exist that i'm just missing?  is it
> something others might find useful?
>
> thanks,
> --darin
>
> --
> Darin Kelkhoff
> darink@sportingnews.com
> Programmer
> The Sporting News
> www.sportingnews.com
>
> --
> To unsubscribe, e-mail:
<ma...@jakarta.apache.org>
> For additional commands, e-mail:
<ma...@jakarta.apache.org>
>
>


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Re: silent notation

Posted by "Henning P. Schmiedehausen" <ma...@hometree.net>.
Darin Kelkhoff <da...@sportingnews.com> writes:

>we've often in the past (not with velocity yet) had the problem of where we 
>are displaying a table, and if there are no contents within a cell, the 
>bgcolor of the cell doesn't show up (in some browers, at least), so we always 
>show a <BR> or a &nbsp; in the case that a value does not exist where we're 
>showing it in a <td>.

>i'm digging the silent notaion of velocity, so i don't have to write if/else 
>structs to hide a variable with no value, but i'm wondering if it (silent 
>notaition) could be set up to output somethign like a <br> or &nbsp; 
>(whatever i spec'ed it to be in the properties file)...

I use a simple pull tool for doing exactly this (in Turbine):

--- cut ---
import org.apache.ecs.html.Entities;
import org.apache.turbine.services.pull.ApplicationTool;

public class CellTool implements ApplicationTool
{
  public String getCell(String c)
  {
    if("".equals(c))
      return Entities.NBSP;
    else
     return c;
  }
}
--- cut ---

(and  tool.global.cell = de.intermeta.toolbox.CellTool
in TurbineProperties. ;-) )

	Regards
		Henning
-- 
Dipl.-Inf. (Univ.) Henning P. Schmiedehausen       -- Geschaeftsfuehrer
INTERMETA - Gesellschaft fuer Mehrwertdienste mbH     hps@intermeta.de

Am Schwabachgrund 22  Fon.: 09131 / 50654-0   info@intermeta.de
D-91054 Buckenhof     Fax.: 09131 / 50654-20   

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