Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Application Server:
Developing WebSpeed Applications

Setting HTML attribute defaults

You can change the initialized defaults for all the HTML attributes of the WEB-CONTEXT handle. (See the "Formatting DISPLAY output" section.) Create a text file in your PROPATH with the name display.dat. In this file, you can specify a new HTML definition for one or all of these attributes. Any definitions that appear in this file override the hard-coded WebSpeed defaults both at startup and during the initialization of each Web request service.

Entering attribute definitions

These are the basic rules for entering attribute definitions in display.dat:

Any line beginning with pound (#) is a comment. No lines can precede or follow a definition except comment lines (no blank lines).
The first character of the first line of a definition (if not pound (#)), is the delimiter for the definition.

This is the syntax for an HTML attribute definition:

Syntax

{delimiter}{HTML-attribute}{delimiter}[#] [HTML-definition]{delimiter}

You must enter each of these elements in order with no intervening spaces, except as noted.

delimiter

The first character of the first line of each definition. You can specify a different character for each attribute definition. Any text following on the same line as the third occurrence of delimiter is ignored as comment until the end of the line. The next line must be a pound (#) comment line or start another attribute definition.

HTML-attribute

The name of the WEB-CONTEXT HTML attribute you are defining.

#

(Optional) If specified, pound (#) allows you to start HTML-definition on the next line (for readability only) without the preceding NEWLINE character becoming part of the definition.

HTML-definition

(Optional) Any HTML you choose for the definition, including spaces and new lines. The definition starts with the first character after the second (and preceding) delimiter unless you enter pound (#). If you enter pound (#), the definition starts with the first character after any immediately following NEWLINE. The definition continues for as many lines as you want, up to the third (and final) delimiter. If you enter no characters between the second and third delimiter, the definition is the null string. No checking is done to determine if the definition makes sense for the specified HTML-attribute.

Examples

The following text contains two associated HTML attribute definitions:

# This is an example of using the ‘#’ after the second delimiter. :HTML-FRAME-BEGIN:# <FONT COLOR="BLUE"> <PRE>: # Pay attention to the first character of the next definition. I am # changing the delimiter that I am using. +HTML-FRAME-END+# </PRE> </FONT>+

Note how the HTML-FRAME-BEGIN and HTML-FRAME-END reverse the order of the respective start and end tags to ensure their proper placement in the Web page.

This is a definition for a null string:

:HTML-END-OF-LINE::

Note: After creating or modifying display.dat, you must restart your WebSpeed Transaction Server for this file to take effect.