Logic and syntax of Templates

Variables

All variables and commands can be identified by \ (backslash) symbol in the beginning and in the end. In example below you can see \CLIENT_NAME\, \CLIENT_STREET1\ and \CLIENT_PHONE1\ variables:

To: \CLIENT_NAME\

Address: \CLIENT_STREET1\

Phone: \CLIENT_PHONE1\

When you use this template by clicking on Save or Print in some dialog box, \CLIENT_NAME\ variable will be replaced by name of currently selected client, \CLIENT_STREET1\ — by client’s street address and \CLIENT_PHONE1\ — by client’s phone number. The final output will look like this:

To: XYZ Company

Address: Elm Street, 1

Phone: +1 212 898 11 31

Note: Numerical values sometimes are surrounded by fnum command. This command simply tells the parser to round up the value to specified number of digits after decimal point (2 digits in the example below):

Job Total:

\fnum(dtLinkJobs:TOTAL, 2)\

Data Scan commands

Another of RTF templates is Data Scan commands. These are used to create tables in which number of rows is determined by the number of records in database.

How to:

1. Begin by entering \scan(dtLinkJobs)\ command. This must not necessarily be dtLinkJobs, depending on the template, this can be:

2. Insert table header between \scan(dtLinkJobs)\ and \scanentry\.

3. Insert one row of data-columns after \scanentry\. Every variable in table must be preceeded with dtlink commfnd. For instance if the table begins with \scan(dtLinkJobs)\, each variable must have this link included: \dtLinkJobs:JOB_NAME\, \dtLinkJobs:COMPLETED\, and so on.

4. Insert \endscan\ after data-columns.

Note: Use noeof to hide table's header and footer if the table body appears to be empty. For instance, if your invoice includes only jobs and no expenses, the header and footer for expenses will not be saved/printed.

Example:

Command \scan(dtLinkJobs)\ will make the parser scan (go from first record to the last one) all selected data in Jobs table (in this particular case all jobs included in the invoice) and output them to file or printer.

Text between \scan(dtLinkJobs)\ command and \scanentry\ command is table header.

Text between \scanfooter\ and \endscan\ commands will be considered table footer and will only be displayed once at the end of this table.

Text between \scanentry\ and \scanfooter\ commands is table "body". It includes variables from columns which must be listed in the table. In example above these are:

Condition checking

This allows the template to react to certain varying conditions and produce output suitable to each of possible conditions. The logic is the following \IF(condition)\ Reaction \ENDIF\.

Example:

If Discount 1 is applied, display discount name, discount value and subtotal. The code is as follows:

This will make the template check if discount 1 is applied, and if so — display data between \IF(...)\ and \ENDIF\ commands.