From: Michael Campbell <michael_s_campbell@...>
Date: 2003-12-20T07:11:46+09:00
Subject: Re: Amrita question(s)

Ara.T.Howard wrote:

>>2 Is there a way to mask out non-data elements if a data-element
doesn't
>>exist?
>>Suppose I have in my html:
> 
>>Name: <span id=name></span>
> 
>>I don't want "Name:" to show if the :name id doesn't exist.  I'm
sure
>>I'm overlooking something fundamental here, but I've just started
so
>>not sure where to look.
> 
> simply do not put ':name' into you data structure:


>   ~/eg/ruby > cat b.rb
> 
>   require 'amrita/template'; include Amrita
> 
>   t = TemplateText.new '<span id=foo></span><span id=name>not
included</span>' 
> 
>   t.expand STDOUT, :foo => 42

This would require that I put my field names (in my example above,
"Name:") in the model, which I'd like not to do, since it's not PART
of my model, it's part of my markup.

Perhaps my example is overloaded too much on terms; let me rephrase.

I want the following to display IFF my model contains the data
element "element".

Field Label: element

Now, I can do this like so: 

code: {:element => "Field Label: element" }
html: <span id=element><span>

or something like

code: {:elementlabel => "Field Label: ", :element => "element" }
html: <span id=elementlabel></span> <span id=element></span>

but neither is very satisfying.  I don't like either solution as they
put my markup directly into the code (and my model data), and in the
second case, requires that I manipulate 2 values for every labelled
output.

What I'd *LIKE* somehow is to have 

html: <sometag id=element>Field Label:</sometag> <span
id=element></span>

and some version of code that omits the "Field Label:" part if
:element doesn't exist; I understand the actual value referenced by
the :element key already won't show.  In other words, "sometag" is
just a conditional "is it there or not?" test, where "span" tests for
existence AND displays it.

I can't use "span" as "sometag" above, since if the value *DOES*
exist, the "Field Label:" text will not be used, but rather replaced
with said value.

Do I need to write my own tag?


As for your comment about blocking out big chunks of HTML, how do you
do that?  If you have sections separated by <div
id=commentoutthischunk> ... </div>, how do you make the Amrita parser
not replace the HTML code with the value of the :commentoutthischunk
value?  YOu can't use {:commentoutthischunk => nil}, but any other
non-nil value you use will not only eliminate your HTML, but be
printed in its place.  (Or do you use a space or something innocuous?
)

Thanks,

Michael

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