HTML Details

Background Information about HTML and the usage of HTML as reporting format

General

If you are using the reporting of IRIS for the very first time then you might wonder why we did implement HTML as reporting format. This seems to be astounding in a time where Microsoft dominates the market and WinWord is used everywhere. And this is more questionable because most other report software uses only WinWord. Here now a list of arguments which explains why we believe that HTML is the superior format:

HTML is free
Most other document formats (Microsoft DOC, Adobe PDF, ... ) are in the property of large commercial companies. These companies are owning the rights (copyright) for their formats and we cannot guarantee that their formats can be used without paying additional license fees.
HTML ist a constant
Other formats are under permanent development. Every year a new version of the format comes up. Often older programs cannot read the newer formats. you - the customer - is forced to purchase new software all the time for being still able to keep up with this race. The basic HTML is constant since many years. And whatever will come in the future: All Internet browsers will still be able to read show and print it. The successor of HTML (callaed XML) is an expansion of HTML and can be setup and configured to read and show also HTML.
HTML ist transparently and open
There are no secrets within an HTML file. You can open it with any text editor. Every character is well defined
HTML ist flexible for multimedia
It is very simple to include images, films and sound. Such files are simply copied as a seperate file to the report and 'imported' only with a link (hyperlink). No other format permits to include content so easily.
HTML does not enforce a format
Differently form page description languages (as PDF) HTML is not restricted to an exact format. HTML pages can be viewed on screen with different size and resolution. Printing is possible in every size from A5-A3.
HTML exists for every computer
While many formats are exclusively available for Windows, Alple or Linux - HTML browsers are available for every kind of computer. YOu can chnage the platform one day without loosing your documents. And you customers can review HTML reports on every computer.
Lots of (also free) software fpr HTML available
There are free HTML browser for every computer. For all computer there are also free editors or printing programs.
HTML can be converted to other formats easily
Nearly every textprocessor can read HTML nowadays (and later XML). And it can store the pages in its own format. For most formats there are also free converters which convert HTML to other the format.
Als Microsoft hoped on the HTML/XML Bus
It is very instructive that such an enterprises with their enormous market power is now supporting HTML/XML with all its products. XML as basic format is even the future format for all their future projects.
HTML can be easily processed by other software
If you are having special wishes concerning the supported textsoftware or layoutsoftware: Because every program can read HTML you can always import the HTML reports created by IRIS with your desired or preferred software. Imagine how cumbersome it would be to import 150 images one-by-one manually into your own software. Compare this to the method to create first an HTML report by IRIS - and then let your own software import these 150 images with one click.
HTML can be automatisized
It is pretty easy to extend an HTML file - at the end or at any inserting point. And exactly this is done by IRIS: Most functions are simply inserting a few characters or lines into your HTML report. This is transparently, easy to understand and very reliable. No other file format can be extanded so easily by single elements. The manual functions and also the macro functions prove how easy, simple and elegant HTML files can be processed.
HTML ist simple
By selecting such a simple, cheap but highly flexible conception the costs for creating the IRIS Report Generator have been low. So there was no need to raise the sales price for IRIS.
HTML can be placed directly on The Net
Differently to all other formats you can move HTML reports "as they are" to the Internet (or to a local LAN). Every customer (or coworker) can access them. No conversion must beone at all.
HTML can be published directly on CD/DVD
You can also copy HTML reports 'as they are' to any data carrier and hand it over to a customer. He can review the reports on every computer. And he is not forced to handle large amounts of paper.
HTML can be fully index
DId you every try to find 'Mister Jones' in all files on your harddisk? The chance to miss 'Mister Jones' in DOC or PDF files is very high. With HTML this can be avoided. Because these consist always of plain text every fulltext database and every simple text seek program can scan and locate keywords within HTML files. You might believe that this is not too important for you. But in the future more and more information will be stored only digitally (as file). And the automatic retrieval and finding is an affair of growing importance.
HTML ist simply great
No other format offers so many advantages. That's why we've used it for IRIS reporting.

Of course HTML does not have only advatages. We dont want to hide its problems. Here they are:

The segmentation into single sheets of paper (pages) is difficult
If you want to create an exact page layout which can be displayed and printed identically at all your customers then you've got a preoblem with HTML: Because there are no specs for 'page layout' in HTML every program can (and will) display and print the pages differently. So it might happen that a report does not appear at a customer's site the way you want it.
Workaround: The GED of IRIS understands page broders. If you use it for printing then you can determine the page layout exactly.
Workaround2: YOu can use the textprogram or layoutprogram you prefer: Format, store and print the report in a way you like best.
The report is not a single file
An IRIS HTML report consists of many files. It is not always easy to find the HTML page itself.
Workaround: IRIS uses own and seperate directories for reports. Such a 'file' is now an entire 'folder'. The advantage of this method is the fact that you can still see (or modify) single files
Sending HTML reports by eMail is difficult
Unfortunately it is necessary to 'pack' a report with a 'pack program' (as WinZip, WinRar, WinAce,...) before you can eMail it to somebody. This way you create a 'single file' yourself.
Workaround: Unfortunately none. This is a principal basic approach. The only comfort we have for you: You can encrypt such packed files (with a program of your choice). And sending only packed files by eMail is far more efficient and better than mailing a DOC or PDF file which consist traditionally many 'space' and should be also packed before sending. Packing such files does often reduce their size drastically!

Report File Organisation

All reports are created by default wihtin the IRIS program directory - and there in a folder named 'reports (can be changed with AutoReport->Options->Directories).
Every report is stored into an own folder which contains the HTML file and all images (and WAV files).
The HTML file itself is always named index.htm. Later versions of IRIS will support page numbers (01.htm, 02.htm, ...)
The images created by IRIS are having always the filename: pic##.bmp - where ## stands for two digits. If more than 99 images are used then pic100.bmp is used. The image number counter is set to 'one' if a new report is created (also by using a template).

Template Organisation

It is strongly recommended to keep all templates wihtin an own application directory. Every template should have its own folder. Embedded images must (today) be loacted in the folder. The usage of relative paths is not supported.
It is possible to specify an own default path for the location of the templates (AutoReport->Options->Directories)

Example for specifying own paths

Path for own reports	c:\th32.rep
Path for own templates	c:\th32.app\templates

Selfmade empty report

IRIS creates at AutoReport->File->New (empty) an empty report with the below shown format.
If you want to create an own, empty report which contains for exmaple your logo or other elements - and if you dont want to use a template then you can do this:

Create the folder Reports wihtin the IRIS progream directory
(c:\program files\picwin-iris\reports)
Within Reports you create the folder Default
(c:\programme\picwin-iris\reports\default)
In that folder you create the wanted empty (or predefined) HTML files with the name: default.htm
(c:\programme\picwin-iris\reports\default\default.htm)

If IRIS finds such a page, then it is used instead of the empty page. This is then then predefined 'empty' template.

HTML Detail Informationen

Das basic format of an empty, new file

If there is no 'default\default.htm' default template, then IRIS creates this basic HTML file:

<html>	Begin of the HTML document
<head>	Begin of the header lines which are not visible but for global information
<meta....>	Content-Typ (text/html) und deutscher Zeichensatz (ISO-8859-1)
<meta....>	Generator description (PicWin-IRIS) (Is overwritten by other HTML editors without any respect)
<title> PicWin-IRIS Report </title>	Titel of the report - Appears within the title bar of the Internet Explorers - not within the document
</head>	End of the header lines
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">	Begin of content - Background is set to white color
</body>	End of the content
</html>	End of the HTML document

This is nearly the smallest possible HTML file.

How and where IRIS is adding HTML text

Whenever the report generator adds something to a report then IRIS is scanning the text for </body> wihtin the HTML file. Then it inserts the necessary information in front of this 'end-token'. This assures that further information is always added at the end.

How IRIS adds images

Whenever an image is added then IRIS first writes a BMP file to the actual report folder:
The first image file has the name: pic01.bmp
Then the HTML file is extended (in front of the </body>) by this text:
<img src="pic01.bmp">

The line feed (line break)

A line fed has this format: <br>
Please keep in mind that there is no </br> gibt. Such an HTML instruction has neither begin nor end.

Format of a text line

<p> This is a text </p>

Format of date and time

10.12.2002 - 14:23:59

Simple headlines (titles):

For inserting a title please use the 'Add HTML' command: You can use titles in six levels from 'very large' (1) to 'very small' (6). Here two examples:

<h1> Title level 1 </h1>

<h3> Title level 3 </h3>

Please notice that everey <h1> - which starts a title - must be followed later by a </h1> - which ends the title.
If you forget the </h1> (with the slash) then the entire following text is also shown as a title. This is specified in the HTML rules.ML-Regel.

Dividing rules (horizontal)

A long horizontal dividing rule can be created easily with the HTML command: <hr>
There is no 'end' - an </hr> does not exist!

Numerations

Numerations are created with these elements:: <ul> </ul> (ul: unsorted list)
These are the HTML tokens for an 'unsorted list' Each element in such a list is embedded into: <li> ... </li> (li: list item). A list with the words "one two three" has this format:

<ul>
	<li>	one	</li>
	<li>	two	</li>
	<li>	three	</li>
</ul>

Tables

Creating tables requires more HTML tokens than most other HTML commands. It is also possible to create tables within tables, but this makes things just more complicated. The creation of table should done ONLY with the macro recorder.

Exmaple for a table

<table>			Begin of table
	<tr>		Begin of a row (tr = Table Row)
		<td>	Begin of the first column
		Text1	Text shown in the first colum
		</td>	End of first column
		<td>	Begin of second column
		Text2	Text shown in the second column
		</td>	End of the second column
	</tr>		End of the first row
	<tr>		Begin of the second row
		<td>	..
		Text	Just one column here. So its width is the entire table
		<td>	..
	</tr>		End of second row
</table>			End of table

Character formatting

There are many instructions to change the appearance of texts. Fonts (charactersets), size, color, background.... HTML has many options. But we discourage excessive use of formatting. Often special fonts cannot be shown correctly on othr computers (even with the same installed software). You should restrict yourself to the basic formatting: Itlaic text, bold text, underlined text, titles in 6 levels. Here the mostly used HTML tokens:

Italic	<em> Italic style </em>	Italic style
Bold	<b> Bold text </b>	Bold text
Underlines	<u> Underlines text </u>	Underlines Text
Header Level 1	<h1> Header Level 1 </h1>	Header 1
Header Level 6	<h6> Header Level 6 </h6>	Header 6
Bold (alternativly)	<strong> Bold text </strong>	Bold text

Pagefeed

HTML does not define 'spages'. Whenever a page is too long, then it must be scrolled on the screen. Unfortunately there is also no standard method available how page feeds are instered while printing to paper. If you need proper single pages then please start a new document (a new report).

Correct drivers and tools would start automatically a new page at <h1> Title 1 </h1>. But just few software does this.

The function AutoReport->Options->Pagefeed creates a new empty file 02.htm (03.htm, 04.htm) in the same report folder. This way it is possible to create also within a macro a few dozen pages automatically without letting them grow too large. This function does not reset the picture counter! It is currently not implemented to switch back to previous pages - or to print a bunch of such HTML pages. So this function can be recommended to hardcore macro programmers only today.

Adding images side-by-side

If two images are are added to the report then they are usually shown already side by side - as far as the page (or the window) is defined. Else we recommend to create a table which has many colunms as you want to have images in a row.

Further formatting

We could now discuss for weeks about HTML. But in the end it would become only more complicated. If you dont want to create 1000 pages ofd the same type then we recommend strongly to import all necessary images and data "as it is" simply into the report. Then you should use WinWord or a good HTML editor for further processing and/or formatting. It can be a neverending story to program such details yourself as a macro.

The Report-Generator and the Macro-Recorder

Nearly all commands for the report generator can be recorded with the macro recorder and repeated again and again quickly. This way it would be easy to create hundrds of reports! Just the default directories cannot be changed by the macro recorder
Newer IRIS versions should contain also demo macros (in the XAMP directory). These will demonstrate how to create table with measurementresults - or how to include images as tables.

!!! Caution !!!

IRIS does not show warnings if an existing report with an existing name is created again by the macro recorder!
We assume that you dont want overwrite warnings for dozens of files while a macro is running.n Dutzenden von Dateien erwünscht sind.

Special operations while a macro is running

The macro command Report - new (standard) creates always a report with the name 'standard'.
If you want to enter the name manually while the macro is running, then please use the asterisk '*' as name in the macro instruction:
Report - New (*) The macro will stop then and opens the file manager window. You can then enter the report name manually.

As well you can use the asterisk instead of a predefined name whenever you create a report from a template:
Report - New with template (name,c:\iris\reports\standard\1.htm) is then changed to: Report - New with template (*,c:\iris\reports\standard\1.htm).

Deleting and Managing reports

IRIS dos not offer functions fpr deleting or managing reports. Please delete reports with the Windows Explorer by deleting simply the entire folder which contains the report.

For managing HTML reports exists a large number of freeware and shareware. As soon as we are more experienced with such tools we will give you further tips.

End