Genii Weblog

Bonus Feature: Suppressed table parameters in HTML generation

Thu 15 Sep 2005, 11:01 PM



by Ben Langhinrichs
With 3.50 just recently released, you might think that our "Notes/Domino 7 supported" version would be short on features, but there has been a lot of behind the scenes work done that was not ready for 3.50.  This is the second in a short series of posts on new features coming along with Notes/Domino 7 support.

Sparse Tables
A frequent request from customers is the ability to generate sparse tables in HTML.  A sparse table would have just the bare table tags, so <table><tr><td>content</td></tr></table>.  As an example, here is a portion of a larger table which Alan Lepofsky published in the BP forum based on Forrester Research's findings:

Shared servicesArchitectureAdministrationMarket presence
IBM Lotus Notes And Domino 6.5.13.04.14.13.6
Microsoft Windows Server System And Office System 20033.33.53.63.8
Novell GroupWise 6.53.22.72.82.5
Oracle Collaboration Suite Release 23.63.53.43.3



Here is the HTML generated by Domino for this table:

table width="100%" border="1">
<tr valign="top"><td width="20%"><img src="/icons/ecblank.gif" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><b><font size="2" face="Verdana">Shared services</font></b></div></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><b><font size="2" face="Verdana">Architecture</font></b></div></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><b><font size="2" face="Verdana">Administration</font></b></div></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><b><font size="2" face="Verdana">Market presence</font></b></div></td></tr>

<tr valign="top"><td width="20%"><b><font size="2" face="Verdana">IBM Lotus Notes And Domino 6.5.1</font></b></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana">3.0</font></div></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><b><font size="2" color="#FF0000" face="Verdana">4.1</font></b></div></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><b><font size="2" color="#FF0000" face="Verdana">4.1</font></b></div></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana">3.6</font></div></td></tr>

<tr valign="top"><td width="20%"><b><font size="2" face="Verdana">Microsoft Windows Server System And Office System 2003</font></b></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana">3.3</font></div></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana">3.5</font></div></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana">3.6</font></div></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><b><font size="2" color="#FF0000" face="Verdana">3.8</font></b></div></td></tr>

<tr valign="top"><td width="20%"><b><font size="2" face="Verdana">Novell GroupWise 6.5</font></b></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana">3.2</font></div></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana">2.7</font></div></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana">2.8</font></div></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana">2.5</font></div></td></tr>

<tr valign="top"><td width="20%"><b><font size="2" face="Verdana">Oracle Collaboration Suite Release 2</font></b></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><b><font size="2" color="#FF0000" face="Verdana">3.6</font></b></div></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana">3.5</font></div></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana">3.4</font></div></td><td width="20%"><div align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana">3.3</font></div></td></tr>
</table>


And here is the HTML for the same table generated with font suppression and sparse tables turned on using the Midas Rich Text LSX:

<table><tr><td><br></td><td>Shared services</td><td>Architecture</td><td>Administration</td><td>Market presence</td></tr><tr><td>IBM Lotus Notes And Domino 6.5.1</td><td>3.0</td><td>4.1</td><td>4.1</td><td>3.6</td></tr><tr><td>Microsoft Windows Server System And Office System 2003</td><td>3.3</td><td>3.5</td><td>3.6</td><td>3.8</td></tr><tr><td>Novell GroupWise 6.5</td><td>3.2</td><td>2.7</td><td>2.8</td><td>2.5</td></tr><tr><td>Oracle Collaboration Suite Release 2</td><td>3.6</td><td>3.5</td><td>3.4</td><td>3.3</td></tr></table>

Now, obviously, you don't always want sparse tables, but when you need them, this is a handy way to create them.  Oh, and again, Midas can make semi-sparse tables which include widths, but not other tags.  Tomorrow, we'll cover auto-tagging and auto-classing, which allow you to set ids and classes for various table elements.

Copyright © 2005 Genii Software Ltd.

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