Definition of Whitebeam XML Tags

Attribute

Required

Description

expr

required

JavaScript expression to evaluate - with an optional replacement attribute name.

Remarks

Use of this tag will evaluate the JavaScript expression contained in the 'expr' attribute and replace the value of the tag with the value of the expression. The expression can contain any valid JavaScript, including entire programmes although in practice it is best to reserve this tag for simple JavaScript expressions and to use the <rb:script...> tag for more complex scripts.

It is recommended that the bulk of the Whitebeam Script for a Pattern Page be included at the head of the page and then accessed through <rb:eval...> tags or through the equivalent attribute (rb:eval). This is by no means required but experience has shown that intermingling lots of server side and client side JavaScript can become very confusing!

<BODY>

		    <H1>Customer Information</H1>

		    <TABLE>

		       <TR>

		         <TD>Name</TD>

		         <TD><rb:eval
		 expr="rb.user.name()"></TD>

		       </TR>

		       <TR>

		         <TD>DOB</TD>

		         <TD><rb:eval expr="rb.user.dob()"
		 /></TD>

		       </TR>

		    </TABLE>

		    ...

Processing by the Whitebeam presentation engine (given an appropriate ROM view) would generate the following HTML:

 <BODY>

		    <H1>Customer Information</H1>

		       <TABLE>

		           <TR>

		            
		  <TD>Name</TD>

		              <TD>Fred
		 Bloggs</TD>

		           </TR>

		           <TR>

		            
		  <TD>DOB</TD>

		              <TD>10th March
		 1972</TD>

		           </TR>

		       </TABLE>

		       ...

The 'expr' attribute can contain any valid JavaScript including code that generates output via side-effects (The main example being rb.page.write) The creates a potential conflict about how to generate the output from this tag. Should the implementation use the output generated from the side-effect or from the result of the expression. To resolve this conflict the Whitebeam Presentation Engine employs the following rules (in order of precedence):

If the result of the expression is not void then the value is converted to a string and becomes the result of executing the tag.

If the result of the expression is void and there has been output generated by the script, for example by 'rb.page.write' then this output is used to replace the <rb:eval...> tag in the generated page.

If neither of the above is true then there is no output and the <rb:eval...> tag is removed from the output stream. This is useful in the case where the Pattern Page wishes to invoke some template functionality but does not wish to generate output.

Note. To force an expression to evaluate to 'void' in JavaScript the void keyword may be used as follows:

<rb:eval expr="void (rb.template.read())">

When executed this tag generates no output, regardless of whether the call to rb.template.read returns a value.

Definition of Whitebeam XML Tags

rb:eval

Body

Attributes

Remarks