Customisation

Given the system is built around HTML using the HTTP protocol, the user is able to entirely customise the look and feel of all HTML pages and reports.

Each report produced by the system consists of a header, body (containing the information), and a footer. Whilst the body of the report is shaped by the parameters that are passed to it, the header and footer will remain constant and can be edited using any HTML editor.

Each report has an ID number assigned to it, as follows:

Given that the system is built around HTML using the HTTP protocol, this allows the user to completely customise the look and feel of all HTML pages and reports.

Each report that is produced by the system consists of a header, the body (containing the information), and a footer. Whilst the body is customised by the parameters that are passed to the report, the header and footer remain constant and can be edited using any HTML editor such as, amongst others, Microsoft FrontPage.

Each report has an ID number, as follows:

Using these ID numbers, header and footer files can be created in the \data folder in the form customheader_x.html and customfooter_x.html, where x is the ID number of the report whose output you want to customise.

For example, suppose we wanted to add your company name to the heading of each telephone bill you produce. We know that a telephone bill is a Billing Report whose ID = 2. The custom header would therefore need to be a standard HTML file in the \data folder named customheader_2.html.

The raw HTML for such a file may look something like the following:

This example uses server-side includes (SSIs) which are explained later in this section.

The example code would produce an output similar to the following:

When creating header and footer files, it is important to remember that the system constructs the final report from three bits of HTML - the header, the body, and the footer. Whilst it is not essential for some web browsers, you should stick to the HTTP specification where an HTML page is completely housed in a pair of tags. This means that the report, taken as a whole consisting of all three parts, collectively subscribes to this convention. Your header should contain the tag, whilst your footer should contain the tag.

The system constructs reports in this way to allow maximum flexibility. For example, the whole report may be indented by having a tag in the header and a tag in the footer. The resultant report, including the body, will therefore be indented.