automatically arranging HTML content

[shadowslash]

I made an authoring app for a client.

What the app mainly does is generate HTML code and upload it to the client's website.

I'm almost finished with it except I hit a problem where I can't think up of the correct logic to tackle a certain issue.

Here's the thing:
I need to make certain generated codes get distributed to 3 columns of in an HTML page. I know that didn't explain much about what I want to be done so here's a visual representation.

There is an HTML code (template) that I put into a variable tTemplate.
Block 1 is always present in the template.
Block 2 is optionally present depending on a setting of the user.
Block A, Block B and Block C is always present.
Block A is a single line in the template as "[$BLOCK_A$]".
Block B is a single line in the template as "[$BLOCK_B$]".
Block C is a single line in the template as "[$BLOCK_C$]".
Now let's say I have a block of code called "CodeBlock 1".
Let's say I have 9 items similar to "CodeBlock 1".
That would make it 10 CodeBlocks.
I decided I would use the replace command to process it.
Suppose I use the command replace "[$BLOCK_A$]" with "CodeBlock 1" in tTemplate.
This would've easily worked.
But I need to evenly distribute all 10 CodeBlocks onto Block A, Block B and Block C.
An example of how I want the CodeBlocks to be distributed is displayed below.


Now what IF Block 2 from before isn't enabled by the user?
That would result to the middle column to be shorter than the other two.
To resolve that problem, I would need to make the CodeBlocks adjust accordingly to the loss of the Block 2.
An example is shown below if ever Block 2 wasn't present, the CodeBlocks are re-arranged.


If all these is still confusing you, please tell me what more information I can provide to make it clearer for you to understand. Thanks for answering and sorry for not knowing how to tackle this.

[mwieder]

Well, I *am* still a bit confused... are you trying to put content into an html table? And if so, wouldn't filling the proper <td> and <tr> tags do the trick?

[shadowslash]

Well, I *am* still a bit confused... are you trying to put content into an html table? And if so, wouldn't filling the proper <td> and <tr> tags do the trick?

Um no I don't think so. I'm using the replace command to replace parts of the HTML code in the template.

Let's say I have:

[$BLOCK_A$]

I'm going to Replace [$BLOCK_A$] with:

CodeBlock 1
CodeBlock 2
CodeBlock 3
CodeBlock 4

The HTML codes for each CodeBlock has already been put after a variable, and that variable is the one replacing [$BLOCK_A$].

The only logic I'm missing is how do I make it so that the CodeBlocks get limited to the number of the overall CodeBlocks divided by 3. (For the columns). lol

[mwieder]

So if I've got this right,

put (TotalNumberOfCodeBlocks + Block1IfPresent + Block2IfPresent) mod 3 into tNumberOfRows

Then column 1 is

Block 1 if present
tNumberOfRows (-1 if block 1 is present) blocks

column 2 is
Block 2 if present
tNumberOfRows (-1 if block 2 is present) blocks starting from tNumberOfRows

column 3 is
everything else

[shadowslash]

So if I've got this right,

put (TotalNumberOfCodeBlocks + Block1IfPresent + Block2IfPresent) mod 3 into tNumberOfRows

Then column 1 is

Block 1 if present
tNumberOfRows (-1 if block 1 is present) blocks

column 2 is
Block 2 if present
tNumberOfRows (-1 if block 2 is present) blocks starting from tNumberOfRows

column 3 is
everything else

Yeah somewhat like that but column 1, 2 and 3 should have evenly distributed blocks including Block1 and Block2 if present.

E.g.:
10 CodeBlocks + Block1 + Block 2 = 12 Blocks all in all

So that should make the template have 4 blocks each since it should be divided to 3 columns... That 's how it should be distributed evenly. If it isn't divisible by 3, it's okay if column 3 is lesser than column 1 and 2 so long as column 1 and 2 contain the same number of blocks.

[mwieder]

I meant / 3 instead of mod 3, but nonetheless...

Let's see if I've got the idea (untested pseudocode):

Code: Select all

put the totalNumberOfCodeBlocks into tBlocks
add 1 to tBlocks -- block 1 is always present
if block2IsPresent then
  add 1 to tBlocks
end if

-- now we have the total number of blocks, including block 1 and block 2 if present

put tBlocks / 3 into tRows
if tBlocks mod 3 is not 0 then
  -- we need another row
  add 1 to tRows
end if

-- now we have the number of rows we need.

put 1 &cr into BLOCK_A
repeat with tRow=1 to tRows-1
  put tRow into tNum
  if there is a codeblock ("DB" & tNum) then
    put "CB" & (tNum) & cr after BLOCK_A
  end if
end repeat

-- do column 2
put tRows into tEnd
if block2IsPresent then
  put 2 &cr into BLOCK_A
  subtract 1 from tEnd
end if
repeat with tRow=1 to tEnd
  put tRow + tRows into tNum
  if there is a codeblock ("DB" & tNum) then
    put "CB" & (tNum) & cr after BLOCK_B
  end if
end repeat

-- do column 3
repeat with tRow=1 to tEnd
  put tRow + tRows + tRows into tNum
  if there is a codeblock ("DB" & tNum) then
    put "CB" & (tNum) & cr after BLOCK_C
  end if
end repeat