Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Scalable content via mainResponder

Author:Samuel Reynolds
Posted:4/22/1999; 2:32:18 PM
Topic:Scalable content via mainResponder
Msg #:5205
Prev/Next:5204 / 5206

MainResponder allows a neat trick to switch templates on the fly, so you can get pages formatted for different purposes--such as for printing or for particular browsers--in your dynamic site.

You can change the template from your firstFilter, so you can use a simple, "hard-coded" link on any page to generate a printable version of the current page. Or any other alternate version, as far as that goes.

Or you can select a specific template based on other information included in the request. For example, you could select one template if the request comes in from an Internet Explorer 2.0 browser, and a different one if it comes from Netscape 5.

HOW TO DO IT

You can add formatted-for-printing pages to any mainResponder site by doing the following:

1. In your page template, add the following link (wherever you think is appropriate, and change the link text as you like, of course): 

   \


2. In your FirstFilter, add the following block:

   if ( adrPageTable^.searchArgs contains "printable=true" ) {
      table.assign( @adrPageTable^.template, adrPageTable^.templates^.print )}



3. Finally, create a new template called "print" in your #templates
   subtable, with minimal additions to the page (maybe just your
   copyright statement and a go-back-to-the-real-page link).


Now load the (real) page into your browser. Click on the new link
to get the print-optimized version.


Look, ma--no clutter!



A MORE GENERAL APPROACH


Or, for a more general technique, replace ?printable=true" with "?tmpl=print" (or any other template), parse the searchArgs out to a table with webserver.parseArgs...

   webserver.parseArgs(adrPageTable^.searchArgs, @adrPageTable^.argTable )


...and switch on the value of argTable.tmpl to select which template to render with:

if defined( adrPageTable^.argTable.tmpl ) {
   local ( maybeTemplate = @adrPageTable^.templates^.[ adrPageTable^.argTable.tmpl ] );
   if defined( maybeTemplate^ ) {
      table.assign( @adrPageTable^.template, maybeTemplate^ )}}




DIFFERENT TEMPLATES FOR DIFFERENT BROWSERS


Instead of looking at the searchArgs, you might look at requestHeaders.User-Agent, which identifies the browser, and switch on it. For example:

local {
   userAgent = string.firstWord( adrPageTable^.requestHeaders.["User-Agent"] );
   browser = string.nthField( userAgent, '/', 1 );
   browserVersion = string.nthField( userAgent, '/', 2 )};
if ( double(browserVersion) < 4.0 ) {
   table.assign( @adrPageTable^.template, adrPageTable^.templates^.pre40browsers )}



OR YOU CAN REDIRECT


If you want, instead of changing the template, you can redirect to a different URL--perhaps a static version of the site, or whatever. To do that, replace the table.assign() calls in any (or all) the above sample code with a redirect scriptError (for immediate redirect):
   scriptError( "!redirect http://url.to.redirect.to" )




DO IT ALL!


Left as an exercise to the reader: Combine the above techniques in a single website. You'll end up with a chain of if and case statements and a very adaptable website!



Voila! Scalable content via the mainResponder--in your choice of flavor!


- Sam

			

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