Fairlight HTML to filePro PRC Demonstration Video

This video illustrates the speed and ease with which you can import your complex HTML and other data into filePro, tweak it for dynamic content substitution, and let filePro deliver top-notch content that matches the rest of your site--all with very little pain or effort compared to traditional methods.

The video takes you from analysing the alternative methods, through using html2prc to do the hard part of the job for you instantly, and then adding dynamic content to your imported page. Also supplied are multiple and alternate uses for the program, all of them useful.

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Video Outline and Time Indices

I. Intro (00:10)
- A. Most people try to use fP's internal HTML. Bad idea.
- B. The model change--enter the web developer.
- C. What's the alternative? Typing it in?
- D. How do we get from point A to B with massive amounts of HTML?
- E. There's a shorter way - CALLable processing tables.
II. Doing the conversion. (06:20)
- A. Obtaining the raw HTML file to be converted.
- B. Converting the file to a processing table.
- C. Putting the processing table into a filePro file.
III. Using the processing table. (15:31)
- A. Any processing point will do, we have a demo table for an example.
- B. Demo processing breakdown.
  - 1. Declare GLOBAL variables for use with CALLed table.
  - 2. Define or obtain some dynamic content.
  - 3. Set our output destination.
  - 4. Mode hack for Linux and other *nix systems.
  - 5. Call the table that does all the work.
  - 6. Sanity check to test if it was able to be written.
IV. Editing the converted table to include dynamic data. (23:27)
- A. Defining EXTERN variables.
- B. Concatenating in your variables and any extra markup.
V. Seeing it in action. (26:39)
- A. Execute the processing.
- B. Copy the file the the location on the local server.
- C. Look at the file in a pager to see it's the right output.
- D. Look at the file in a browser.
VI. Conclusion. (32:00)
- A. You know exactly where you need the files to go and have a framework.
- B. Tables can be called anywhere a CALL is valid. With nested CALLs in fP 5.6, this is even more powerful as that means anywhere.
- C. Could write a wrapper for batch conversion of a whole project, leaving only the minor editing to be done.
- D. Tables don't need to remain CALL tables; they can be converted to be your main top-level processing table.
- E. Other things besides HTML may be converted. Excel spreadsheets could be exported, converted, and marked up for dynamic output, for example, as could Word documents exported to HTML or plaintext.
- F. Overall, far easier than any other method, offering the greatest versatility and letting you preserve your style and layout, using the design tools of your choice rather than constraining you.

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Fairlight HTML to filePro PRC Converter