FSeTop Commands

frameset_template

(compulsory)

This command line item is the frame set topic to be used. It can be must be present even if index topics are not used. You might want to use the default frame set topic supplied by AuthorIt, which is by default located in: "C:\Program Files\AuthorIT V4\Data\Templates\CGI FTS\html_frameset.htm".

Previous versions of FSetop required that any % character in the frameset_template_to_use had to have another % added to become %%, and that file names "toc.htm" and "main.htm" in the BODY and TOC frame must be replaced with the variable %s. This is no longer required, however frameset topics that have been modified in this way should still work in this version.

output_toc

(compulsory)

This command line item must include at least the path to toc.htm, in the AuthorIt output directory. The file name toc.htm will be assumed if not supplied.

This path is the path that Authorit outputs or publishes the completed HTML files.

The switches are case sensitive. Generally, the markers place in the HTML custom template file are not.

switches

(optional)

-b(x) switches are Breadcrumb related switches.

-c(x) switches are compression related switches.

-f(x) switches are frameset related switches.

-m(x) switches are menu (or html list ul li) related switches.

-n(x) switches are file name related switches.

-p(x) switches are panel related switches.

-u(x) switches are URL (typically base href) related switches.

(default) items are on, unless otherwise specified.

There can be as many switches as space permits on the command line. The last switch takes precedence. Multiple switches must be separated by a space.

Breadcrumb switches

-bhFilePathName

Topic Link Head. If the path is not present the path will be the path from which Fsetop was run. By default, that is if the switch or file is not present, the Topic Link Head is assumed to be "i", which implies that the bread crumb is linked to the index topic. See -bi below.

-btFilePathName

Topic Link Tail. This adds a post-fix to the link o the html file for a bread crumb if the -bi switch is on. If the path is not present the path will be the path from which Fsetop was run.

-bb

(default) Topic Bread Crumb. The topic file is searched for the occurrence of <bread> marker. If this marker is found it is replaced by a html code of the bread crumb trail to the level of the topic, as calculated from a decent recursive parse of the "toc" files.

-bbn

No Topic Bread Crumb. The topic file is not searched for a bread crumb marker.

-bl

Leading Arrow in breadcrumbs. You may all ready have the start of the bread crumb hard coded into the topic (from the custom template), and wish to include a leading arrow. Or you just might prefer a leading arrow for aesthetic reasons.

-bln

(default) No leading arrow in breadcrumbs.

-bi

With this switch the bread crumbs link to the index topic rather than just the topic, so that the whole frameset is changed. Alternatively, you can modify the link more explicitly by using -bh or -bt to add a prefix or postfix to the topic name. For example topic 1234.htm, with just this switch and noting specified in -bh or -bt would become i1234.html. However, you might have some other frame set generation method, for example index.asp?1234.htm, in which case the contents of the -bhFilePathName would be index.asp?.

One example where this would not work is the AuthorIt web site its self, for example a link to topic 6756.htm is http://www.author-it.com/kc/index.mv?6756 on their site which leaves off the .htm implicitly required by FseTop. Of course the script that generates the frame set could easily be modified not to assume the .htm.

-bin

(default) The bread crumb links to the topic (rather than the index topic).

-buFilePathName

Bread crumb bullet Html. By default this a right pointing double angle quotation mark or right pointing guillemet. Most web sites (65% of web sites see ref) use a arrow of some sort and casual observation suggest this is the most popular form of arrow. However, you may wish to change the default. If so create a file with the appropriate character, for example a file consisting of just &gt; for a greater than sign. Alternately, you could create html code for an image, say a small ".gif" file.

If the path is not present the path will be the path from which Fsetop was run.

Compress Switches

-c

Compresses the HTML output. If fact all HTML, HTM, CSS, PHP, PHP3 and PHP4 files in the output folder are compressed if this switch is specified. The compression strategy is to remove all redundant spaces and tabs, and to remove all carriage returns. Consecutive Line feeds are replaced by a single line feed. White space inside <PRE></PRE> statements is retained.

CSS files are compress by also removing comments and redundant white space according to the CSS2 spec.

-cn

(default) Don't Compress HTML

Frameset switches

-ft

(default) Use Topic Title. The frame set for the topic includes the title of the topic as the title for the frame set.

-ftn

Don't Use Topic Title. In this case the frame set for the topic uses the topic from the output_toc page (which is probably toc.htm).

-fi

(default) By default FSetop generates index files, which contains the complete frame set for the topic (including the tab, correct toc and topic files). The files are called index files for short, since the are (by default) named iXXXX.HTM where XXXX.HTM is the name of the topic.

-fin

This switch turns off the generation of index (frameset) topic files.

Menu switches

-ma

Specifies the character used for the drop or fly out menu. The default is "&#9658;" a right pointing triangle. While an ANSI character not in the most commonly used character sets, it seems to be supported by the most popular browsers, including IE6+, FF2, OP9 and SA3.

-mag

Specifies the character used for the drop or fly out menu as a right pointing double angle bracket (a guillemet).

-maa

Changes the the character used for the drop or fly out menu to "&rarr" (an arrow character), which will work better in most character sets.

-man

Specifies that no character is used for the drop or fly out menu.

-mb

Sets the level of the menu or the depth at which the class="menubutton" applies to li. Below that level li has no additional class applied, however the text of a li has a span with a class="drop". If -mb0 is set there will be no menu buttons. The default is 1.

-md

(default) Adds a DIV around the entire menu with a class="menu", and a top level unordered list set with class="toplevel".

-mdn

Does not add a DIV or a top level UL.

-mimenu level, item position, parent position, href file, Page heading, Page title

Adds an extra item into the menu list. The format is three integers followed by three strings. All the parts are separated by comas and there can be no spaces. This the (mostly) precludes multi word menu items, so to do that see see -mif option below. The first three digits set the location in the menu. Menu level is the depth of the menu with 0 being the top. The item position is the position in the unordered list. parent position is the position of the parent list item in the unordered list. Non sensible positions and positions greater than the last relevant item will not be included.

-miffilename

Loads a file which consists of one or more extra menu items (in a modified csv format), following the format of -mi with one item per line.

-mm

Creates a menu from the TOC file using an unordered list with and list items, reflecting the tree structure of the TOC, and inserts it into each topic body at the location marked by <menu>.

-mmn

(default) Does not create an unordered list menu.

-mmr

(default) Does not create an unordered list menu, but does replace (delete) the menu marker <menu>.

-mp

Adds the parent list item to the top level of the child user list items. This is a usability feature in the even that users don't realise that the parent list item is actually a link.

-mpn

(default) does not add the parent list item to the top level of the child user list items.

-ms

Add a leading space character to the top level list item.

-msn

(default) Does not add a leading space character to the top level list item.

-mt

(default) Internet explorer 5.0, 5.5 and 6 do not use hover items in the way that other browsers use. This adds a table for those browsers only using so that a CSS menu will work for those browsers too.

-mtn

This option is to turn off the conditional comments and table generation for the list items for IE6 and previous version of MS InterNet Explorer. Note that by default the -mt option is on.

-mwFileName

The menu generated when parsing the TOC files can be exported to an html (web) file. This file will be placed in the same location as the TOC files.

-nf

Replaces the <filename> marker inside the html output of the of the topic file with the file name of the topic. This might be useful in a custom generated template where hidden FORM INPUT commands might be used so that the file name can be easily passed to a script.

-nfn

(default) Does not look for the <filename> option.

Panel switches

-p1FileName

...

-p9FileName

Replaces the <panel1> though to <panel9> marker inside the html output of the of the topic file with the html content of the supplied files. In this way, using a custom template, authorit topics could be added as top, side bottom or other panels in side each topic. Note that this is a file name, and must appear in the html output path specified by the output_toc file in the command line. However, there is no reason why the files could not be copied into that location after Authorit publication (Authorit will erase the folder at publication).

URL (href prefix) switches

-ubReference

Sets the base URL for each href in both breadcrumbs and the menu links by adding the Reference as a prefix to any href.

-ubfFileName

Adds the contents of FileName as a prefix to each href.

-ul

Adds a local reference ('./') to each href.

-un

(default) No base URL. Just uses the default href.

-ur

Force the URL to the base address by prefixing a forward slash ('/') to each href.

See Also

Free Tools for AuthorIt

Frame Sets for topics (FSetop)

Fsetop Download

Netwiz FSetTop and Strpcr32 Licence Agreement

UK English style spelling list