TalonGen® Running the Generator

TalonGen® Running

Running the generator is performed by simply entering the program and its parameters at the command prompt. Currently there are plans to produce an interactive interface (GUI) and a Dynamic Link Library version of the same functions. Make sure you register your product to hear about these.

Parameters
The following text describes the parameters used to run the generator. These parameters are not positional. Thus, use them in any order you feel confortable. The case of the flags is always shown as upper, however the generator will support lower case as well.

Usage
To display options you run with the help parameter or no parameter at all. The command for viewing the usage display would be:

talongen.exe or

talongen.exe /h or

talongen.exe -h or

talongen.exe /H or

talongen.exe -H or

talongen.exe -? or

talongen.exe /?

Did we miss any? The result of executing any of these is shown below:

TalonGen - Data to HTML utility  v2.0    TalonGen 1999
TalonGen.exe usage:
TalonGen [parameters]
Parameters:
Data Source ----> /D(ODBC Data Source Name)
User ID --------> [/U](User)
Password -------> [/P](Password)
Template File --> /I(Template file name)
Output file ----> /O(Output file)
Text Flag ------> [/T] Flag indicating to process as text
8859 Charset ---> [/8:n] 8859 Extended characters translated (only 0 and 1 support)
Variable Value -> [/Vn:value] User defined value (n= 0 - 9) 
						and value is the data

Data Source Name (/D) [REQUIRED]
The TalonGen Generator requires that an ODBC Data Source Name be provided. This is the name you gave when you set up the data source. Syntax for this parameter is: talongen.exe /DYourDataSource
If you are unsure of your data source you can view or create it by selecting the ODBC Icon

in your control panel.
If you are running the TalonGen from the foreground you can designate the data source as a 'User DSN'. If you intend to use the generator from a scheduled batch process you should define the data source as 'System DSN'. The ODBC dialogs provide a help button if you need help setting up a data source.

Database User ID (/U) [OPTIONAL depending on database type]
Many databases require a database User ID and password be supplied for example Sybase, Oracle, and many MS Sql Server implementations require User ID be provided. If your data source requires a User ID and Password provide the User with this parameter. The syntax is: talongen.exe /UYourUserID ...other parameters...

Database Password (/P)[OPTIONAL depending on database type]
Use this parameter in conjuction with the User ID shown Above. The syntax is: talongen.exe /PYourPassword ...other parameters...

Input Template File (/I)[REQUIRED]
The input template is the file that contains the layout of the page that you would like to generate. The contents of this file are described in the Templates section of this documentation. The syntax is: talongen.exe /IYourTemplateFileName ...other parameters...

Output File (/O)[REQUIRED]
The output file contains the generated page. This is the output of the entire process. The syntax is: talongen.exe /IYourOutputFileName ...other parameters...

Text Flag (/T)[Optional]
If you are generating a file that is not HTML output you would indicate it with this flag. The way this flag works only effects the way data that is returned from your database is treated. If a peice of text from your database contains a carriage return and line feed (\r\n) the generator will normally insert an HTML < BR > at that point. However, if this flag is set, the generator will replace it with spaces. Truth is you may want to include this tag in HTML output generation as well. The syntax to turn off tag insertion: talongen.exe /T ...other parameters...

8859 Character Set Substitution (/8:n)[Optional]
If you are using ISO 8859-1 Latin-1 Extended Characters this flag will translate the characters to the html representation of those characters. Talongen expects to add other character sets which will be indicated by other values. Currently th only value supported for this flag is '1'. The syntax to enable translation of characters for Latin 1 characters: talongen.exe /8:1 ...other parameters...

Variable Value (/Vn:value)[Optional]
If you would like to pass parameters into the generation from the command line, use this variable substitution. You can use up to 10 variables, each numbered using 'n'. The 'value' can be either a quoted or unquoted string. These variables will be used for substitution prior to database substitution. This means for example if you wanted to have your SQL based on a parameter you provide from tha command line, you could pass that parameter here and include a variable in your template. The use of these variables is described in the Templates section of this documentation. The syntax to pass variable 1 would be: talongen.exe /V1:YourValue ...other parameters...

TalonGen - Data to HTML utility  v2.0    TalonGen 1999
Parameters:
Data Source ----> edm
User ID --------> sa
Template File --> d:\cdev\talongen\test.htm
Output file ----> out.htm
08/04/98 19:19:09 - Template - Get the template file...
08/04/98 19:19:09 - Variables - Update with User Variables...
08/04/98 19:19:09 - Output - Open the output...
08/04/98 19:19:09 - Data - Processing Data...
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08/04/98 19:19:15 - Done - Completed !!!