HTML Deck output settings

August 5th, 2004, 09:26 AM

Hello all,

I've been continuing to play with Card Vault and wanted to output
a few of my decks as HTML files. However, I'm not terribly fond of
the default settings for those output files. I know that I can
place some CSS styles between the <HEAD></HEAD> tags, however, I'm
looking to see if anyone knows how to change the structure of that
HTML output a little more deeply. For example, I would like to be
able to change the width of the tables that are generated so that
they fit more nicely on a 1024x768 screen.

I'm familiar with PHP, MySQL, and HTML and have a little bit of
XML knowledge but I'm not really able to figure out where the HTML
file is being generated from. If anyone has any insight, please let
me know.

Thanx,
Scott

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar.
Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSI...LSAA/WuQolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Colen · August 5th, 2004, 01:58 PM

At 10:24 AM 8/5/2004, you wrote:
>Hello all,
>
> I've been continuing to play with Card Vault and wanted to output
>a few of my decks as HTML files. However, I'm not terribly fond of
>the default settings for those output files. I know that I can
>place some CSS styles between the <HEAD></HEAD> tags, however, I'm
>looking to see if anyone knows how to change the structure of that
>HTML output a little more deeply. For example, I would like to be
>able to change the width of the tables that are generated so that
>they fit more nicely on a 1024x768 screen.
>
> I'm familiar with PHP, MySQL, and HTML and have a little bit of
>XML knowledge but I'm not really able to figure out where the HTML
>file is being generated from. If anyone has any insight, please let
>me know.

You can make some basic changes to how the HTML is generated by going to
the settings menu, the basic settings submenu, and then choosing the 'html
settings' menu item. I'm not sure whether you've found this or not, but
that lets you make some changes to the HTML output.

Regarding the output; what about it don't you like? You mention that it
doesn't fit nicely on a 1024x768 screen; have you tried adding and/or
removing columns from the output view to make it fit?

Hope this helps,

--
Colen McAlister (colen@wolflair.com)
Lone Wolf Development www.wolflair.com

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar.
Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSI...LSAA/WuQolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->

August 5th, 2004, 04:20 PM

Thanks for the response. I did find the area in which you can change some
of the data between the HEAD tags as well as the BODY tag. However, the
data that I wish to change is most likely whatever generates the "width" in
the <table> tag.

What I've found is that no matter what columns you add to the data, the
resulting table takes up a very specific width that does not change. A good
example is that when I print out a deck list, I like to have the description
text with each card. In the present format each card takes up a
considerable amount of vertical space because of the forced width of table
generated. I assume this was done so that the resulting output is printer
friendly. A better setting would be to set the overall width of the table
at '100%' instead of a specific pixel width for output to HTML, IMHO. I
have no problem making this change myself. However, I haven't the time as of
yet to dig through all the various files within Card Vault to find which one
defines the deck output HTML page.

I'd like to put my decks on my website (mind you, they're *far* from
tournament quality, it's just fun to build causal decks) over at
http://www.neo-gamers.com and it would be easier to include a pre-generated
HTML page in a specific format so that I could accept not only my own deck
ideas, but that of others, without having to manually edit each and every
submission. I might be able to parse the text output as well, thinking
about it, to give me what I need, but I haven't looked at that much either.

Having an easy way to submit decks to my site and format them automatically
with very little intervention from myself would accomplish two things I'm
trying to do. One, getting more folks over to the Neo-Gamers website
(shameless plug for me) and two, to get more people to use Card Vault (by
allowing the .dck downloads) by promoting the usability of the program. I
guess in a manner of speaking, I'm looking to setup Neo-Gamers as a sort of
partner site.

Thanks for the response,
Scott

-----Original Message-----
---------------------------------------
Subject: Re: [CardVault] HTML Deck output settings
---------------------------------------
>Hello all,
>
> I've been continuing to play with Card Vault and wanted to output
>a few of my decks as HTML files. However, I'm not terribly fond of
>the default settings for those output files. I know that I can
>place some CSS styles between the <HEAD></HEAD> tags, however, I'm
>looking to see if anyone knows how to change the structure of that
>HTML output a little more deeply. For example, I would like to be
>able to change the width of the tables that are generated so that
>they fit more nicely on a 1024x768 screen.
>
> I'm familiar with PHP, MySQL, and HTML and have a little bit of
>XML knowledge but I'm not really able to figure out where the HTML
>file is being generated from. If anyone has any insight, please let
>me know.
------------------------------------------------
You can make some basic changes to how the HTML is generated by going to
the settings menu, the basic settings submenu, and then choosing the 'html
settings' menu item. I'm not sure whether you've found this or not, but
that lets you make some changes to the HTML output.

Regarding the output; what about it don't you like? You mention that it
doesn't fit nicely on a 1024x768 screen; have you tried adding and/or
removing columns from the output view to make it fit?

Hope this helps,

--
Colen McAlister (colen@wolflair.com)
Lone Wolf Development www.wolflair.com

Yahoo! Groups Links

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Yahoo! Domains - Claim yours for only $14.70
http://us.click.yahoo.com/Z1wmxD/DRE...LSAA/WuQolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->

rob · August 6th, 2004, 01:29 AM

Unfortunately, CV was designed to yield HTML output that would look good on
the screen for the largest number of users. That includes the huge number
of users who are running on 800x600 resolution systems.

The reason that CV didn't use percentages was that the granularity was just
way too coarse. Consider a view with more than a dozen columns of differing
widths. Those columns would all need to be converted into single-digit
percentages, yielding pretty marginal results (I know because I tried it
that way originally). So we had to use a pixel width in order to get
reasonable column width conversions. The downsides of this approach are
that (a) it's horrible for printing and (b) it doesn't work well for people
who want to take advantage of wider displays. However, CV offers much more
flexible printing capabilities, so printing via HTML didn't seem to be an
issue, and posting HTML output on websites where more than half the world
has to scroll left/right to see your page didn't seem like the optimal
approach. So that's the reason things were done as they are.

If there are sound reasons for changing things in a future release, we can
definitely do so. Let us know what you need and we'll look into addressing
the matter.

Thanks, Rob

At 05:24 PM 8/5/2004 +0000, you wrote:
>Hello all,
>
> I've been continuing to play with Card Vault and wanted to output
>a few of my decks as HTML files. However, I'm not terribly fond of
>the default settings for those output files. I know that I can
>place some CSS styles between the <HEAD></HEAD> tags, however, I'm
>looking to see if anyone knows how to change the structure of that
>HTML output a little more deeply. For example, I would like to be
>able to change the width of the tables that are generated so that
>they fit more nicely on a 1024x768 screen.
>
> I'm familiar with PHP, MySQL, and HTML and have a little bit of
>XML knowledge but I'm not really able to figure out where the HTML
>file is being generated from. If anyone has any insight, please let
>me know.
>
>Thanx,
>Scott

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Bowes (rob@wolflair.com) (650) 588-8252
Lone Wolf Development www.wolflair.com

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar.
Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSI...LSAA/WuQolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
HTML output wonderings	chaintinker at lokilaw.co	Army Builder	2	May 6th, 2005 12:03 PM
html output AKA "me too"	mnixon at telus.net	Army Builder	0	February 16th, 2005 03:42 PM
html output	tib at tigerknight.org	Army Builder	4	February 16th, 2005 07:53 AM
Settings units	Alphabetpl at aol.com	Army Builder	2	August 21st, 2004 01:26 AM
Settings Units	Alphabetpl at aol.com	Army Builder	1	December 18th, 2003 07:36 PM