webCMS: syntax and structural components

Most content in the text files of webCMS is plain text, or related to interpreted high-level tags like TABLE or some ITEM identifiers.

TABLE content gets marked by table identifiers. ITEM identifiers are needed for some text files, there are just 2 or 3 and they appear at the begin of the file. A complete list of identifiers can be found below.

Figures get embedded into TABLEs, they have no type of their own. This makes sense because figures should always have a caption, and a figure with a caption naturally forms a table, or a row in a table. Other HTML elements like URLs or horizontal lines are embedded in TEXT and are interpreted as native HTML code. HTML tags should be kept to a minimum. Don't forget that the purpose of the webCMS tool is to eliminate the burden of HTML coding. In particular avoid anything like text decoration with colors. Likewise, font sizes have gone, they are replaced by classes and styles which are managed within the tool.

Tables

Tables are marked by specific TABLE_TYPEs. The big advantage of using TABLE_TYPEs is that the user doesn't need to know all details about style and content conventions. For instance, the TABLE_TYPE 'QC1_TABLE' has the following format convention hard-coded in the tool:

The TABLE_TYPE determines format and look-up. For the example below, the table_type HISTORY means that the table gets 2 columns, the labels 'Date' and 'event', and determines all styles. In the source text file, this part has the following content:

TABLE_NAME      histo1 
TABLE_TYPE      HISTORY 
TABLE_ROW1      <user content> SEP <user content>

The TABLE_NAME is actually for user orientation only but not used by the tool.

Note also the simple marking of cells: separate them by SEP which stands for </td><td>. This is expanded by the tool, and anything else is also added by the tool (<tr><td>, <table> etc.). Use tabs and spaces in your text file in whatever way they come from the sources, they are not interpreted. Make sure that each TABLE_ROW has one content row only. Remember that SEP is reserved.

Here is a real example, for the HISTORY table of the GIRAFFE QC page http://www.eso.org/qc/GIRAFFE/qc/fmt_qc1.html, lowest component (named correlations.txt in the webCMS system):

TABLE_NAME      histo1 
TABLE_TYPE      HISTORY 
TABLE_ROW1      2007-11-14      SEP earthquake; non-thermal jump of HR grating  in X (+1) and Y (+2) pixels 
TABLE_ROW2      2011-03-14      SEP earthquake, non-thermal jump in Y direction; adjusted back to the old values on 2011-04-01; no science files affected 
TABLE_ROW3      2011-06-10      SEP earthquake, non-thermal jump in X and Y direction; adjusted back to the old values on 2011-06-22 
TABLE_ROW4      2011-06-27      SEP earthquake, non-thermal jump in X; adjusted back on 2011-06-30 
TABLE_ROW5      2015-11-27      SEP earthquake, non-thermal jump of HR in X by +8 px, LR in Y by more than 1 px; adjusted back begin of 2015 Dec; required new reference dispersion solutions for Medusa2

This is the output of webCMS:

List of TABLE_TYPEs

This is the complete list of supported TABLE_TYPEs in webCMS. Qualifiers are marked blue, find the complete list below. The complete list of TABLE identifiers is also listed below.

TABLE_TYPE	used for	format?	applicable branch	Entry in TABLE block * (applicable TABLE identifiers in the first column)	Result
TOP_TABLE	table on top of the QC pages, with links to HC plots and QC1 database	2 columns, fixed header and content	QC_PAGE	TABLE_ROW1 Noise parameters SEP HC_LINK /qc/GIRAFFE/reports/HEALTH/trend_report_DETNOISE_HC.html TABLE_ROW2 Linearity & gain SEP HC_LINK /qc/GIRAFFE/reports/HEALTH/trend_report_DETLIN_HC.html TABLE_ROW3 same, correlations SEP HC_LINK /qc/GIRAFFE/reports/HEALTH/trend_report_DETRELS_HC.html TABLE_ROW4 Contamination SEP HC_LINK /qc/GIRAFFE/reports/HEALTH/trend_report_DETCONTA_HC.html TABLE_ROW5 QC1DB_LINK giraffe_ccd	QC PLOTS Noise parameters Linearity & gain same, correlations Contamination QC1 database (advanced users): browse | plot
QC1_TABLE	describing QC1 parameters	2 columns, fixed header; the tool adds further columns; more ...	QC_PAGE	TABLE_ROW1 CONTAM1 SEP giraffe_ccd..conta1 TABLE_ROW2 CONTAM2 SEP giraffe_ccd..conta2 TABLE_ROW3 CONTAM3 SEP giraffe_ccd..conta3	FITS key QC1 database: table, name definition class HC_plot more docu CONTAM1 giraffe_ccd..conta1 content auto- added   CONTAM2 giraffe_ccd..conta2 from file classification.txt   CONTAM3 giraffe_ccd..conta3
HISTORY	history of events	2 columns, fixed header	QC_PAGE	TABLE_ROW1 2004-07 SEP new main mirror TABLE_ROW2 2015-05 SEP removal of contamination	date event 2004-07 new main mirror 2015-05 removal of contamination
TABLE_NOHEADER	free content	no header, any number of columns and rows	any	TABLE_ROW1 airbus SEP a SEP 380 TABLE_ROW2 pata SEP go SEP nia TABLE_ROWn and SEP so SEP on	airbus a 380 pata go nia and so on
TABLE_CUSTOMHDR	free content	as before but with configured header, any number of columns and rows	any	TABLE_HEADER col#a SEP col#b SEP col#c TABLE_ROW1 1 SEP 2 SEP 3 TABLE_ROW2 this SEP is SEP text TABLE_ROWn and SEP so SEP on	col#a col#b col#c 1 2 3 this is text and so on
FIGURE_1A (or FIGURE_1)	one figure and its caption	1 row, 2 columns: figure is left, caption right	any	TABLE_IMG1 argument of <a href=...>, e.g.: "jumpto.png width=32 height=32 border=0" TABLE_CAP1 this is the caption TABLE_CAP1 (multiple lines TABLE_CAP1 supported for TABLE_CAP1)	this is the caption (multiple lines supported)
				same as above, with an optional initial line encoded as AHREF= which is useful if you have a large image that does not fit easily into the overall page design (you then use a thumbnail image in the second row and define the real image in the first row): TABLE_IMG1 AHREF="jumpto.png" TABLE_IMG1 "jumpto.png width=32 height=32 border=1" TABLE_CAP1 this is the caption	this is the caption
FIGURE_1B	one figure and its caption	2 rows, 1 column: figure is top, caption below	any	TABLE_IMG1 argument of <a href=...>, e.g.: "jumpto.png width=32 height=32 border=0" TABLE_CAP1 this is the caption	this is the caption
				same as above, with an optional initial line encoded as AHREF=: TABLE_IMG1 AHREF="parallel.png" TABLE_IMG1 "parallel.png width=106 height=106 border=1" TABLE_CAP1 this is the caption TABLE_CAP1 and it continues here (multiple lines supported for TABLE_CAP1)	this is the caption and it continues here
FIGURE_2	two figures and their captions	two FIGURE_1A stacked in one table (2 rows, 2 columns)	any	TABLE_IMG1 "jumpto.png width=32 height=32 border=0" TABLE_CAP1 this is the caption for Fig. 1 TABLE_CAP1 (multiple lines supported) TABLE_IMG2 AHREF="parallel.png" TABLE_IMG2 "parallel.png width=106 height=106 border=1" TABLE_CAP2 same, for Fig. 2 TABLE_CAP2 (multiple lines supported)	this is the caption for Fig. 1 (multiple lines supported) same, for Fig. 2 (multiple lines supported)

* in addition to TABLE_NAME, TABLE_TYPE (both mandatory) and TABLE_WIDTH (optional);
it is always a good idea to have TABLE_END added, although the tool makes an attempt to guess if not found.

There is no TABLE_TYPE for tables more complex than FIGURE_2. Always try to simplify your tables. Hopefully there is no need for more complex tables, but in principle they can be created on demand.

Using TABLE_WIDTH is recommended for tables which otherwise grow too large. Use a percentage value, e.g. 80%, to constrain the table width to 80% of the display page width.

Content of QC1_TABLE

These are the columns of the standard QC1_TABLE in the tutorial pages (QC_PAGES branch):

List of identifiers

Identifier are used to mark certain lines in the text file. Their logics is like in configuration files: they are recognized if they start a line, and anything behind has the property indicated by the identifier.

List of Qualifiers

Qualifiers are interpreted tags. They are interpreted in certain environments (TABLEs or TEXT), as indicated below:

In some cases you still need simple HTML:

• use <p> to mark a new paragraph;
• use <br> to mark a line break;
• use <b>/<i> etc. as before (wisely please);
• use standard HTML syntax for links;
• use <ul>, </ul> and <li> for lists;
• use &gt; for > and &lt; for <.

Figures

Include figures with captions as a table, with a choice of FIGURE_1(A/B) or FIGURE_2. For the figure size you have several choices (see TABLE_TYPES above):

• use TABLE_IMG1 as single line, no 'width' and 'height' specified: the image gets displayed in its original size; this is simple but not always optimal;
• same, with 'width' and 'height' specified: the image gets displayed as you specify; this is a good idea if the image would otherwise be too large; make sure to specify 'width' and 'height' with the same scaling factor; explore the original size of the image (in the browser: right mouse click, view image, view image properties);
• same, but with two lines labelled TABLE_IMG1, the first one having "AHREF=<URL of image>": this would allow to click the displayed scaled image and display its full size.

There is no fixed rule what is best, but you probably have made these decisions already long ago in the text now to be migrated, so just "translate" what you have into the new syntax.