FotoWeb 6.0 User Guide - Customization - FotoWare

Customizing
FotoWeb 6.0
Copyright (C) FotoWare a.s 1997-2007. All rights reserved.
This document gives an overview of the techniques available for customizing FotoWeb.

Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
Table of Contents
1 Introduction............................................................................................................................................. 3
1.1 Recommended knowledge.................................................................................................................... 3
2 Customization of FotoWeb ....................................................................................................................... 4
2.1 Scripting.............................................................................................................................................. 4
2.2 Scripting in FotoWeb........................................................................................................................... 5
2.3 Tags.................................................................................................................................................... 6
2.4 Command requests ............................................................................................................................ 14
2.5 Include files ....................................................................................................................................... 15
2.6 Script rules ........................................................................................................................................ 16
2.7 Template validation ........................................................................................................................... 18
3 Creating a FotoWeb template ................................................................................................................. 24
3.1 The first step – a Html page ............................................................................................................... 24
3.2 Adding the first tag ............................................................................................................................ 25
3.3 Adding ‘ImageList’ tag....................................................................................................................... 29
3.4 Displaying images .............................................................................................................................. 33
3.5 Creating page navigation .................................................................................................................... 36
4 Tips and tricks ....................................................................................................................................... 40
4.1 Evaluating multiple conditions............................................................................................................ 40
4.2 Special archive................................................................................................................................... 40
4.3 Image marking................................................................................................................................... 41
4.4 Creating loops ................................................................................................................................... 42
4.5 Displaying navigation information ...................................................................................................... 43
5 Auto search scripts ................................................................................................................................. 44
6 Indexes .................................................................................................................................................. 46
6.1 Figures .............................................................................................................................................. 46
6.2 Tables ............................................................................................................................................... 46
6.3 Screenshots ....................................................................................................................................... 46
6.4 Examples........................................................................................................................................... 46
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1 Introduction
Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
FotoWeb offers many powerful features that allow web designers to customize the look and feel of the application,
and also to some degre150
e change the functionality of a web site based on FotoWeb. The goal of this document is to give the reader the
necessary knowledge to create custom sites based on FotoWeb.
1.1 Recommended knowledge
Persons with knowledge of HTML programming (“manual coding”) can do customization of FotoWeb. Experience
with scripting using dynamic server platforms (such as ASP, ASP.NET, JSP or PHP) will give you a head start.
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Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
2 Customization of FotoWeb
All FotoWeb pages (FWX) are produced based on FotoWeb script templates. The templates are a mix of Htmlcode
and FotoWeb ’tags’, a kind of pseudo-html. By changing the templates you can completely customize the look
and feel and functionality of FotoWeb.
Following the same idea as the scripting technologies, the FotoWeb tags serve as the interface to inner functionality
of FotoWeb. With these tags, we can tell FotoWeb to perform a specific operation and from the same tags we can
retrieve desired information processed by FotoWeb. Before going any further, lets look at some basic scripting
concepts.
2.1 Scripting
The following figures illustrate some basic processing and transmission concepts among Html, Asp and Fwx pages.
. . .
5 – 2 = 3.
Figure 1: A mathematical expression displayed by an Html page.
. . .
Figure 2: A mathematical expression evaluated and displayed by an Asp page.
. . .
5 – 2 = .
Figure 3: A mathematical expression evaluated and displayed by an Fwx page.
All three pages in the above figures will finally display the string ‘5 – 2 = 3.’ in the client’s browser while the actual
pages are designed and processed differently. The Html page must store the final results of the expression in the
page itself. Upon request, this page is transmitted to the client AS IS. The Asp and Fwx pages are utilizing scripting
to allow the final result to be evaluated and added to the page dynamically upon a request. Contents of the raw
page enclosed within the script identifiers (‘’ and ‘’) are replaced with proper Html code before
transmission to the client.
The Asp and Fwx pages are also Html pages with or without special identifiers such as ‘’ (Asp) and
‘’ (Fwx). It is, however, the extension of these pages that inform IIS which module is responsible of
processing and transmitting the page. IIS redirects requests made to Asp pages to the Asp processing module in IIS.
Similarly, FotoWeb handles requests made to Fwx pages. Both modules will then scan their requested pages
looking for the identifiers and process the requests made within them. The identifiers are then removed or replaced
with proper Html code and, finally, the pages are transmitted to the client.
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2.2 Scripting in FotoWeb
Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
As in ASP programming, FotoWeb uses special prefix and postfix identifiers to create its tags to be able to recognize
them among Html code in a page. These identifiers are “”, without quotes. In Asp programming,
the prefix and postfix identifiers create a context that is processed by the Asp processing module. For example:
Figure 4: Multiple actions performed in a context created by Asp identifiers.
In FotoWeb, each action is enclosed by identifiers so that the prefix and postfix identifiers always appear on the
same line. It is possible to create a multi line context in FotoWeb as well, but with slightly different rules that will
be discussed later. In FotoWeb, the same actions would be repeated as follows:
5 – 1 = .
5 – 2 = .
5 – 3 = .
5 – 4 = .
5 – 5 = .
Figure 5: Multiple actions performed in multiple contexts created by FotoWeb identifiers.
FotoWeb provides a large collection of actions that can be called to perform different operations. These actions can
be divided into two categories:
1. Tags. Also called Commands.
2. Command Requests
A tag is what is enclosed and immediately called within identifiers “”. See ‘MathEval’ tag in figure 4. The
command requests are types of ‘hidden’ Fwx pages that do not exist physically. The difference between these types
of actions lies in the way they are used and will be discussed later.
As in all scripting languages, FotoWeb also requires a harmonious uniformity in the templates and a steadfast
adherence to some basic guidelines. To achieve this goal, FotoWeb provides a set of rules to obey when writing or
updating templates. These rules are explained in ’FotoWeb script rules’ later in this document. However, to
understand the rules, you first need to know the basic elements of FotoWeb templates – tags, attributes, variables,
conditions and command requests.
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Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
2.3 Tags
A tag is an action or functionality identifier that triggers desired functions in FotoWeb. The operations performed
by the tags can be divided into four different sections:
1. Something changes in memory/disk for later use.
2. A single result is processed.
3. A collection of results is processed.
4. No result is processed. An evaluation is performed.
The tags that change something in memory or on disk are simply removed from the final Html after processing. For
example:
Example 1: ‘SetVariable’ tag creates a variable in memory.
In this example, the tag ‘SetVariable’ create a variable named ‘someVariable’ with a value of ‘some value’ and stores
it in the memory. The entire string is removed from the final processed Html.
The example:
Example 2: ’InsertVariable’ displays its results immediately.
In this example, the tag ‘InsertVariable’ inserts the value of a variable named ‘someVariable’ in its place. The final
processed Html now contains the value of ‘someVariable’ instead of the above string.
The tags that process a collection of results are a hybrid of the two examples above. Lets look at the following
command:
Example 3: ‘ImageList’ tag processes a collection of results.
In this example, the tag ‘ImageList’ is called. This tag creates a collection of results that can be accessed through
variables such as ‘imageList.currentArchive.id’ etc. In the final Html, the tag strings such as ‘’
are simply removed, while the tag variables are replaced with their corresponding values.
Finally, there are tags that process no result, but rather perform an evaluation. For example:
Example 4: ‘CompareNumbers’ tag creates an evaluation context.
In this example, the tag ‘CompareNumbers’ performs an evaluation where the current archive id is compared with
the number 5001. If they match then the code in the tag’s context is executed and/or included in the final Html.
As you may have noticed in the above examples, some tags are single line commands that end with
/%>
while others are multi line tags where the last line is same as the tags name in the form
This difference is due to how information is retrieved from the tag and is identified as empty and non-empty tags.
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2.3.1 Empty tags
Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
Tags that change something in memory and/or return a single result are defined on a single line and have no
context. In the final Html, these tags are either removed or replaced with the result and are, therefore, called empty
tags. For example:
Example 5: 'MathEval' is an empty tag.
In this example, the tag ‘MathEval’ processes the expression and the result is available immediately.
2.3.2 Non-empty tags
Tags that processes a collection of results or perform an evaluation are defined on multiple lines. Their definition
consists of a starting tag with the tag name and an ending tag with the same tag name. Everything between these
starting and ending tags becomes the context of the command. This context can consist of regular Html code,
command’s variables and conditions and other commands. For example:
Bla bla bla…
You have
images in your shopping cart.
Bla bla bla…
Example 6: 'ShoppingCartList' is a non-empty tag.
In this example, the tag ‘ShoppingCartList’ is called that instructs FotoWeb to collect all the information about
logged on user’s shopping cart and stores the results in a collection in memory. These results can then be accessed
through the tag’s access points (variables and conditions) within the tag’s context. In the final Html, the main tags
will be removed and the access points will be replaced with the result values.
2.3.3 Evaluation tags
FotoWeb provides two evaluation tags:
• If – else – endif
• Ifnot – else – endif
These evaluation tags allow evaluation of existing conditions. For example:
Example 7: 'If' tag creating context with 'endif'.
’/’ marks end of tag.
Start tag.
In this example, the condition ‘currentUser.isLockedOut’ is being evaluated. If the condition is true, the code in the
tag’s context (until ‘endif’) will be executed. This tag can be extended to evaluate both outcomes of the conditions.
For example:
Example 8. 'If' tag creating double context with 'else' and 'endif'.
’ShoppingCartList
’ tag’s context.
End tag with ’/’
The ‘else’ clause allows creation of a second context that can be executed if the condition is not true. Similarly, the
entire evaluation can be reversed with the ‘ifnot’ tag. For example:
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Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
Example 9: 'Ifnot' tag creating context with 'endif'.
In this example, the tag context is executed if current user is not locked out. To evaluate both sides of the
condition, you can add the ‘else’ clause as follows:
Example 10: 'Ifnot' tag creating double context with 'else' and 'endif'.
Conditions are discussed later in this document.
2.3.4 Attributes
Some tags allow regulation of information processing by passing parameters to FotoWeb. These parameters are
called ‘attributes’ of the tags. These attributes instruct FotoWeb in detail on how to process and/or deliver the
information. For example:
. . .
Example 11: Optional attributes of 'ImageList' tag.
In this example ‘rows’, ‘columns’, and ‘archiveId’ are attributes of ‘ImageList’ tag that instruct FotoWeb to
produce an image list of archive 5005 with 3 rows and 8 columns. If the rows and columns attributes were not
specified, then FotoWeb would use default values of 2 and 6 respectively. These are called optional attributes. Not
all attributes are optional. For example:
Example 12: Mandatory attributes of 'MathEval' tag.
In this example, the attribute ‘expression’ is not optional and must be specified for the ‘MathEval’ tag to produce
any sensible information.
2.3.5 Variables
Variables are the information access points for the tags and externally set variables. The variables provide textual
information that can be added to the final Html transmission to the client.
2.3.5.1 Types of variables
The variables can be divided into four categories:
1. Request variables.
• These are variables that are passed with the http request. These variables can be accessed
anywhere in the page, given they exist.
2. Global variables.
• Variables that belong to ‘Global’, ‘CurrentUser’ and ‘BrowserDetection’ tags are called global
variables. These variables can be accessed anywhere in the page without calling the tag or
creating a tag context.
3. Tag variables.
• Variables set by a tag. These variables must be used within the tag’s context.
4. External variables.
• Variables that are set manually by the programmer. These variables can be used anywhere in the
page after they are set. They behave similar to global variables.
2.3.5.2 Accessing variables
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Since the variables return textual values, it is important to know, or at least have an idea of, what type of data you
expect from the variables and where it will be used in the Html structure. FotoWeb provides several different
options to display and use variable data. These options include:
• Html encoding
o Encodes the text in Html format for safe display in browsers.
• URL encoding
o Encodes the text in URL format to construct URLs and query strings.
• JavaScript encoding
o Encodes the text in JavaScript format to be passed to JavaScript functions.
• Plain text encoding
o Displays the text as is without any encoding.
• Text length capping
o Allows capping of the text if it exceeds a specified size.
• Text abbreviation
o Adds an abbreviation string at the end of the text if it is capped.
All these formats can be derived from the ‘InsertVariable’ tag by specifying different attributes. For example:
Example 13: Displaying variable with formatting.
In this example client’s platform name is being displayed with Html encoding. A maximum of 10 characters will be
displayed. If the actual platform name consists of more than 10 characters, then it will be capped down to 10 and
the abbreviator string ‘…’ will be appended to it.
If no encoding, capping or abbreviation is desired, as may be the case for numerical values, then you can simply
retrieve the variable value by directly using the variable name as follows:
Example 14: Displaying variables without formatting.
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2.3.5.3 Existence of variables
It is important to know that a variable must exist before you can access its value. If an attempt is made to access a
variable that does not exist, then the entire processing is stopped and an error is generated.
It is not always clear in the context when a certain variable may exist or not. To cope with such situations, FotoWeb
provides following set of tags to check for existence of variables on different levels:
• IfVariableExists
• IfNotVariableExists
• IfHttpRequestValueExists
• IfNotHttpRequestValueExists
All these tags use a ‘name’ attribute to specify the name of the variable to be checked. In addition, these are nonempty
tags that perform an evaluation and allow execution of their context accordingly. For example:
Client platform:
Example 15: Checking if a variable exists.
In this example, we check if a variable named ‘browser.paltformName’ exists. If it does, then the context of the
‘IfVariableExists’ is executed and the client’s platform name is displayed, otherwise the entire context is skipped.
Similarly, a code section can be created for execution in absence of a variable. For example:
Client platform is not available.
Example 16: Checking if a variable does not exist.
In this example the context of ‘IfNotVariableExists’ is executed only if ‘browser.platformName’ does not exist.
2.3.5.4 Creating own variables
FotoWeb also allows creating your own variables for easy data access throughout the Fwx pages. The tags used to
achieve this are:
• SetVariable
• SetSessionVariable
For example:
Example 17: Creating custom variables in the page scope.
In this example a variable named ‘productName’ is declared with a specified value. This variable can now be
accessed anywhere in the Fwx page in any context. However, once another page is processed, this variable is no
longer valid.
To declare variables that are valid and accessible through all pages, you can use the ‘SetSessionVariable’ tag. This
tag sets a session variable that only needs to be declared once and is available during the entire user session. A
session variable is recognized with a special prefix ‘UDSV_’, which stands for User Defined Session Variable. For
example:
Example 18: Creating custom variables in the session scope.
In this example a session variable ‘UDSV_productName’ is declared that will be available throughout the user
session in any context.
The externally set variables can be removed from the memory when they are no longer needed with the
‘RemoveVariable’ and ‘RemoveSessionVariable’ tags. For example:
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Example 19: Removing custom variables.
In this example the externally set variable ‘productName’ is removed from the memory.
2.3.6 Conditions
Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
Conditions are the true/false evaluations points for the tags and externally set conditions. The conditions allow
creating contexts of codes that can be chosen for execution in different situations.
2.3.6.1 Types of conditions
The conditions can be divided into three categories:
1. Global conditions
• Conditions that belong to ‘Global’, ‘CurrentUser’ and ‘BrowserDetection’ tags are called global
conditions. These conditions can be accessed anywhere in the page without calling the tags or creating
a tag context.
2. Tag conditions
• Conditions set by a tag. These conditions must be used within the tag’s context.
3. External conditions
• Conditions that are set manually by the programmer. These conditions can be used anywhere in the
page after they are set. They behave similar to global conditions.
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2.3.6.2 Evaluating conditions
Since the conditions are simple true/false evaluations, their usage is very straightforward. The evaluations are
performed using ‘if’ or ‘ifnot’ tags. For example:
Example 20: Evaluating conditions.
In this example the account status of the logged on user is being evaluated. If the account is locked out, then the
first section of the if-clause is executed, otherwise the second section is executed.
The ‘’ clause allows evaluation of the negation at the same time. However, if only negation needs to be
evaluated, then an ‘ifnot’ can be performed on the condition. For example:
Example 21: Inverted condition evaluation.
In this example a context is created for execution only if the condition being tested is false.
The ‘if’ and ‘ifnot’ tags can be nested and they can contain any other tags in their contexts. For example:
Example 22: Nested condition evaluation.
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2.3.6.3 Existence of conditions
Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
It is important to know that a condition must exist before you can evaluate it. If an attempt is made to evaluate a
condition that does not exist, then the entire processing is stopped and an error is generated.
It is not always clear in the context when a certain condition may exist or not. To cope with such situations,
FotoWeb provides following tags to check for existence of conditions:
• IfConditionExists
• IfNotConditionExists
These tags use a ‘name’ attribute to specify the name of the condition to be checked. In addition, these are nonempty
tags with the exception that they do not store any results in the memory. It is rather the context of the tag is
responsible of delivering the results. For example:
You are using an Opera browser.
Example 23: Checking if a conditions exists.
In this example, we check if a condition named ‘browser.isOpera’ exists. If it does, then the context of the
‘IfConditionExists’ is executed and the condition is evaluated, otherwise the entire context is skipped.
Similarly, a code section can be created for execution in absence of a condition. For example:
Example 24: Checking if a condition does not exist.
In this example the context of ‘IfNotConditionExists’ is executed only if ‘browser.isOpera’ does not exist.
2.3.6.4 Creating own conditions
FotoWeb also allows creating your own conditions for easy flag setting throughout the Fwx pages. The tags used to
achieve this are:
• SetCondition
• SetSessionCondition
For example:
Example 25. Creating custom conditions in the page scope.
In this example a condition named ‘openShoppingCartInNewWindow’ is created with a value set to true. This
condition can now be accessed anywhere in the Fwx page in any context. However, once another page is processed,
this condition is no longer valid.
To declare conditions that are valid and accessible in all pages, you can use the ‘SetSessionCondition’ tag. This tag
sets a session condition that only needs to be declared once and is available during the entire user session. A session
condition is recognized with a special prefix ‘UDSC_’, which stands for User Defined Session Condition. For
example:
Example 26: Creating custom conditions in the session scope.
In this example a session condition ‘UDSC_fromLoginPage’ is declared that will be available throughout the user
session in any context.
The externally set conditions can be removed from the memory when they are no longer needed with the
‘RemoveCondition’ and ‘RemoveSessionCondition’ tags.
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2.4 Command requests
Commands requests seem like hidden Fwx pages that are nowhere to be found on disk. They are in fact just
FotoWeb tags designed to behave differently.
The regular tags are always executed from their context in an Fwx page. The command requests on the other hand
are only executed upon user interaction and can be called from any type of page (Fwx, Asp, Php, Html etc) or a
third-party application. For example the ‘ImageList’ tag displays images from the archive, while it is up to the user
to decide whether to add an image to an album or not. When the user clicks on the ‘add to album’ icon, the
command request ‘AddToAlbum.fwx’ is executed and the selected image is added to the user’s album.
Since the command requests are set up as ‘hidden’ Fwx pages, they must be accessed as if they were regular Fwx
pages with the exception of their virtual path that must follow the string ‘cmdrequest’.
http:///fotoweb/cmdrequest/AddToAlbum.fwx?f=&SuccessURL=/fotoweb/ViewA
lbum.fwx&ErrorURL=/fotoweb/ViewAlbum.fwx
Example 27: Calling command requests.
When accessed, the user is actually redirected to these pages to execute the command. Once the command is
executed, the user is redirected back to the previous page where the request was made from. The user usually does
not notice the redirection and only experiences a simple page refresh.
In most of the commands, these redirections are controlled by parameters such as ‘SuccessURL’ and ‘ErrorURL’.
‘SuccessURL’ defines the URL to be redirected to when the command is executed successfully while the user is
redirected to the ‘ErrorURL’ if any error would occur during processing of the command.
Most of the command requests also require information that is processed by other commands, e.g. a file access
token (foxtoken) of a file to work with. For example:
Example 28: Incorporating tags with command requests.
In this example the command request ‘AddToAlbum.fwx’ is used in the context of ‘Image’ command that is again
used in the context of ‘ImageList’ command. The ‘AddToAlbum.fwx’ command request is being referenced as if it
was a regular Fwx page with query string parameters ‘fileId’, ‘SuccessURL’ and ‘ErrorURL’. These parameters are
‘attributes’ of the command requests that provide necessary information to the command request to work with.
The ‘fileId’ is the foxtoken of the image that is being added to the album. The ‘SuccessURL’ defines the URL to be
redirected to when the command is executed successfully while the ‘ErrorURL’ defines the URL to be redirected to
in case of any error. Notice the virtual path of the command request that starts with ‘cmdrequest’. This string
identifies that the following Fwx page is a command request.
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2.5 Include files
Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
As in other script languages, FotoWeb allows you to insert the content of one script file into another script file
before the server executes it. It is done with a special ‘include’ tag that is enclosed by special identifiers ‘’. For example:
Example 29: Including files with virtual path definition.
In this example, a file ‘SystemSetup.inc’ is being included where the path of the file is virtual. To include files files
absolute path use following ‘absolute’ keyword. For example:
Example 30: Including files with absolute path definition.
This tag can be used to create functions, headers, footers, or elements that will be reused on multiple pages.
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2.6 Script rules
Now that you have been introduces to basic elements of FotoWeb scripting, its time to get to know the rules. The
rules are few and simple and, more or less, already explained during the introduction of the elements.
Failure to follow these rules can cause incorrect information display, compromise security and processing stops.
FotoWeb has implemented several mechanisms to prevent these occurrences, but the best mechanism lies in the
hands of the template programmer – adoption of FotoWeb script rules.
2.6.1 Close/End the tags
Whether it is an empty or non-empty tag, it must be closed with a forward slash ‘/’. For example:
Example 31: Closing empty tags.
Empty tags are closed by themselves by adding the closing mark ‘/’ right before the closing identifier ‘%>’, with no
space in between them.
. . .
Example 32: Closing non-empty tags.
The non-empty tags that create a context, must be closed with a separate closing tag. The closing tag is the same as
starting tag, but with a closing mark ‘/’ right before the tag name, with no space in between them.
Failure to close a tag will invalidate the hierarchal structure of the template and case a parsing error during template
validation.
2.6.2 Close/End contexts
This rule is based on the same principal as the previous, but extends a little further. As explained in the previous
rule, tags creating a context (non-empty tags) must be closed with a closing tag. Similarly, the evaluation tags (‘if’
and ‘ifnot’) must also close their contexts with ‘endif’.
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
Example 33: Closing 'if' and 'ifnot' tags.
Starting tag.
Closing tag with closing mark ’/’.
’/’ closes the tag.
Starting evaluation tag.
Closing evaluation tag.
Starting evaluation tag.
Closing evaluation tag.
Optional else.
Optional else.
Failure to close a tags’ context will invalidate the hierarchal structure of the template and cause a parsing error
during the template validation..
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2.6.3 Avoid illegal peers
Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
Some tags such as ‘ImageList’, ‘ShoppingCartList’ etc cannot be repeated in the same template. They are called
illegal peers. Any attempt to repeat these tags in the same template will invalidate all the illegal peers after the first
occurrence. See ‘FotoWeb 6.0 Tag Reference’ document for details on illegal peers of tags.
2.6.4 Avoid illegal nesting
FotoWeb allows usage of tags in the context of other tags. It is, however, not possible to repeat certain tags in their
own context. As a general rule of thumb: the empty tags cannot be nested, because they cannot create a context.
For non-empty tags, check documentation of the tag for individual reference.
2.6.5 Use correct elements and names
‘Of course!’ you say. So do we, but we wouldn’t have to make it an emphasized rule if it was only for the typos.
Misspelling of a name or two can occur and be discovered and corrected with a little debugging. The real challenge
is to adhere to the new standardized elements and names. A old template can be prone to following errors:
• It contains elements that are being used with their old names.
• It contains elements that are no longer in use.
• It contains elements that are accepted by FotoWeb, but their functionality is not implemented.
It can be almost an impossible task to manually update the templates if you are upgrading from older FotoWeb
versions. It can also be difficult to debug and verify large templates you have written yourself. FotoWeb provides a
tool to automatically perform the upgrade and verification for you following the latest rules set. The tool is called
‘Template Validator’ and is discussed in next section.
Tip: Even if you have customized FotoWeb templates earlier, always refer to the ‘FotoWeb 6.0 Tag Reference’
document to make sure that you use valid elements with correct syntax.
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2.7 Template validation
Use the template validator on all templates every time they have been updated, modified or customized to verify
their consistence and integrity. This tool analyses the templates and reports detailed error descriptions of errors
found with their location and suggestions on how to correct them. It is very important to have all the templates
validated before they are put into production. Incorrect templates can not only cause erroneous information to be
displayed to the user, but also stop FotoWeb processing and further create undesirable and unexpected errors and
situations.
Tip! Use extensive template validation on development / test systems.
Screenshot 1: Verify templates menu.
This tool is located in each site’s context menu. Selecting the ‘Verify Templates’ menu will launch the validation
wizard.
2.7.1 Script analysis and conversion wizard
Screenshot 2: Verify templates wizard - Start page.
Click on ’Next’ button to start the wizard.
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2.7.1.1 Script (template) selection
Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
You can either select a single template or a folder with templates. The script or folder selected may be outside the
Site’s ‘documents’ folder. If that is so, then you need to specify the location of Site’s ‘documents’ folder in the
script base field.
Screenshot 3: Verify templates wizard - Template selection.
2.7.1.2 Selecting rule set
The templates are validated through a set of rules. FotoWeb is shipped with a built-in rule set that is always valid
for templates up to the current version of FotoWeb. An external rules file can be used, only if one is recommended
and supplied from FotoWare.
Screenshot 4: Verify templates wizard - Rule set selection.
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2.7.1.3 Creating backup
Since template validator can modify the templates on command, it is always a good idea to create a backup of the
templates before starting to work on them. This option will automatically create backup of selected templates at the
specified location before doing the actual analysis.
Screenshot 5: Verify templates wizard - Create backup.
2.7.1.4 Start the validation
Finally, click in ’Finish’ to start the actual validation.
Screenshot 6: Verify templates wizard - Start validation.
A progress bar will appear displaying the status of validation.
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2.7.2 Validating the templates
Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
Once the validation wizard has finished, it will launch the template validation window that displays the validation
results, options to correct the errors and to re-validate the templates.
Screenshot 7: Template validation window.
The analysis summary on the top of the window displays general statistics of the analysis.
Files analyzed
Displays number of files analyzed.
Total errors
Displays total number of errors found in the files.
Fixable
Displays number of errors that can be fixed with the most simple ‘Auto update’ option.
Unfixable
Displays number of errors that require manual edition. However, these errors can also be removed with
the ‘Auto update option by adding additional update flags that remove (not fix) the errors from the files.
Total rules used
Displays the number of FotoWeb script rules used to validate the files.
The ‘Analysis Details’ window displays all the files that are analyzed along with the error status of each file. The list
also displays a color icon next to the file name to indicate the error status. The list can be sorted with respect to
available columns for better information display. Once a single file is selected from the list, the ‘Quick Error View’
list box on the bottom lists the error occurrences in the file if any. The operation buttons ‘Auto Update’, ‘Edit’ and
‘Delete’ buttons are also enabled.
The types of errors reported by the ‘Quick Error View’ are:
Change case
The name of the tag/variable etc needs to update the case according to FotoWeb standard. This is a fixable
error that can automatically be fixed with Auto Update.
Need update
The name of the tag/variable etc has become obsolete and needs to be updated. This is a fixable error that
can automatically be fixed with Auto Update.
Incorrect folder reference
The “bin” folder reference has become obsolete and needs to be updated. This is a fixable error that can
automatically be fixed with Auto Update.
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Out of scope
The tag/variable etc is used out of scope. This is an unfixable error and must be fixed manually. The Auto
Update can be used to remove this tag/variable from the template.
Invalid
The tag/variable etc is invalid. This is an unfixable error and must be fixed manually. The Auto Update
can be used to remove this tag/variable from the template.
Not implemented
The tag/variable etc is valid. But not implemented in this version of FotoWeb. This is an unfixable error
and must be fixed manually. The Auto Update can be used to remove this tag/variable from the template.
No longer in use
The tag/variable etc has become obsolete and will not be supported by FotoWeb any more. This is an
unfixable error and must be fixed manually. The Auto Update can be used to remove this tag/variable
from the template.
Illegal nesting
The tag is nested under illegal context. This is an unfixable error and must be fixed manually. The Auto
Update can be used to remove this tag/variable from the template.
Illegal peer
The tag appears with another illegal peer in the same template. This is an unfixable error and must be
fixed manually. The Auto Update can be used to remove this tag/variable from the template.
A template may not pass the parser at all if its FotoWeb tag structure is corrupt (e.g. unclosed contexts). In such
case, FotoWeb will only attempt to report where in the template the tag structure is breaking. Once the tag
structure is re-established, the template must be re-validated.
2.7.2.1 Auto update
This ‘Auto Update’ button launches the a dialog box where more selections can be made for the auto update
process. The basic function of this operation is to update the obsolete FotoWeb elements with their updated values
and correct the case of element names that are not written according to the standard. It also corrects the folder
references from ‘bin’ to ‘fwbin’ for the FotoWeb ISAPI modules.
In addition to this, ‘Auto Update’ provides four additional options that are directed toward ‘unfixable’ errors.
These options will delete the sections of templates that contain unfixable errors along with their contexts. A single
variable is simply removed from the file, leaving the surrounding structure intact. A condition is removed along with
the entire if/else/endif structure it occurs in. A tag is removed along with the data, variables, conditions and/or other
commands that appear under the context of the tag. It is, therefore, strongly recommended to use these additional
options with extreme caution and certainly after carefully analyzing all the errors in the selected templates.
To perform auto update on multiple files, simply select multiple files in the list box before starting the operation.
Screenshot 8: Auto update templates dialog.
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2.7.2.2 Manually edit templates
Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
The ‘Edit’ option launches a simple text editor with the selected template with a triple color-coding of the errors.
The simple case errors are marked with green color. The errors that need an update are marked with blue and all
other errors are marked with red color. The red color is a basic indication that the error should be fixed manually.
The drop down box on the top of the editor can be used to quickly navigate to the errors. By use of the drop down
box, a brief description of the error is also displayed on the top of the editor.
If you have edited and saved a template in ‘Edit’ window, then it will automatically be re-validated when you close
the editor. You can edit only one template at a time. Use the ‘Edit’ option to manually edit the templates or just to
simply view the errors and the context they have occurred in.
Screenshot 9: Manual edit template window.
2.7.2.3 Delete templates
You can delete the templates using the ‘Delete’ option. Multiple templates can be deleted simultaneously. This
operation moves the selected files to Window’s recycle bin where they can be restored.
2.7.2.4 Re-validate templates
Use ‘Refresh’ option to re-validate the templates. This option can be handy if you are using a third-party editor
while validating the templates.
2.7.3 Special case with include files
Some special cases can occur with respect to the include files where the logical structure of the including and
included files is correct, but errors may be reported by the script validator. The following example illustrates such a
case.
The assumed ‘main.fwx’ has two references of include files in the script, ‘include1.inc’ and ‘include2.inc’. The
‘include1.inc’ sets some variables and conditions that are referred in ‘include2.inc’. ‘Include2.inc’ does not have
any direct reference for the variables used in the file that indicate their setting by ‘include1.inc’. Thus, when
‘include2.inc’ is validated, ‘out of scope’ errors will occur every time the variables/conditions from ‘include1.inc’ are
used.
To resolve this problem, a special include instruction is introduced that is as follows:
Figure 6: Include statement for template validation.
In ‘include2.inc’, add one of the above strings on the first line with the reference to ‘include1.inc’. This way, the
validator will know that the file is using variables/conditions that are set by ‘include1.inc’ and no errors will be
generated. Since the string is contained in HTML comments, this will not affect the normal processing of the page.
However, it is important to maintain the exact structure of the string with respect to spaces etc in order to make it
work.
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Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
3 Creating a FotoWeb template
Creating a FotoWeb template is basically no harder than creating a regular Html page with some JavaScript or Asp
code. In this section, we will create a basic FotoWeb template to display images from an archive. We will create the
template in small steps by adding an element or two in each step to illustrate the ease of design and how different
FotoWeb elements ‘hang’ together.
3.1 The first step – a Html page
As mentioned earlier, FotoWeb templates are basically Html pages with FotoWeb tags and Fwx extension. So we
start by creating a basic Html page.
My First FotoWeb Template
Hello World: This is my first FotoWeb template.
Example 34: Primary Fwx page.
Save the page in the site’s document folder with an ‘fwx’ extension, e.g. ‘MyGrid.fwx’. Access the page using your
browser.
Screenshot 10: A FWX page containing only HTML code.
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3.2 Adding the first tag
Now that we have a basic Html page set up, we can add our first FotoWeb tag to it. The tag we will add is
‘ListArchives’ that generates list of archives on the site.
Note! All new code entries in the examples will me marked blue for easy recognition.
My First FotoWeb Template
Archives on site
-
Example 35: Adding 'ListArchives' tag.
Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
‘ListArchives’ is a non-empty tag that starts from the first archive on the site and repeats itself until all the archives
are enumerated. Every time it is repeated, it holds the information about the archive being enumerated that can be
accessed from the tag’s variables and conditions in its context. In the example above, we access the ‘archive.name’
variable of the ‘ListArchives’ tag to get the name of the archive.
Screenshot 11: Adding 'ListArchives' tag.
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Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
Next, we will access some more variables of ‘ListArchives’ tag to create a better information display. At the same
time, we will display the results in a table.
My First FotoWeb Template
Archives on site
Id
Name
Description
Example 36: Accessing variables of 'ListArchives' tag.
This time, we are retrieving archive id, name and description all at the same time.
Screenshot 12: Accessing variables of 'ListArchives' tag.
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Next, we will evaluate a condition of the ‘ListArchives’ tag.
My First FotoWeb Template
Archives on site
Id
Name
Description
Current user has access
Yes
No
Example 37: Accessing conditions of 'ListArchives' tag.
Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
We are evaluating the ‘archive.currentUserHasAccess’ condition that informs us whether the currently logged on
user has access to the archive or not. This condition can be used to decide whether to show this archive to the users
or not.
Screenshot 13: Accessing conditions of 'ListArchives' tag.
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Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
Finally, we will use the same information to create an archive list that can be displayed on top of the page. The
archive names will be presented as links to the same page ‘MyGrid.fwx’ where the archive id is passed to the page
through query string. The description of the archive will be presented as tool tip of the links. The condition
‘archive.currentUserHasAccess’ will be used to exclude the archives from the list where the currently logged on
used does not have access.
My First FotoWeb Template
Available archives:
 | 
Example 38: Creating archive list with links and tool tips.
Notice the use of ‘InsertVariable’ tag that performs an Html encoding on the archive name and description before
outputting the results.
Screenshot 14: Creating archive list with links and tool tips.
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3.3 Adding ‘ImageList’ tag
Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
Now we go over to the most important tag in FotoWeb’s tag arsenal, ‘ImageList’ tag. This tag creates image list of
the specified archive. The usage of this tag as simple as the ‘ListArchives’, but this tag offers a much larger
collection of variables and conditions and it must be combined with some other tags to get full advantage of it.
We will explore this tag by expanding the previously started example.
My First FotoWeb Template
Available archives:
 | 
You are browsing archive
.
Example 39: Adding 'ImageList' tag.
We define ‘ImageList’ tag with 2 rows and 4 columns through its attributes. We also use ‘endforeDefault’ attribute
to enforce the values of ‘rows’ and ‘columns’ attributes as they are specified in the tag definition. This option will
ignore these attributes if they are specified through query string or posted data. We did not define the ‘archiveId’
attribute, therefore, the tag will automatically locate the first archive where the logged on user has access. In our
example, it is ‘Sample Images’ archive. The ‘imageList.currentArchive.name’ variable gives us the name of
the archive that is being processed by the ‘ImageList’ tag.
Screenshot 15: Adding 'ImageList' tag.
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Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
Now comes the interesting part. As you recall, we created the archive list with links to the same page where archive
id is passed in as query string parameter. This means that clicking on an archive link on top of the page will
navigate back to this page with an addition of ‘?archiveId=XXXX’ in the page URL. When that is done, the
‘ImageList’ tag will recognize the query string parameter ‘archiveId’ and work with the archive specified by this
parameter rather than using the first archive where the currently logged on user has access. So, if we click on ‘Raw
Library’ in the archive list, the ‘ImageList’ tag will process this archive and display its name.
Screenshot 16: Adding 'ImageList' tag and using with archive list.
Notice the query string parameter in the URL and the archive name reported by the ‘ImageList’ tag.
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Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
Next we will perform a change and an addition in our template. We will change it by expanding the context of
‘ImageList’ tag to the whole template. Then we will use some conditions and variables of ‘ImageList’ tag to display
a little more information about the archive.
My First FotoWeb Template
’ImageList’ start tag.
Available archives:
 | 
You are browsing archive .
This archive has images.
This archive is not searchable.
’ImageList’ end tag.
Example 40: Expanding context of 'ImageList' tag.
Screenshot 17: Expanding context of 'ImageList' tag.
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Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
Since the ‘ImageList’ is the main tag in this page, we should be able to access its variables anywhere in the page.
This flexibility is achieved by expanding the tag’s context to the entire template. Now we can even display the
archive name in the Html title of the page. In addition, the ‘ListArchives’ tag can now (internally) get information
from the ‘ImageList’ tag about which archive is currently being processed and set its ‘listArchives.isCurrent’
condition. We can use this condition to mark the archive in the archive list.
Viewing archive ‘’
Available archives:
 | 
You are browsing archive .
This archive has images.
This archive is not searchable.
Example 41: Using variables and conditions of 'ImageList' tag with other tags.
Screenshot 18: Using variables and conditions of 'ImageList' tag with other tags.
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3.4 Displaying images
Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
The images are displayed with ‘Image’ tag. This tag, however, can only exist in the context of ‘ImageList’,
‘ShoppingCartList’ and some other tags. These are called ‘parent’ tags of the ‘Image’ tag. See ‘FotoWeb 6.0 Tag
Reference’ document for complete lists of parents for ‘Image’ and other tags.
When ‘ImageList’ is called with ‘rows’ and ‘columns’ attributes, it immediately prepares rows X columns images to
be displayed. To actually display these prepares images, the ‘ImageRow’ and ‘Image’ tags are used. The
‘ImageRow’ tag creates the rows for us, just like the ‘’ tag in Html, while the ‘Image’ tag works similar to the
‘’ tag in Html.
Note! For the remainder of this example, we will mostly only display the relevant code snippet of the template.
Thus, it should be assumed that these snippets are to be inserted in the main template in correct context.
. . .
. . .
Example 42: Displaying images with 'ImageRow' and 'Image' tags.
Screenshot 19: Displaying images with 'ImageRow' and 'Image' tags.
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Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
Next, we will utilize the ‘preview.dll’ in “\bin” folder to display a preview of the image using the
‘foxtoken’ created by the ‘Image’ tag.
. . .
Example 43: Using 'preview .dll' to show thumbnails.
. . .
Screenshot 20: Using 'preview .dll' to show thumbnails.
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Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
Next, we want to add an add-to-album link to the images. To create this link, we need to evaluate the
‘currentUser.canModifyAlbums’ condition. The link will be created using the default FotoWeb icon. An image is a
added to the album using the ‘AddToAlbum’ command request.
. . .
Example 44: Adding conditional actions to images.
. . .
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Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
Screenshot 21: Adding conditional actions to images.
3.5 Creating page navigation
We have now set up a basic template that displays
• List of available archives.
• Basic information about the selected archive.
• An image list with thumbnails, file names and option to add an image to the album.
So far so good, but it would be nice to be able to see more than first 8 images of the archives. To do so, we need to
utilize the ‘PageNavigation’ tag. This tag provides navigational data that can be used to create ‘go to page’ links and
‘previous’ and ‘next’ links to navigate through the archives.
. . .
 |  
Example 45: Adding 'PageNavigation' tag.
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Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
Note that we are passing two additional attributes of ‘ImageList’ tag to ‘MyGrid.fwx’. These attributes are ‘sorting’
and ‘search’. Even that we are not using these attributes at this time, we start adding them here for future
convenience. These attributes inform ‘ImageList’ tag about the search criteria to use when retrieving images from
Index Manager and the sorting scheme to apply to the final image list.
Screenshot 22: Adding 'PageNavigation' tag.
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Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
The page navigation can be even more improved if incorporated with ‘ImageList’ conditions such as
‘imageList.isFirstPage’ and ‘imageList.islastPage’.
. . .
 |  
First | Previous
First
 | 
Previous
 | 
next | Last
Next
 | 
Last
Example 46: Improving page navigation.
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Screenshot 23: Improving page navigation.
Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
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Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
4 Tips and tricks
4.1 Evaluating multiple conditions
Combining and evaluating multiple conditions using standard approach requires nesting of condition evaluations.
Depending on the number of conditions to combine and the number of times the evaluations are to be repeated,
the templates can end up being rather complex and messy that further can be hard to maintain and debug. It can,
therefore, be a good idea to create some own conditions that represent a combination of standard conditions. For
example, if you want to categorize a user’s access level to the archive and later use this information in a couple of
places, then you can do as follows:
Example 47: Evaluating multiple conditions.
In this example we have created two conditions ‘accessLevel1’ and ‘accessLevel2’ and set their initial values to false.
Then we perform the real evaluation and reset these conditions’ values accordingly. Once done, we do not need to
repeat the deeply nested evaluation any more and can use the values of ‘accessLevel1’ and ‘accessLevel2’ for further
evaluations.
4.2 Special archive
You can allow different archives to be displayed differently. A trivial approach to this would be to look for an
archive identifier and split the grid using if-else evaluations to display archive contents differently. This approach
requires designing a complex grid page that evaluates archive identifier in multiple places and repeats major parts of
the code with different parameters. Maintenance of such pages is also difficult and full of risks.
A better approach to achieve the same results more elegantly would be to design two or more different grid pages.
This way each grid page will be rather small in size and contain clearer standard FotoWeb and Html code. Simple
pages are also easy to maintain and debug. In case of unknown or hard-to-find errors it is then no harder to just
rename a page to one that is working until further than being stuck with a large messy page that won’t display
anything correct.
The trick here is to create a dynamic system, as rest of FotoWeb, so that the archive lists generated on top of the
grid pages ‘know’ which grid page to use for different archives. Hard coding these archive lists will require manual
updating every time an archive on the system is added, deleted or updated. A dynamic solution can be achieved by
using a newly introduced ‘CompareNumbers’ tag in FotoWeb. With this tag, we can continue generating the
archive list dynamically while watching for the archive ids and create grid links for different archives. For example:
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Example 48: Special archive with special grid page.
Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
In this example, we compare the archive ids reported by the ‘ListArchives’ tag with the id of the archive that is
‘5001’. If the id of the archive being enumerated is 5001, then we create a link with ‘SpecialGrid.fwx’ while all
other archives are linked with ‘Grid.fwx’.
4.3 Image marking
In some environments it is important for the clients to know if an image has already been used earlier or, even
better, when it was lat used. Since FotoWeb has re-implemented the IPTC history event writing, it has become an
easy task to perform.
The destinations can be set to write IPTC history events on source images when they are processed through
workflow. These events can later be read back in the grid page to mark images. This way the client can get visual
information on images that have been used and even how long ago were they last used.
There are no limitations on how such a solution can be implemented. One way is to utilize JavaScript along with
FotoWeb commands. For example:
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Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
// Enumerate history events and pick the last FotoWeb Workflow event
var lastFwEvent = "";
var currEvent = "";
// "FWW" represents a Workflow event
if(currEvent.indexOf("E=FWW") > -1)
{
lastFwEvent = currEvent;
}
// Check if an event was retrieved
if (lastFwEvent != "" )
{
// Extract date from the event
var dateIndex = lastFwEvent.indexOf("D=");
// Cannot be -1 ! But we check any way
if (dateIndex != -1)
{
// Create date object for event date. Parameters are Year, Month, day where
month is 0-indexed.
var eventDate = new Date(eval(lastFwEvent.substr(dateIndex + 2, 4)),
eval(lastFwEvent.substr(dateIndex + 7, 2)) - 1, eval(lastFwEvent.substr(dateIndex + 10,
2)));
// Get difference with today's date. The difference is in milliseconds.
var difference = Math.abs(new Date() - eventDate);
// Convert to number of days
var days = Math.round(difference / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24));
document.write('');
if (days == 0)
{
document.write('Recently used');
}
else if (days == 1)
{
document.write('Last used ' + days + ' day ago');
}
else
{
document.write('Last used ' + days + ' days ago');
}
}
}
Example 49: Marking used images.
Using this example, we can display a string along with the images on when they were last used in a workflow
process. Other events that are written by FotoWeb are download events (FWD) and soft crop events (SCRP).
4.4 Creating loops
Repeating a section of code for a certain number of times is also possible in FotoWeb. This is done by using the
‘Repeat’ tag as follows:
Current loop value:
In this example we are creating a loop with a start value of 1. The loop will count up to a value of 10 and display its
current count during each iteration.
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4.5 Displaying navigation information
Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
FotoWeb does not provide a direct tag or variable that can inform how many pages can be browsed in an archive.
This number depends on the number of images in the archive, number of hits in a search and number of rows and
columns. However, FotoWeb provides all the information that is required to calculate this page count.
We know the number of rows and columns in the grid and we know number of images that can be browsed in the
archive. That’s all we need to find out how many ‘pages’ there are in the archive. For example:
Example 50: Calculating total 'complete' pages in archive.
In this example the ‘MathEval’ tag is used to calculate number of ‘complete’ pages. With ‘complete’ pages we mean
pages where the number of images are equal to rows X columns. There can be an unreported last page where the
number of images is less than rows X columns. The reason of this exclusion is simple – integer conversion.
We are evaluating the expression with no precision (‘precision’ attribute is not specified). Therefore, the result is
converted to an integer before it is displayed. During the conversion to an integer, the real decimal value is rounded
either up or down. Decimals less than 0.5 are rounded down while decimals greater than or equal to 0.5 are
rounded up (e.g. 4.1 ≈ 4 and 4.5 ≈ 5). Therefore, depending on the number of images in the last page, that page
may or may not be counted by the above expression.
To calculate ‘absolute’ total pages, we need to add an offset to total images to compensate for the integer
conversion. This is done fairly simple as follows:
Example 51: Calculating total 'absolute' pages in archive.
We add ‘rows + columns – 1’ images to the total images before dividing by rows X columns. This addition will
create an offset that after integer conversion will return the ‘absolute’ page count.
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Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
5 Auto search scripts
It is a common practice to have one large image database and create different archives from it based on different
auto search filters. FotoWeb also allows defining auto searches all the way down to groups’ and users’ level. This
way each group or user can be served different set of images in the same archive. Using this option requires that you
enter an auto search for selected groups/users in archive properties | Access List | Autosearch filter in the FotoWeb
Administration Console.
FotoWeb comes with a feature that opens for new frontiers within auto search settings. You can write FWX scripts
in the auto search field. It is written in the same way as FWX templates, but without any Html code. Due to its
unique nature, the use of scripts in this context is bound by certain rules.
5.1.1 Rules
Only the following of the FotoWeb tags can be used in the auto search scripts. Any reference to other tags will
cause a processing error.
• BrowserDetection
• IfHttpRequestValueExists
• IfNotHttpRequestValueExists
• IfVariableExits
• IfNotVariableExists
• CurrentUser
• AccessInfo
• InsertVariable
• StringSearch
• StringLength
• CompareNumbers
• CompareStrings
• SetVariable
• RemoveVariable
• SetCondition
• RemoveCondition
• MathEval
• Repeat
• Skip
5.1.2 Variables and conditions
Variables
Name Description
autoSearch.today.date Today’s date in “YYYYMMDD” format.
autoSearch.today.dateTime Today’s date in “YYYYMMDD HHMMSS” format.
Table 1: 'AutoSearch' variables.
Conditions
Name Description
autoSearch.access.none True if use has no access to the archive.
autoSearch.access.view True if user has view access to the archive.
autoSearch.access.preview True if user has preview access to the archive.
autoSearch.access.workflow True if user has workflow access to the archive.
autoSearch.access.download True if user has download access to the archive.
autoSearch.access.order True if user has order access to the archive.
autoSearch.access.editText True if user has edit text access to the archive.
autoSearch.access.crop True if user has crop access to the archive.
autoSearch.access.comping True if user has comping access to the archive.
autoSearch.access.delete True if user has delete access to the archive.
autoSearch.access.thirdParty1 True if user has 1st third party access to the archive.
autoSearch.access.thirdParty2 True if user has 2nd third party access to the archive.
autoSearch.access.thirdParty3 True if user has 3rd third party access to the archive.
autoSearch.access.thirdParty4 True if user has 4th third party access to the archive.
Table 2: 'AutoSearch' conditions.
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5.1.3 Examples
We start by looking at a simple example.
Europe
Middle East
Example 52: Simple 'AutoSearch' example.
Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
In this examples the guest users will be served images related to ‘Europe’ while all other users will see images
related to ‘Middle East’.
Now we construct a more complicated filter where the main search criterion is ‘sports’ and permission regulation is
based on ‘ThirdParty’ permissions. Our filter will serve old images to guests and registered users that do not have
‘ThirdParty’ permissions. Users with ‘ThirdParty’ permissions are again divided with respect to the combinations if
‘ThirdParty1’ and ‘ThirdParty2’ permissions. So the final division will be as follows:
• If a user has ‘ThirdParty1’ permissions, then images more than 2 days old are served.
• If a user has ‘ThirdParty2’ permissions, then images not more than 2 days old are served.
• If a user has both ‘ThirdParty1’ and ‘ThirdParty2’ permissions, then there is no limitation on date.
• All other users will be served images that are more than a week old.
For example:
(sports)
AND (FQYFD contains (0~~))
AND (FQYFD contains (~~99999999))
AND (FQYFD contains (0~~))
Example 53: Advanced 'AutoSearch' example.
In this example, we start by defining the main search criterion ‘sports’. Then a condition is set to apply the ‘week’
limit. If the user is not a guest and has ‘ThirdParty1’ and/or ‘ThirdParty2’ permissions, then the ‘week’ condition is
set to false and the proper filter is added. At the end, we check if we are to apply the ‘week’ limit and do it
accordingly.
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6 Indexes
6.1 Figures
Figure 1: A mathematical expression displayed by an Html page.......................................................................... 4
Figure 2: A mathematical expression evaluated and displayed by an Asp page....................................................... 4
Figure 3: A mathematical expression evaluated and displayed by an Fwx page......................................................4
Figure 4: Multiple actions performed in a context created by Asp identifiers......................................................... 5
Figure 5: Multiple actions performed in multiple contexts created by FotoWeb identifiers. ................................... 5
Figure 6: Include statement for template validation. .......................................................................................... 23
6.2 Tables
Table 1: 'AutoSearch' variables......................................................................................................................... 44
Table 2: 'AutoSearch' conditions. ..................................................................................................................... 44
6.3 Screenshots
Screenshot 1: Verify templates menu. ............................................................................................................... 18
Screenshot 2: Verify templates wizard - Start page............................................................................................. 18
Screenshot 3: Verify templates wizard - Template selection. .............................................................................. 19
Screenshot 4: Verify templates wizard - Rule set selection.................................................................................. 19
Screenshot 5: Verify templates wizard - Create backup. ..................................................................................... 20
Screenshot 6: Verify templates wizard - Start validation. .................................................................................... 20
Screenshot 7: Template validation window. ...................................................................................................... 21
Screenshot 8: Auto update templates dialog. ..................................................................................................... 22
Screenshot 9: Manual edit template window. .................................................................................................... 23
Screenshot 10: A FWX page containing only HTML code. ............................................................................... 24
Screenshot 11: Adding 'ListArchives' tag........................................................................................................... 25
Screenshot 12: Accessing variables of 'ListArchives' tag. .................................................................................... 26
Screenshot 13: Accessing conditions of 'ListArchives' tag................................................................................... 27
Screenshot 14: Creating archive list with links and tool tips. .............................................................................. 28
Screenshot 15: Adding 'ImageList' tag. ............................................................................................................. 29
Screenshot 16: Adding 'ImageList' tag and using with archive list....................................................................... 30
Screenshot 17: Expanding context of 'ImageList' tag. ........................................................................................ 31
Screenshot 18: Using variables and conditions of 'ImageList' tag with other tags. ................................................ 32
Screenshot 19: Displaying images with 'ImageRow' and 'Image' tags................................................................... 33
Screenshot 20: Using 'preview .dll' to show thumbnails...................................................................................... 34
Screenshot 21: Adding conditional actions to images......................................................................................... 36
Screenshot 22: Adding 'PageNavigation' tag...................................................................................................... 37
Screenshot 23: Improving page navigation. ....................................................................................................... 39
6.4 Examples
Example 1: ‘SetVariable’ tag creates a variable in memory. .................................................................................. 6
Example 2: ’InsertVariable’ displays its results immediately. ................................................................................ 6
Example 3: ‘ImageList’ tag processes a collection of results.................................................................................. 6
Example 4: ‘CompareNumbers’ tag creates an evaluation context........................................................................ 6
Example 5: 'MathEval' is an empty tag................................................................................................................ 7
Example 6: 'ShoppingCartList' is a non-empty tag............................................................................................... 7
Example 7: 'If' tag creating context with 'endif'. ................................................................................................... 7
Example 8. 'If' tag creating double context with 'else' and 'endif'........................................................................... 7
Example 9: 'Ifnot' tag creating context with 'endif'. .............................................................................................. 8
Example 10: 'Ifnot' tag creating double context with 'else' and 'endif'. ................................................................... 8
Example 11: Optional attributes of 'ImageList' tag............................................................................................... 8
Example 12: Mandatory attributes of 'MathEval' tag. .......................................................................................... 8
Example 13: Displaying variable with formatting................................................................................................. 9
Example 14: Displaying variables without formatting. ......................................................................................... 9
Example 15: Checking if a variable exists.......................................................................................................... 10
Example 16: Checking if a variable does not exist.............................................................................................. 10
Example 17: Creating custom variables in the page scope. ................................................................................. 10
Example 18: Creating custom variables in the session scope............................................................................... 10
Example 19: Removing custom variables. ......................................................................................................... 11
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Customizing FotoWeb 3.0
Example 20: Evaluating conditions................................................................................................................... 12
Example 21: Inverted condition evaluation. ...................................................................................................... 12
Example 22: Nested condition evaluation. ........................................................................................................ 12
Example 23: Checking if a conditions exists. ..................................................................................................... 13
Example 24: Checking if a condition does not exist. .......................................................................................... 13
Example 25. Creating custom conditions in the page scope. .............................................................................. 13
Example 26: Creating custom conditions in the session scope............................................................................ 13
Example 27: Calling command requests. .......................................................................................................... 14
Example 28: Incorporating tags with command requests.................................................................................... 14
Example 29: Including files with virtual path definition. .................................................................................... 15
Example 30: Including files with absolute path definition. ................................................................................. 15
Example 31: Closing empty tags....................................................................................................................... 16
Example 32: Closing non-empty tags................................................................................................................ 16
Example 33: Closing 'if' and 'ifnot' tags. ............................................................................................................ 16
Example 34: Primary Fwx page. ....................................................................................................................... 24
Example 35: Adding 'ListArchives' tag. ............................................................................................................. 25
Example 36: Accessing variables of 'ListArchives' tag......................................................................................... 26
Example 37: Accessing conditions of 'ListArchives' tag. ..................................................................................... 27
Example 38: Creating archive list with links and tool tips................................................................................... 28
Example 39: Adding 'ImageList' tag.................................................................................................................. 29
Example 40: Expanding context of 'ImageList' tag............................................................................................. 31
Example 41: Using variables and conditions of 'ImageList' tag with other tags. ................................................... 32
Example 42: Displaying images with 'ImageRow' and 'Image' tags. ..................................................................... 33
Example 43: Using 'preview .dll' to show thumbnails......................................................................................... 34
Example 44: Adding conditional actions to images. ........................................................................................... 35
Example 45: Adding 'PageNavigation' tag. ........................................................................................................ 36
Example 46: Improving page navigation. .......................................................................................................... 38
Example 47: Evaluating multiple conditions. .................................................................................................... 40
Example 48: Special archive with special grid page. ........................................................................................... 41
Example 49: Marking used images. .................................................................................................................. 42
Example 50: Calculating total 'complete' pages in archive. ................................................................................. 43
Example 51: Calculating total 'absolute' pages in archive. .................................................................................. 43
Example 52: Simple 'AutoSearch' example........................................................................................................ 45
Example 53: Advanced 'AutoSearch' example. .................................................................................................. 45
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