This section lists the things you should know about the way document interface commands are written, and describes the most basic commands you need to be familiar with.

Don't be too concerned if you do not understand all of what's presented here. Much of the real work involved in creating a page template can be done using the Command Creation Wizard.

Command Structure

DI commands are placed into an HTML comment, within the file's source code. Commands may appear anywhere in the HTML file, however they are interpreted from the top down, so in some cases the order may be important. Normally, an HTML comment looks something like:

<!-- This is my comment -->

However, a DI command looks like this:

<!--.CommandName Parameters-->

Note that all commands must begin with the sequence <!--. The period is important!

Command and parameter names can be entered in any combination of upper- or lowercase.

Parameters are normally separated by one or more spaces. This means that if you want to actually have spaces included in a value, you need to put it into 'single quotes' or "double quotes". (The two types of quote are actually treated slightly differently, but in most cases there is no difference; see the Variables section for more details.) The one thing you can't use in double-quotes is a $ character. You should use single-quotes in this case.

For example, this is not correct:

<!--.made creator=Dan Wilga-->

because "Wilga" will be interpreted as a different parameter from "Dan". Instead, you should use this:

<!--.made creator="Dan Wilga"-->

Syntax

In the descriptions of commands in this document, parameters surrounded in [brackets] are optional; other parameters are required. Parameter names with a = after them can be specified by either naming the parameter, or by position. Bracketed parameter names without a = are toggles; you only need to enter their name for the desired effect to occur.

For the command:

.MADE Creator= [URL=] [Email=]

the Creator parameter is required and the rest are optional. If you only want to use the Creator parameter, you do not even need to include its name in the command, since it is the first parameter listed, so these two commands are identical:

  <!--.made creator="Dan Wilga"-->
  <!--.made "Dan Wilga"-->

However, if you want to include the Email parameter without also using the URL parameter, you need to specify its name explicitly, otherwise the DI will think you are supplying a value for URL. Example:

  <!--.made "Dan Wilga" "dwilga@mtholyoke.edu"-->
       (This will not work as expected, because the email address will be
       interpreted as the URL parameter)
  <!--.made "Dan Wilga" email="dwilga@mtholyoke.edu"-->
       (The correct version)

Here are some more examples that combine all of the rules of syntax. These first examples are identical to each other, and they work correctly:

  <!--.made creator="Dan Wilga" url="homepage.html" email="dwilga"-->

  <!--.Made url="homepage.html" email=dwilga     CrEaToR="Dan Wilga"-->
       (Quotes can be removed from dwilga because it does not have spaces.
       Capitalization doesn't matter. Neither do extra spaces between parameters.)

  <!--.maDE "Dan Wilga" "homepage.html" "dwilga"
           -->
       (This is the correct order for the parameters, so the parameter names
        are not needed. Spaces and newlines before --> are ignored.)

  <!--.MADE url=homepage.html creator="Dan Wilga" email="dwilga"-->
       (All parameter names are given, so they can be in any order)

However, these are all wrong:

  <!--.made creator=Dan Wilga url=homepage.html email=dwilga-->
       (Space between Dan and Wilga. Use quotes.)

  <!--.Made homepage.html dwilga creator="Dan Wilga"-->
       (Parameters are in wrong order)

  <!-- .made "Dan Wilga" "homepage.html" "dwilga"-->
       (Space between <!-- and period) 

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