Data Templates
Many of the programs in the BASIC Web Utility depend on data definitions found in string templates for data formatting and conversion. HTML, however, is a text format, with no provision to convert data to or from binary formats, or to filter invalid data before it is passed to or received from the server.
The BASIC Web Utility automatically performs translations to convert data between HTML text and the internal format used by Business BASIC. This is controlled with the data templates, both through the data type included with each template data field, and through user-defined attributes.
The following user-defined attributes may be used to allow the BASIC Web Utility to properly handle data stored in various formats:
Text Fields
|
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
|
case=upper case=lower case=proper |
Force text case on input and output. |
|
caption=phrase |
This caption is used by default when generating forms or HTML documents using the utfrmgen.wbb and uthtmgen.wbb programs. Captions may not contain spaces because of the way user attributes are accessed. Therefore, the BASIC Web Utility converts underscores to spaces ("Customer_Name" becomes "Customer Name"). |
|
mask=format |
Use the STR(data:"format") for output, and utcstr.wbb option to map input for text values such as zip codes or phone numbers, where there is formatted external presentation but unformatted internal storage. |
|
passthru=y |
If set to "y", then output data is NOT scanned for correction of HTML entity markup characters. This allows HTML-formatted text to be included in the data. |
|
image=y |
If set to "y", then output is formatted as a HTML <img src=data> tag. |
|
keys=item-list |
The uthtmgen.wbb and utfrmgen.wbb programs can format check lists, radio buttons, and selection lists from the formtype, keys, vals and sep values. These can be placed in the field tags parsed by these programs or can be set to the defaults in the data template. item-list is a list of items keys, with no spaces (use underscores for spaces), delimited by the sepchar value or a semicolon if no sepchar is specified. |
|
vals=desc-list |
desc-list is a list of descriptions associated with the keys in item-list. The descriptions cannot contain spaces (use underscores for spaces). Each description is delimited by the sepchar value or a semicolon if no sepchar is specified. |
|
sep=sepchar |
sepchar species the delimiter character or characters used in the item-list and desc-list. If the value begins and ends with a "$", it is assumed to be a hexadecimal value. |
|
formtype=form entry type |
form-entry-type can be text, memo, radio, checkbox, list, mlist, image, file, or hidden. This serves as the default entry type in form generation. Hidden values are suppressed from text generated by uthtmout.wbb. |
|
wrap=value |
For "memo" type fields, adds a wrap=value option to the <textarea> tag. |
|
multisep=sepval |
If the data field can store multiple occurrences, sepval defines the separator character used to delimit individual occurrences. If sepval starts and ends with a "$", it is assumed to be a hexadecimal value. |
|
border=pixels |
Specifies that a table used to format checkbox and radio button columns and rows have a border around each cell. |
|
cols=columns |
Specifies the default number of columns when generating checkbox, radio buttons, or memo fields in form generation. |
|
rows=rows |
Specifies the default number or rows when generating checkbox, radio buttons, selection lists, or memo fields in form generation. |
Numeric Fields
|
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
|
scale=n |
Scale number by n decimal places. The internal number 10000 becomes 100.00 when n is 2. The external number 10.01 becomes 1001 when stored. |
|
mask=format |
Use format for output. All numerics not interpreted as dates are processed with utcnum.wbb on input. |
|
Caption=phrase |
See Text Fields, above. |
Date Fields
Dates default to Julian integer format. If format is anything other than a known format, Julian storage is assumed. Custom formats include:
|
mdy |
(MMDDYY) |
|
mdyy |
(MMDDYYYY) |
|
ymd |
(YYMMDD) |
|
yymd |
(YYYYMMDD) |
|
dmy |
(DDMMYY) |
|
dmyy |
(DDMMYYYY) |
|
aon |
(ADD+ON OEM format) |
|
soa |
(State of the Art OEM format) |
|
jul |
(julian integer) |
|
dtm |
(julian date with time precision) |