Mysteries of the <span> tag revealed

[Dan Korn]

The <span> tag is a powerful feature of the FusionPro VDP products suite. Unfortunately, it's currently undocumented. This post attempts to remedy that shortcoming.

The <span> tag pair was designed to allow style overrides over a specific range, or span, of text. The initial, or opening, <span> tag can take several attributes, which specify style attributes to be overridden in the span. The overrides remain in effect until the ending, or closing, </span> tag is reached.

The <span> tag can take any number of the following optional attributes:

• suppress={true|false}. Defaults to false. If true, all text within the span is suppressed.
• accumulate={true|false}. Defaults to false. If false, the ending </span> tag restores the style in effect at the beginning of the span. If true, the ending </span> tag restores the style, taking into account any other changes within the span.
• color=(color name). If present, the specified named color is applied to the entire span as an override.
• shading=(percentage) If present, the specified shading, or tint, percentage is applied to the entire span as an override. All colors applied to text within the span are shaded by the specified percentage.
• pointsize=(number). If present, the specified point size is applied to the entire span as an override. Units are in points.
• font=(font name). If present, the specified named font is applied to the entire span as an override.
• bold={true|false}. If present, the style of the entire span is set to either bold or not bold, as an override.
• italic={true|false}. If present, the style of the entire span is set to either italic or not italic, as an override.

If the <span> tag is used without any attributes, it effectively acts as way to save the running text style and restore it when the ending </span> tag is reached. For example:

<color name="Black">Hi <span><variable name="NameInColor"></span>, you're a winner!

This ensures that the original running style of the text is restored, no matter what the "NameInColor" rule does, even if it changes the running color of the text using a <color> tag.

[Brian F.]

Where are the places one could use the tag? Product templates? Custom P1 Copy in store options? Product descriptions or instructions?

[mhilger]

Hello Brian,

The <span> tag information that Dan is sharing here is specific to FusionPro VDP templates as opposed to FusionPro Web store display text.

[Dan Korn]

Originally Posted by mhilger

The <span> tag information that Dan is sharing here is specific to FusionPro VDP templates as opposed to FusionPro Web store display text.

Thus the location of this thread under "The JavaScript Library > Formatting Text". Although technically one can use tagged markup such as this in input and resource files without JavaScript rules.

[AndyShaw]

Dan:

Thanks for this info. It is very helpful for some things that we are working on right now. I do one follow-up question, though. I don't understand the explanation for the accumulate=true attribute. I'm not sure what you mean by "taking into account any other changes within the span." Can you provide a example to clarify?

Thanks,

-- andy --

[Dan Korn]

Originally Posted by AndyShaw

I don't understand the explanation for the accumulate=true attribute. I'm not sure what you mean by "taking into account any other changes within the span." Can you provide a example to clarify?

This example should illustrate the effect of the "accumulate" attribute:

return "Accumulate off:<t><span color=Red>Hi<color name=Green> there!</span> After span<br>\n" +
    "Accumulate ON:<t><span color=Red accumulate=true>Hi<color name=Green> there!</span> After span";

[biggestbossfan]

Hi,

I have a business card which includes name and qualification.

If the qualification is not present, just the name will be shown.
The name and qualification need to be indifferent colours.
This appears to be a job for <span>
I have the following:

if (Field("Qualification 1").length < 0)
return < color name ="pantone 335 C"><span> Field("First name") +" " +Field("Last name");</span>
else
return <color name = "pantone 335C"> <span> Field("First name") + " " + Field("Last name")</span>+ "\n" <color name = "grey"> <span>+Field("Qualification 1")+" " + Field("Qualification 2")</span>;

Which clearly doesn't work.

Any pointers would be gratefully accepted.

[step]

Your syntax is a little off. You need quotes around your tags and you're missing a couple of plus signs. And if you want to simplify a few things, you can just use the color tags, you don't need the span tags as well:

var result = '<color name ="pantone 335 C">' + Field("First name") + " " + Field("Last name") + '</color>';
result += (Field("Qualification 1") != "") ? '\n <color name = "grey">' + Field("Qualification 1") + " " + Field("Qualification 2") + '</color>' : "";
return result;

[biggestbossfan]

Thanks for this. I think I'm missing something though.
I get this returned:
<color name ="pantone 335 C">Bruce Springsteen</color> <color name = "pantone 430 C">BSc Bcom</color>

[step]

make sure you have "treat returned string as tagged text" checked.