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The following sections describe how to specify web page transformations in your source HTML files rather than through Design Studio:
The CTE transforms web pages according to transformation rules. You can create transformation rules by using the following:
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Note XHTML is the next generation of HTML and provides the benefit of extensibility. The CTE XHTML extensions are CTE-specific attributes that are used by the CTE to transform content. |
When you use Design Studio to create transformation rules, you do not change the source HTML files. Instead, you create rules that are applied to a web page by the CTE when the web page is requested by a device. Design Studio enables you to transform legacy content without having to modify the source files and enables you to transform content that you do not own. In addition, Design Studio can be used by anyone with a general understanding of HTML.
Rather than using Design Studio to create transformations, you can include CTE XHTML extensions in HTML files to indicate transformations for a particular device. Typically, this method of specifying transformation rules is handled by an application developer during the initial implementation of a web page. An application developer includes XHTML extensions to indicate content that should be selected or clipped for a particular device. If different transformations are required for the various device types, sections of the web page may need to be replicated for each device.
As you plan the design and content of new web content, consider whether it will be more efficient to apply transformation rules through Design Studio or to build the rules into the content. One advantage of using the CTE XHTML extensions is that, when content changes, you do not have to return to Design Studio to update transformation rules.
A special configuration file, extensions.tcf, is required for the CTE to interpret the XHTML extensions. extensions.tcf is provided on the Design Studio CD. If you use CTE XHTML extensions, we recommend that you not attempt to use Design Studio to specify additional transformation rules on the same content. Doing so can result in conflicting identifier rules or transformation rules. You can, however, create additional projects and merge them into the default configuration file on the CTE.
If you choose to use Design Studio to create additional transformations for pages that contain CTE XHTML extensions, be sure to add those pages to the configuration file extensions.tcf.
Most CTE XHTML extensions consist of element attributes that specify the following information:
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Note We recommend that you use the CTE XHTML extensions with div elements, except as noted in this publication. While it is possible to use the extensions with any element, a broader application of the extensions is not supported. |
Table 9-1 summarizes the XHTML extensions used with div elements and Table 9-2 (on) lists the XHTML attributes used on other elements.
| Attribute | Values | Usage |
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Identifies content to be transformed for the specified device types. This content will also be visible to full browsers (such as Internet Explorer). |
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Identifies content to be transformed for the specified device types. This content will be hidden from full browsers. You must define this value in an embedded or linked style sheet, as described in the "Hiding Device-Specific Content from Full Browsers" section. |
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avaya-html,desktop-html, |
Applies the rule to the specified devices. A value is not valid if your license does not include the device type. |
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Selects the content enclosed in the div element. See also the retain_parents attribute in this table. |
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Ignores the element only (not its text or child elements). Use rule="ignore" with the element that you want to ignore. For example, to ignore a font element for IP phones, add the attributes in the font tag: |
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Replaces an image with its alternate text. A div element with this rule must enclose an img element or input type="image" element. If an input element is being used as an image map in the HTML, you cannot replace it with the alternate text. For more information on how the CTE and devices handle images, see the "Working with Images" section. |
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When set to "true", toggles the value of the DDF subkey retainformat. For more information, see the "Specifying Basic Transformations" section. |
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Identifies the label to be used for a dialable phone number. Available only for XML- or WML-based IP phones and WAP phones. |
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Identifies a dialable phone number. See also the prefix attribute in this table. |
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Forces a card break. Useful for keeping two related elements together. You can also use the cardbreak extension outside of a div element as follows: |
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Default value. Used with the rule="select" attribute. Retains the parent elements of the selected element. For example, if you select a td element and retain parents, the CTE includes the parent tr and table elements. Retaining parents impacts performance, so retain them only if they are needed. |
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Used with the rule="select" attribute. Removes the parent elements. Be aware that removing parents can result in incorrect markup. For example, if you select a td element and choose to remove the parents, the transformed element may not have the required parent tr and table elements. |
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Used with the rule="dialnumber" attribute. Appends a prefix, such as "1" or "9" to the number specified with the rule="dialnumber" attribute. |
To specify a transformation in HTML code, you must include the class, rule, and devices attributes. The following sample HTML code illustrates the following:
Supporting multiple device types with different transformations can result in the creation and maintenance of redundant content. In such cases, it might be more efficient to create the rules using Design Studio.
The XHTML extensions summarized in Table 9-2 are used only on the specified elements:
| XHTML Extension | Usage |
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For devices that support refresh, such as WML- and XML-based IP phones. Refreshes the card after the number of seconds specified with the refresh attribute. A refresh of "0" means that the card will not refresh or that a refresh set earlier in the card deck will stop. |
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By default, the CTE prepends its IP address to links on transformed pages so that page requests are directed to the CTE. You can disable this behavior by adding the noproxy="true" attribute to a link. |
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For WML- and XML-based IP phones. Creates a Soft Key on the specified cards. Attributes are as follows:
The child of the SoftKeyItem element, name, is the Soft Key label text. |
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For XML-based IP phones. The _keypad_mode and _input_label attributes are extensions to the input and textarea elements. The _keypad_mode attribute specifies the input type for an input field. The _keypad_mode attribute corresponds to the Cisco IP phone XML object InputFlag, with the following values:
A (plain ASCII text; the default) The optional _input_label attribute specifies the prompt that an IP phone will display for the input field. A label can be up to 15 characters. Suppose that a web page contains an input field for zip code and a text area for a tracking identifier. The input and textarea elements might appear as follows: |
The following sections describe how to use the CTE XHTML extensions to mark up source HTML for transformation by the CTE:
If you have used Design Studio to specify transformation rules, you are familiar with choosing from a rich set of rules that are necessary for repurposing content designed for full browsers to content that is appropriate for microbrowser screens. However, designing content for delivery to devices is a much different process and requires only a few transformation rules.
To include content, you select the content by enclosing it in a div element with the rule="select" attribute. You can make multiple selections on a page and you can nest selections. For example, you might want to include a large chunk of code for some devices but include only a small portion of that code for other devices.
To exclude content from an otherwise selected area, you clip the content by enclosing it in a div element with the rule="clip" attribute. For example, you might want to include an entire table for several devices but exclude some rows for one of the devices. For information about a similar operation, ignore, see the "Ignoring an Element in HTML Content" section.
By default, the CTE retains web page formatting. For example, for devices such as WML-based phones and Palm and RIM devices, table elements are retained as a table, rather than converted to a list. This behavior is controlled by the retainformat key in the DDF which is set to "yes".
To toggle the retainformat setting, use the retainformat attribute as follows:
<span class="transform_rule" rule="retainformat" devices="devices">,</span> Table 9-3 contains sample HTML code for several types of transformations.
| Transformation | HTML Code |
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Select content for Palm devices and select a subset of the same content for IP phones. |
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Select content for WAP and IP phones; clip some of the content for IP phones. |
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Retain a table as a table element for Palm and RIM devices. (This example assumes that the DDF retainformat key is set to "no".) |
Alternatively, you can achieve the same transformation as follows: |
Replace an img element with its alternate text. For information on how the CTE and various types of devices handle images, see the "Working with Images" section. |
XML-based IP phones, WAP phones, and HDML devices support the initiation of a phone call by selecting text in the microbrowser. The rule="dialname" and rule="dialnumber" attributes enable you to specify a phone number to be dialed when the user selects a particular text string. The prefix="numeric_value" attribute enables you to specify a prefix to be dialed with the phone number.
To create a dialable number, you work with two text elements—the text that includes the phone number and the text that you want to use as a label for the phone number. For example, in a directory listing you would use the text associated with a phone number as its label.
To create a dialable number in an HTML page, you must enclose the label for the phone number and the phone number in div elements, as shown in the following example:
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Note You must specify the rule="dialname" and rule="dialnumber" attributes in pairs using div elements that enclose text. |
When you clip an element, any text or child elements of that element are also clipped. If you want to exclude an element, but retain the text of the element and any child elements, you ignore the element. For example, the following font element encloses text and a link:
To include the text and link in the transformation, but ignore the font element, use the rule="ignore" attribute with the font element as follows:
For XML-based IP phones, you can add up to three Soft Keys per card with the SoftKeyItem element. You specify which cards are to display the Soft Key, the URL or phone number for the Soft Key, and a label. For example, to add a Soft Key to card3 that opens the link http://www.fox.com , use the following syntax:
To add a Soft Key to the entire deck that dials a user-editable number, use the following syntax:
By default, an XML-based IP phone accepts any ASCII character supported by the phone in an input field. You can add the _keypad_mode attribute to input type="text | password" or textarea elements to restrict the input type. For example, you can restrict the input type to a telephone number or uppercase letters, thus reducing the number of keystrokes required for a user to complete the field. Use the _input_label attribute if you want to specify a prompt for an input field.
See Table 9-2 for more information about the _keypad_mode and _input_label attributes.
By default, a user must specify an action to move from one card to the next. For WML- and XML-based IP phones, you can specify a refresh interval in seconds for a series of cards by including a meta refresh="n" element. The refresh interval that you specify applies to the current card and each subsequent card for the web page until a refresh interval of "0" is encountered.
By default, full browsers such as Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator render all web page content, including the content enclosed in elements with the attribute class="transform_rule". If a web page contains content intended for full browsers as well as device-specific content, you can hide the device-specific content from full browsers as follows:
To embed a declaration for transform_rule_hide in an HTML page, include the following code within the head element:
To put a declaration for transform_rule_hide in an external style sheet, include the following code within the head element of the HTML page:
where filename.css includes the following declaration for transform_rule_hide:
To enable the CTE to process CTE XHTML extensions, a special configuration file, extensions.tcf, must be merged with the configuration file published to the CTE. The extensions.tcf file defines all rules needed to process the extensions. It is provided on the Design Studio CD and is also available in the Design Studio installation directory in studio/class/docs/extensions.tcf.
Whether you use just the CTE XHTML extensions or both the extensions and Design Studio determines how you should manage the configuration file, as follows:
While it is possible for you to make modifications to the rules in extensions.tcf, such changes are not supported.
The CTE XHTML extensions will not work unless the configuration file on the CTE contains the project in the configuration file named extensions.tcf. You must merge extensions.tcf with the file currently on the CTE.
To merge the extensions.tcf configuration file on a CTE, perform these steps:
Step 2 Insert the Design Studio CD into your CD-ROM drive.
If you are sure that the file on your PC in the Design Studio installation directory, studio/class/docs/extensions.tcf, has not been modified, you can open it instead of the file on the Design Studio CD.
Step 3 From the Design Studio File menu, choose Open.
Step 4 In the Open dialog box, navigate to the Design Studio CD and to the file backups\extensions.tcf.
Step 5 Click Open.
Step 6 From the File menu, choose Publish Configuration.
Step 7 In the File Upload dialog box, click Merge.
If you select Upload ScreenTop Pages, the ScreenTop Menu will be overwritten.
Step 8 Wait until Design Studio displays a message that the configuration file is uploaded.
Step 9 Click OK.
Posted: Tue Jan 14 16:21:26 PST 2003
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