Toolbook Workshop

Text Preprocessor

May,10 2003

These scripts were presented at TBCon 2001 as part of "Dynamic Reports Generation" presentation and can be downloaded from the link at the end of this article.

expandString()

The very simple example of text preprocessor is OpenScript function expandString(<input string>,<param>[,<param>]) which replaces the placesholdrs or text patterns numerated as %1, %2, etc. in the input string with text values taken from the list of parameters.

The sample code below with expandString() shows the current date
request expandString("Today is %1",sysDate)

Simple Preprocessor (dynamic.tbk - page 1)

The same text can be shown using specially written function preProcessor()
myString="Today is $Date$"
myData[1][1]="$Date$"; myData[1][2]=sysDate
get preProcessor(myString,myData)
request it
where dynamic array myData[][] holds place holders with the associated text values.

Simple File Preprocessor (page 2)

Using this function you can replace selected parts of the external text file, for example, certificate file in rich text format, with run time information, such as user name and date.

Conditional Preprocessor 1 (page 3)

Function preProcessorEx() supports conditional operators embedded in the body of the text. Every time the preprocessor encounters string
{<Condition>|<TRUE String>|<FALSE String>}
it evaluates <Condition> and depending on the result paste TRUE ofr FALSE strings. Nested conditional operators are supported.

Conditional Preprocessor 2 (page 4)

In addition to conditional operators with preProcessorEx1() in the text you can use embedded OpenScript code, the returned text string will be pasted in the output text. Embedded code must be enclosed in {}, the last operator in the sequence must be get <value> to make the results of calculations available to preprocessor.

All these scripts can be used for building various text reports. The proper use of conditional operators and embedded scripts free the developer from the need to add each piece of information to the report in OpenScript. Using the preprocessor capabilities the author may concentrate on the details of the report.

Script

	Dynamic Reports Generation. PowerPoint presentation and sample books (421 kbytes).