The Official EHTML Page - Codes
Setting Up To Use EHTML
While EHTML resembles HTML in many ways it does require some
EHTML setup to take full advantage of it's power.
Namely, each file should end with ".eht". Do not put
anything in your "ehtml" directory. This is for the use of the EHTML
subsystem and compatibility with previous versions of EHTML.
Codes That Display The Current Environment
These codes display various information about the current environment of
your page. The environment, as far as the page is concerned, is
the current state of the EHTML server as well as who is connected to it.
- <DATE>
- The current date in the format "Monday January 1, 1980"
- <TIME>
- The current time in the format "12:00 am"
- <LOCATION>
-
Displays the "domain name" of the client software currently accessing your
page. For instance, a SLIP connection to Vaxxine could display
"[slip8.vaxxine.com]" while an access from the general access Internet
server at Brock University could display "[badger.ac.BrockU.CA]"
Codes That Display Special Messages
Any successful page has to draw people back to it. The following codes
offer a quick and easy way to provide an amusement or subtle hint to people
accessing your page. Since these codes work with standard UNIX text
files, you can easily update the information without modifying (and
possibly damaging) your page layout. They also allow for the reuse of
sections of HTML. For instance, a standard page "disclaimer" could be
placed in a file and shown in several pages with the <DISPLAY> code.
Any time you modified the file containing the disclaimer, the changes would
be reflected on each page displaying it.
- <MOTD x>
-
Displays a Message Of The Day
file. The MOTD file is an ordinary text file that you can easily
modify using "pico" to change the message displayed.
- <DISPLAY x>
-
Displays an ordinary text file that you can easily modify using
"pico" to change the message displayed. Works much the same
as as a <MOTD> but is more flexible about file naming.
- <COOKIE x>
-
Displays a "cookie" line from a file. The cookie is a line of text
that is randomly selected from a file that you specify. A cookie can be
used to display many different types of text, from popular "one liners"
in a television series to "plugs" about your business products.
Codes That Maintain Visitor Counts
Visitor counts help let you, and others, know how many times your page has
been loaded from the server. It gives a brief measurement of the
popularity of your page. Combined with the Flow Control codes
covered later, they can even let you know how many clients are
accessing from different locations.
-
<COUNTER ADD|DISPLAY x>
-
With this code inserted into your page, a counter can be used to record
each time a client loads your page.
Codes That Control The Flow Of Your Page
The flow control codes allow you to control the way your page is displayed
based on where the person loading the page is from. You can display
different blocks of text and even terminate your page altogether.
- <IF %LOCATION% ==|!= x>
-
This code allows you to selectively show a part of your page, known as a
'block' depending on where the client loading on your page is on the
Internet.
- <ELSEIF %LOCATION% ==|!=
x>
-
This code, when combined with <IF>, allows you to continue checking
if an original <IF> was false.
- <ELSE>
-
Should the last specified <IF> and/or <ELSEIF> fail, the
<ELSE> block will be executed.
- <ENDIF>
-
This code marks the end of any processing for the current <IF> code.
- <EXIT>
-
This code stops any more processing of your page. It is especially helpful
with the standard EHTML <IF> in order to change the way your page
responds if the user is, or is not, from a particular site.
Codes That Perform Logging
Putting up your page is only the first part of the battle. The next part
is to have people come and visit it. Quite often you would like some
kind of indication as to who. The EHTML logging codes give you
such an indication.
- <LOG x>
-
This code allows you to maintain a log of those domains where clients have
accessed your page.
- <DATELOG x
comment>
-
This code allows you to maintain a more detailed log of clients that have
accessed your page.
-
<LOCLOG ADD|DISPLAY|NUMSORT|LOCSORT x>
-
This code allows you to log visitors to your page, and then display a
summary of the number of visitors from each individual site or domain.
Codes That Interact With The Outside World
The average WWW page is static or unchanging for long periods of
time. The use of scripts helps to make your page more lively but they
have often relied solely the CGI interface, a standardized and
sometimes clumsy way of interacting with your page. EHTML allows
scripts to have a more active role in your page.
- <RUNIT x>
-
This code allows you to invoke a UNIX command or script with it's output
appearing on your page.