Genii Weblog
Bonus Feature: Suppressed table parameters in HTML generation
Thu 15 Sep 2005, 11:01 PM
Tweetby 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 services | Architecture | Administration | Market presence | |
| IBM Lotus Notes And Domino 6.5.1 | 3.0 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 3.6 |
| Microsoft Windows Server System And Office System 2003 | 3.3 | 3.5 | 3.6 | 3.8 |
| Novell GroupWise 6.5 | 3.2 | 2.7 | 2.8 | 2.5 |
| Oracle Collaboration Suite Release 2 | 3.6 | 3.5 | 3.4 | 3.3 |
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.
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