add support for persistent controls

[wxWidgets.git] / docs / doxygen / overviews / html.h

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Name:        html.h
// Purpose:     topic overview
// Author:      wxWidgets team
// RCS-ID:      $Id$
// Licence:     wxWindows license
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

/**

@page overview_html wxHTML Overview

The wxHTML library provides classes for parsing and displaying HTML.
It is not intended to be a high-end HTML browser. If you are looking for
something like that try <http://www.mozilla.org/>.

wxHTML can be used as a generic rich text viewer - for example to display
a nice About Box (like those of GNOME apps) or to display the result of
database searching. There is a wxFileSystem class which allows you to use
your own virtual file systems.

wxHtmlWindow supports tag handlers. This means that you can easily
extend wxHtml library with new, unsupported tags. Not only that,
you can even use your own application-specific tags!

See @c src/html/m_*.cpp files for details.

There is a generic wxHtmlParser class, independent of wxHtmlWindow.

@li @ref overview_html_quickstart
@li @ref overview_html_printing
@li @ref overview_html_helpformats
@li @ref overview_html_filters
@li @ref overview_html_cells
@li @ref overview_html_handlers
@li @ref overview_html_supptags


<hr>


@section overview_html_quickstart wxHTML quick start

@subsection overview_html_quickstart_disphtml Displaying HTML

First of all, you must include @c wx/wxhtml.h.

Class wxHtmlWindow (derived from ::wxScrolledWindow) is used to display HTML documents.

It has two important methods: wxHtmlWindow::LoadPage and wxHtmlWindow::SetPage.
LoadPage loads and displays HTML file while SetPage displays directly the
passed @b string. See the example:

@code
    mywin -> LoadPage("test.htm");
    mywin -> SetPage("htmlbody"
                    "h1Error/h1"
                    "Some error occurred :-H)"
                    "/body/hmtl");
@endcode

@subsection overview_html_quickstart_settingup Setting up wxHtmlWindow

Because wxHtmlWindow is derived from ::wxScrolledWindow and not from
wxFrame, it doesn't have visible frame. But the user usually wants to see
the title of HTML page displayed somewhere and the frame's titlebar is
the ideal place for it.

wxHtmlWindow provides 2 methods in order to handle this:
wxHtmlWindow::SetRelatedFrame and wxHtmlWindow::SetRelatedStatusBar.
See the example:

@code
    html = new wxHtmlWindow(this);
    html -> SetRelatedFrame(this, "HTML : %%s");
    html -> SetRelatedStatusBar(0);
@endcode

The first command associates the HTML object with its parent frame
(this points to wxFrame object there) and sets the format of the title.
Page title "Hello, world!" will be displayed as "HTML : Hello, world!"
in this example.

The second command sets which frame's status bar should be used to display
browser's messages (such as "Loading..." or "Done" or hypertext links).

@subsection overview_html_quickstart_custom Customizing wxHtmlWindow

You can customize wxHtmlWindow by setting font size, font face and
borders (space between border of window and displayed HTML). Related functions:

@li wxHtmlWindow::SetFonts
@li wxHtmlWindow::SetBorders
@li wxHtmlWindow::ReadCustomization
@li wxHtmlWindow::WriteCustomization

The last two functions are used to store user customization info wxConfig stuff
(for example in the registry under Windows, or in a dotfile under Unix).



@section overview_html_printing HTML Printing

The wxHTML library provides printing facilities with several levels of complexity.
The easiest way to print an HTML document is to use the wxHtmlEasyPrinting class.

It lets you print HTML documents with only one command and you don't have to worry
about deriving from the wxPrintout class at all. It is only a simple wrapper around the
wxHtmlPrintout, normal wxWidgets printout class.

And finally there is the low level class wxHtmlDCRenderer which you can use to
render HTML into a rectangular area on any DC.

It supports rendering into multiple rectangles with the same
width. (The most common use of this is placing one rectangle on each page or
printing into two columns.)


@section overview_html_helpformats Help Files Format

wxHTML library can be used to show an help manual to the user; in fact, it supports
natively (through wxHtmlHelpController) a reduced version of MS HTML Workshop format.

A @b book consists of three files: the header file, the contents file
and the index file.

You can make a regular zip archive of these files, plus the HTML and any
image files, for wxHTML (or helpview) to read; and the @c ".zip" file can
optionally be renamed to @c ".htb".

@subsection overview_html_helpformats_hhp Header file (.hhp)

The header file must contain these lines (and may contain additional lines
which are ignored):

@code
Contents file=filename.hhc
Index file=filename.hhk
Title=title of your book
Default topic=default page to be displayed.htm
@endcode

All filenames (including the Default topic) are relative to the
location of the @c ".hhp" file.

@note For localization, in addition the @c ".hhp" file may contain the line
    @code
        Charset=rfc_charset
    @endcode
    which specifies what charset (e.g. "iso8859_1") was used in contents
    and index files. Please note that this line is incompatible with
    MS HTML Help Workshop and it would either silently remove it or complain
    with some error. See also @ref overview_nonenglish.

@subsection overview_html_helpformats_hhc Contents file (.hhc)

Contents file has HTML syntax and it can be parsed by regular HTML parser.
It contains exactly one list (@c &lt;ul&gt;....@c &lt;/ul&gt; statement):

@code
<ul>

<li><object type="text/sitemap">
            <param name="Name" value="@topic name@">
            <param name="ID" value=@numeric_id@>
            <param name="Local" value="@filename.htm@">
        </object>
<li><object type="text/sitemap">
            <param name="Name" value="@topic name@">
            <param name="ID" value=@numeric_id@>
            <param name="Local" value="@filename.htm@">
        </object>
...
</ul>
@endcode

You can modify value attributes of param tags.
The <em>topic name</em> is name of chapter/topic as is displayed in
contents, <em>filename.htm</em> is the HTML page name (relative to the @c ".hhp" file)
and <em>numeric_id</em> is optional - it is used only when you use wxHtmlHelpController::Display(int).

Items in the list may be nested - one @c &lt;li&gt; statement may contain a @c &lt;ul&gt; sub-statement:

@code
<ul>

<li><object type="text/sitemap">
        <param name="Name" value="Top node">
        <param name="Local" value="top.htm">
    </object>
    <ul>
        <li><object type="text/sitemap">
            <param name="Name" value="subnode in topnode">
            <param name="Local" value="subnode1.htm">
            </object>
    ...
    </ul>

<li><object type="text/sitemap">
        <param name="Name" value="Another Top">
        <param name="Local" value="top2.htm">
    </object>
...

</ul>
@endcode

@subsection overview_html_helpformats_hhk Index file (.hhk)

Index files have same format as contents files except that ID params are ignored
and sublists are @b not allowed.


@section overview_html_filters Input Filters

The wxHTML library provides a mechanism for reading and displaying
files of many different file formats.

wxHtmlWindow::LoadPage can load not only HTML files but any known file.
To make a file type known to wxHtmlWindow you must create a wxHtmlFilter filter and
register it using wxHtmlWindow::AddFilter.


@section overview_html_cells Cells and Containers

This article describes mechanism used by wxHtmlWinParser and
wxHtmlWindow to parse and display HTML documents.

@subsection overview_html_cells_cells Cells

You can divide any text (or HTML) into small fragments. Let's call these
fragments @b cells. Cell is for example one word, horizontal line, image
or any other part of document. Each cell has width and height (except special
"magic" cells with zero dimensions - e.g. colour changers or font changers).
See wxHtmlCell.

@subsection overview_html_cells_containers Containers

Container is kind of cell that may contain sub-cells. Its size depends
on number and sizes of its sub-cells (and also depends on width of window).
See wxHtmlContainerCell, wxHtmlCell::Layout. This image shows the cells and
containers:

@image html overview_html_contbox.png

@subsection overview_html_cells_conttaghandler Using Containers in Tag Handler

wxHtmlWinParser provides a user-friendly way of managing containers.
It is based on the idea of opening and closing containers.

Use wxHtmlWinParser::OpenContainer to open new a container @e within an already
opened container.
This new container is a @e sub-container of the old one. (If you want to create a
new container with the same depth level you can call @c CloseContainer(); OpenContainer();.)

Use wxHtmlWinParser::CloseContainer to close the container.
This doesn't create a new container with same depth level but it returns "control"
to the parent container. See explanation:

@image html overview_html_cont.png

There clearly must be same number of calls to OpenContainer as to
CloseContainer.

@subsubsection overview_html_cells_conttaghandler_example Example

This code creates a new paragraph (container at same depth level)
with "Hello, world!":

@code
m_WParser -> CloseContainer();
c = m_WParser -> OpenContainer();

m_WParser -> AddText("Hello, ");
m_WParser -> AddText("world!");

m_WParser -> CloseContainer();
m_WParser -> OpenContainer();
@endcode

and here is image of the situation:

@image html overview_html_hello.png

You can see that there was an opened container before the code was executed.
We closed it, created our own container, then closed our container and opened
new container.

The result was that we had @e same depth level after executing.
This is general rule that should be followed by tag handlers:
leave depth level of containers unmodified (in other words, number of
OpenContainer and CloseContainer calls should be same within
wxHtmlTagHandler::HandleTag's body).

Notice that it would be usually better to use wxHtmlContainerCell::InsertCell instead
of adding text to the parser directly.


@section overview_html_handlers Tag Handlers

The wxHTML library provides architecture of pluggable @e tag handlers.
Tag handler is class that understands particular HTML tag (or tags) and is
able to interpret it.

wxHtmlWinParser has a static table of @b modules.
Each module contains one or more tag handlers. Each time a new wxHtmlWinParser
object is constructed all modules are scanned and handlers are added
to wxHtmlParser's list of available handlers (note: wxHtmlParser's list
is non-static).

@subsection overview_html_handlers_howworks How it works

Common tag handler's wxHtmlTagHandler::HandleTag method works in four steps:

@li Save state of parent parser into local variables
@li Change parser state according to tag's params
@li Parse text between the tag and paired ending tag (if present)
@li Restore original parser state

See wxHtmlWinParser for methods for modifying parser's state.
In general you can do things like opening/closing containers, changing colors, fonts etc.

@subsection overview_html_handlers_custom Providing own tag handlers

You should create a new .cpp file and place the following lines into it:

@code
#include <mod_templ.h>
#include <forcelink.h>
FORCE_LINK_ME(yourmodulefilenamewithoutcpp)
@endcode

Then you must define handlers and one module.

@subsection overview_html_handlers_tag Tag handlers

The handler is derived from wxHtmlWinTagHandler (or directly from wxHtmlTagHandler).

You can use set of macros to define the handler (see src/html/m_*.cpp files
for details). Handler definition must start with @b TAG_HANDLER_BEGIN macro
and end with @b TAG_HANDLER_END macro.

I strongly recommend to have a look at @e include/wxhtml/mod_templ.h file.
Otherwise you won't understand the structure of macros.

See macros reference:
@li @b TAG_HANDLER_BEGIN(@e name, @e tags):
    Starts handler definition. @e name is handler identifier (in fact
    part of class name), @e tags is string containing list of tags
    supported by this handler (in uppercase). This macro derives new class from
    wxHtmlWinTagHandler and implements it is wxHtmlTagHandler::GetSupportedTags method.
    Example: TAG_HANDLER_BEGIN(FONTS, "B,I,U,T")

@li @b TAG_HANDLER_VARS:
    This macro starts block of variables definitions. (Variables are identical
    to class attributes.) Example:

    @code
    TAG_HANDLER_BEGIN(VARS_ONLY, "CRAZYTAG")
        TAG_HANDLER_VARS
            int my_int_var;
            wxString something_else;
    TAG_HANDLER_END(VARS_ONLY)
    @endcode

    This macro is used only in rare cases.

@li @b TAG_HANDLER_CONSTR(@e name):
    This macro supplies object constructor. @e name is same name as the one
    from TAG_HANDLER_BEGIN macro. Body of constructor follow after
    this macro (you must use { and } ). Example:

    @code
    TAG_HANDLER_BEGIN(VARS2, "CRAZYTAG")
        TAG_HANDLER_VARS
            int my_int_var;
        TAG_HANDLER_CONSTR(vars2)
            { // !!!!!!
            my_int_var = 666;
            } // !!!!!!
    TAG_HANDLER_END(VARS2)
    @endcode

    Never used in wxHTML :-)

@li @b TAG_HANDLER_PROC(@e varib):
    This is very important macro. It defines wxHtmlTagHandler::HandleTag
    method. @e varib is name of parameter passed to the method, usually
    @e tag. Body of method follows after this macro.
    Note than you must use { and }  !
    Example:

    @code
    TAG_HANDLER_BEGIN(TITLE, "TITLE")
        TAG_HANDLER_PROC(tag)
            {
            printf("TITLE found...\n");
            }
    TAG_HANDLER_END(TITLE)
    @endcode

@li @b TAG_HANDLER_END(@e name):
    Ends definition of tag handler @e name.

@subsection overview_html_handlers_modules Tags Modules

You can use set of 3 macros TAGS_MODULE_BEGIN, TAGS_MODULE_ADD and
TAGS_MODULE_END to inherit new module from
wxHtmlTagsModule and to create instance of it.

See macros reference:

@li @b TAGS_MODULE_BEGIN(@e modname):
    Begins module definition. @e modname is part of class name and must be unique.
@li @b TAGS_MODULE_ADD(@e name):
    Adds the handler to this module. @e name is the identifier from TAG_HANDLER_BEGIN.
@li @b TAGS_MODULE_END(@e modname):
    Ends the definition of module.
    Example:

    @code
    TAGS_MODULE_BEGIN(Examples)
        TAGS_MODULE_ADD(VARS_ONLY)
        TAGS_MODULE_ADD(VARS2)
        TAGS_MODULE_ADD(TITLE)
    TAGS_MODULE_END(Examples)
    @endcode


@section overview_html_supptags Tags supported by wxHTML

wxHTML is not full implementation of HTML standard. Instead, it supports most
common tags so that it is possible to display @e simple HTML documents with it.
(For example it works fine with pages created in Netscape Composer or generated by tex2rtf).

Following tables list all tags known to wxHTML, together with supported parameters.

A tag has general form of @c tagname param_1 param_2 ... param_n where param_i is
either @c paramname="paramvalue" or @c paramname=paramvalue - these two are equivalent.
Unless stated otherwise, wxHTML is case-insensitive.

@subsection overview_html_supptags_commonvalues Table of common parameter values

We will use these substitutions in tags descriptions:

@code
[alignment]     CENTER
                LEFT
                RIGHT
                JUSTIFY

[v_alignment]   TOP
                BOTTOM
                CENTER

[color]         HTML 4.0-compliant colour specification

[fontsize]      -2
                -1
                +0
                +1
                +2
                +3
                +4
                1
                2
                3
                4
                5
                6
                7

[pixels]        integer value that represents dimension in pixels

[percent]       i%
                where i is integer

[url]           an URL

[string]        text string

[coords]        c(1),c(2),c(3),...,c(n)
                where c(i) is integer
@endcode


@subsection overview_html_supptags_list List of supported tags

@code
A               NAME=[string]
                HREF=[url]
                TARGET=[target window spec]
ADDRESS
AREA            SHAPE=POLY
                SHAPE=CIRCLE
                SHAPE=RECT
                COORDS=[coords]
                HREF=[url]
B
BIG
BLOCKQUOTE
BODY            TEXT=[color]
                LINK=[color]
                BGCOLOR=[color]
BR              ALIGN=[alignment]
CENTER
CITE
CODE
DD
DIV             ALIGN=[alignment]
DL
DT
EM
FONT            COLOR=[color]
                SIZE=[fontsize]
                FACE=[comma-separated list of facenames]
HR              ALIGN=[alignment]
                SIZE=[pixels]
                WIDTH=[percent|pixels]
                NOSHADE
H1
H2
H3
H4
H5
H6
I
IMG             SRC=[url]
                WIDTH=[pixels]
                HEIGHT=[pixels]
                ALIGN=TEXTTOP
                ALIGN=CENTER
                ALIGN=ABSCENTER
                ALIGN=BOTTOM
                USEMAP=[url]
KBD
LI
MAP             NAME=[string]
META            HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type"
                CONTENT=[string]
OL
P               ALIGN=[alignment]
PRE
SAMP
SMALL
STRIKE
STRONG
SUB
SUP
TABLE           ALIGN=[alignment]
                WIDTH=[percent|pixels]
                BORDER=[pixels]
                VALIGN=[v_alignment]
                BGCOLOR=[color]
                CELLSPACING=[pixels]
                CELLPADDING=[pixels]
TD              ALIGN=[alignment]
                VALIGN=[v_alignment]
                BGCOLOR=[color]
                WIDTH=[percent|pixels]
                COLSPAN=[pixels]
                ROWSPAN=[pixels]
                NOWRAP
TH              ALIGN=[alignment]
                VALIGN=[v_alignment]
                BGCOLOR=[color]
                WIDTH=[percent|pixels]
                COLSPAN=[pixels]
                ROWSPAN=[pixels]
TITLE
TR              ALIGN=[alignment]
                VALIGN=[v_alignment]
                BGCOLOR=[color]
TT
U
UL
@endcode

*/