xref: /freebsd/contrib/libxo/doc/field-roles.rst (revision 1d386b48a555f61cb7325543adbbb5c3f3407a66)
1
2.. index:: Field Roles
3.. _field-roles:
4
5Field Roles
6~~~~~~~~~~~
7
8Field roles are optional, and indicate the role and formatting of the
9content.  The roles are listed below; only one role is permitted:
10
11  === ============== =================================================
12  R   Name           Description
13  === ============== =================================================
14  C   color          Field has color and effect controls
15  D   decoration     Field is non-text (e.g., colon, comma)
16  E   error          Field is an error message
17  G   gettext        Call gettext(3) on the format string
18  L   label          Field is text that prefixes a value
19  N   note           Field is text that follows a value
20  P   padding        Field is spaces needed for vertical alignment
21  T   title          Field is a title value for headings
22  U   units          Field is the units for the previous value field
23  V   value          Field is the name of field (the default)
24  W   warning        Field is a warning message
25  [   start-anchor   Begin a section of anchored variable-width text
26  ]   stop-anchor    End a section of anchored variable-width text
27  === ============== =================================================
28
29::
30
31    EXAMPLE:
32        xo_emit("{L:Free}{D::}{P:   }{:free/%u} {U:Blocks}\n",
33                free_blocks);
34
35When a role is not provided, the "*value*" role is used as the default.
36
37Roles and modifiers can also use more verbose names, when preceded by
38a comma::
39
40    EXAMPLE:
41        xo_emit("{,label:Free}{,decoration::}{,padding:   }"
42                "{,value:free/%u} {,units:Blocks}\n",
43                free_blocks);
44
45.. index:: Field Roles; Color
46.. _color-role:
47
48The Color Role ({C:})
49+++++++++++++++++++++
50
51Colors and effects control how text values are displayed; they are
52used for display styles (TEXT and HTML)::
53
54    xo_emit("{C:bold}{:value}{C:no-bold}\n", value);
55
56Colors and effects remain in effect until modified by other "C"-role
57fields::
58
59    xo_emit("{C:bold}{C:inverse}both{C:no-bold}only inverse\n");
60
61If the content is empty, the "*reset*" action is performed::
62
63    xo_emit("{C:both,underline}{:value}{C:}\n", value);
64
65The content should be a comma-separated list of zero or more colors or
66display effects::
67
68    xo_emit("{C:bold,inverse}Ugly{C:no-bold,no-inverse}\n");
69
70The color content can be either static, when placed directly within
71the field descriptor, or a printf-style format descriptor can be used,
72if preceded by a slash ("/"):
73
74   xo_emit("{C:/%s%s}{:value}{C:}", need_bold ? "bold" : "",
75           need_underline ? "underline" : "", value);
76
77Color names are prefixed with either "fg-" or "bg-" to change the
78foreground and background colors, respectively::
79
80    xo_emit("{C:/fg-%s,bg-%s}{Lwc:Cost}{:cost/%u}{C:reset}\n",
81            fg_color, bg_color, cost);
82
83The following table lists the supported effects:
84
85  =============== =================================================
86   Name           Description
87  =============== =================================================
88   bg-XXXXX       Change background color
89   bold           Start bold text effect
90   fg-XXXXX       Change foreground color
91   inverse        Start inverse (aka reverse) text effect
92   no-bold        Stop bold text effect
93   no-inverse     Stop inverse (aka reverse) text effect
94   no-underline   Stop underline text effect
95   normal         Reset effects (only)
96   reset          Reset colors and effects (restore defaults)
97   underline      Start underline text effect
98  =============== =================================================
99
100The following color names are supported:
101
102  ========= ============================================
103   Name      Description
104  ========= ============================================
105   black
106   blue
107   cyan
108   default   Default color for foreground or background
109   green
110   magenta
111   red
112   white
113   yellow
114  ========= ============================================
115
116When using colors, the developer should remember that users will
117change the foreground and background colors of terminal session
118according to their own tastes, so assuming that "blue" looks nice is
119never safe, and is a constant annoyance to your dear author.  In
120addition, a significant percentage of users (1 in 12) will be color
121blind.  Depending on color to convey critical information is not a
122good idea.  Color should enhance output, but should not be used as the
123sole means of encoding information.
124
125.. index:: Field Roles; Decoration
126.. _decoration-role:
127
128The Decoration Role ({D:})
129++++++++++++++++++++++++++
130
131Decorations are typically punctuation marks such as colons,
132semi-colons, and commas used to decorate the text and make it simpler
133for human readers.  By marking these distinctly, HTML usage scenarios
134can use CSS to direct their display parameters::
135
136    xo_emit("{D:((}{:name}{D:))}\n", name);
137
138.. index:: Field Roles; Gettext
139.. _gettext-role:
140
141The Gettext Role ({G:})
142+++++++++++++++++++++++
143
144libxo supports internationalization (i18n) through its use of
145gettext(3).  Use the "{G:}" role to request that the remaining part of
146the format string, following the "{G:}" field, be handled using
147gettext().
148
149Since gettext() uses the string as the key into the message catalog,
150libxo uses a simplified version of the format string that removes
151unimportant field formatting and modifiers, stopping minor formatting
152changes from impacting the expensive translation process.  A developer
153change such as changing "/%06d" to "/%08d" should not force hand
154inspection of all .po files.
155
156The simplified version can be generated for a single message using the
157"`xopo -s $text`" command, or an entire .pot can be translated using
158the "`xopo -f $input -o $output`" command.
159
160   xo_emit("{G:}Invalid token\n");
161
162The {G:} role allows a domain name to be set.  gettext calls will
163continue to use that domain name until the current format string
164processing is complete, enabling a library function to emit strings
165using it's own catalog.  The domain name can be either static as the
166content of the field, or a format can be used to get the domain name
167from the arguments.
168
169   xo_emit("{G:libc}Service unavailable in restricted mode\n");
170
171See :ref:`i18n` for additional details.
172
173.. index:: Field Roles; Label
174.. _label-role:
175
176The Label Role ({L:})
177+++++++++++++++++++++
178
179Labels are text that appears before a value::
180
181    xo_emit("{Lwc:Cost}{:cost/%u}\n", cost);
182
183If a label needs to include a slash, it must be escaped using two
184backslashes, one for the C compiler and one for libxo::
185
186    xo_emit("{Lc:Low\\/warn level}{:level/%s}\n", level);
187
188.. index:: Field Roles; Note
189.. _note-role:
190
191The Note Role ({N:})
192++++++++++++++++++++
193
194Notes are text that appears after a value::
195
196    xo_emit("{:cost/%u} {N:per year}\n", cost);
197
198.. index:: Field Roles; Padding
199.. _padding-role:
200
201The Padding Role ({P:})
202+++++++++++++++++++++++
203
204Padding represents whitespace used before and between fields.
205
206The padding content can be either static, when placed directly within
207the field descriptor, or a printf-style format descriptor can be used,
208if preceded by a slash ("/")::
209
210    xo_emit("{P:        }{Lwc:Cost}{:cost/%u}\n", cost);
211    xo_emit("{P:/%30s}{Lwc:Cost}{:cost/%u}\n", "", cost);
212
213.. index:: Field Roles; Title
214.. _title-role:
215
216The Title Role ({T:})
217+++++++++++++++++++++
218
219Title are heading or column headers that are meant to be displayed to
220the user.  The title can be either static, when placed directly within
221the field descriptor, or a printf-style format descriptor can be used,
222if preceded by a slash ("/")::
223
224    xo_emit("{T:Interface Statistics}\n");
225    xo_emit("{T:/%20.20s}{T:/%6.6s}\n", "Item Name", "Cost");
226
227Title fields have an extra convenience feature; if both content and
228format are specified, instead of looking to the argument list for a
229value, the content is used, allowing a mixture of format and content
230within the field descriptor::
231
232    xo_emit("{T:Name/%20s}{T:Count/%6s}\n");
233
234Since the incoming argument is a string, the format must be "%s" or
235something suitable.
236
237.. index:: Field Roles; Units
238.. index:: XOF_UNITS
239.. _units-role:
240
241The Units Role ({U:})
242+++++++++++++++++++++
243
244Units are the dimension by which values are measured, such as degrees,
245miles, bytes, and decibels.  The units field carries this information
246for the previous value field::
247
248    xo_emit("{Lwc:Distance}{:distance/%u}{Uw:miles}\n", miles);
249
250Note that the sense of the 'w' modifier is reversed for units;
251a blank is added before the contents, rather than after it.
252
253When the XOF_UNITS flag is set, units are rendered in XML as the
254"units" attribute::
255
256    <distance units="miles">50</distance>
257
258Units can also be rendered in HTML as the "data-units" attribute::
259
260    <div class="data" data-tag="distance" data-units="miles"
261         data-xpath="/top/data/distance">50</div>
262
263.. index:: Field Roles; Value
264.. _value-role:
265
266The Value Role ({V:} and {:})
267+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
268
269The value role is used to represent the a data value that is
270interesting for the non-display output styles (XML and JSON).  Value
271is the default role; if no other role designation is given, the field
272is a value.  The field name must appear within the field descriptor,
273followed by one or two format descriptors.  The first format
274descriptor is used for display styles (TEXT and HTML), while the
275second one is used for encoding styles (XML and JSON).  If no second
276format is given, the encoding format defaults to the first format,
277with any minimum width removed.  If no first format is given, both
278format descriptors default to "%s"::
279
280    xo_emit("{:length/%02u}x{:width/%02u}x{:height/%02u}\n",
281            length, width, height);
282    xo_emit("{:author} wrote \"{:poem}\" in {:year/%4d}\n,
283            author, poem, year);
284
285.. index:: Field Roles; Anchor
286.. _anchor-role:
287
288The Anchor Roles ({[:} and {]:})
289++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
290
291The anchor roles allow a set of strings by be padded as a group,
292but still be visible to xo_emit as distinct fields.  Either the start
293or stop anchor can give a field width and it can be either directly in
294the descriptor or passed as an argument.  Any fields between the start
295and stop anchor are padded to meet the minimum width given.
296
297To give a width directly, encode it as the content of the anchor tag::
298
299    xo_emit("({[:10}{:min/%d}/{:max/%d}{]:})\n", min, max);
300
301To pass a width as an argument, use "%d" as the format, which must
302appear after the "/".  Note that only "%d" is supported for widths.
303Using any other value could ruin your day::
304
305    xo_emit("({[:/%d}{:min/%d}/{:max/%d}{]:})\n", width, min, max);
306
307If the width is negative, padding will be added on the right, suitable
308for left justification.  Otherwise the padding will be added to the
309left of the fields between the start and stop anchors, suitable for
310right justification.  If the width is zero, nothing happens.  If the
311number of columns of output between the start and stop anchors is less
312than the absolute value of the given width, nothing happens.
313
314.. index:: XOF_WARN
315
316Widths over 8k are considered probable errors and not supported.  If
317XOF_WARN is set, a warning will be generated.
318