Overriding the default footer

[tgr]

Hi,

I'm trying to customize the reports from the Batch Wizard.
Is there a way to insert the date and time into a custom footer?

Thanks,
Trond

[MikeGale]

That's an interesting question Trond.

Albert will know more, but if I was trying to do that I'd consider two things:
1) Edit the include file (for footers) before running that batch.
2) Edit the reports, in bulk, after batch is run.

Albert this triggered an idea in my head.

The audience for the product is familiar with web site programming, and can probably do powerful things with it. You could cash in on that.

One way to achieve the ideas in this question (and beyond) is to allow URI targets for footers and even css sheets. That way a user can set up a web site on their local server, delivering content that does whatever they want.

That might be practical for you to implement in the batch tool.

The URI could contain GET parameters...

[Albert Wiersch]

Actually, this has already been added for the next update, but is not available yet. You will be able to use $"CURRENTDATE" for the date and $"CURRENTTIME" for the time in the Batch Wizard footer.

Email me at support at htmlvalidator dot com if you'd like a "pre-release" version to try.

Mike, your idea sounds nice but I don't think there have been enough requests to justify this capability and the potential added complexity to the options considering that very few people would probably use this additional. On the other hand, it may not be too difficult to add... would you really use such a feature where you could specify URIs for the CSS file and footer?

[tgr]

Hi Albert,

Yes, I'd love to try this feature. Email sent.

Mike, your suggestion #2 is what I had planned if this could not be solved directly in the batch wizard.

I will probably set up a script in Visual Build Pro to run CSE HTML Validator, and it would be easy to add a step to do a final regex replacement of a string token in the footer. I think, however, that processing the footer in the batch wizard is a more elegant solution.

Thanks,
Trond

[Albert Wiersch]

Yes, I'd love to try this feature. Email sent.

Sure. I received your request and have sent you a download link to try.

[tgr]

Excellent, thanks.
Do I need to uninstall the previous version, or can I just install on top of it?

[Albert Wiersch]

Do I need to uninstall the previous version, or can I just install on top of it?

If you have v9.0x, then you should install on top of your current v9.0x version to update it.

[MikeGale]

Hi Albert,

The idea was that, an idea, at the time I wrote that.

I haven't thought through the implications etc. in detail. Here's a few:

1) I would use it if it existed.
2) This "text web service" idea has a lot of potential. It gives a way for users to extend software without providing a scripting language, API whatever. On top of that it doesn't have the baggage of an exotic vocubulary that can confuse and discourage the casual user.
3) Given the audience of CSE, I imagine a small selection of examples would be enough to show the potential. Mashup ideas...

I'm working on something else at present. If I later carry out a more thorough analysis I'll post something here.