JAB is a client-side Java application that automates updating a web page using FTP.
Add the text "<!-- jab here -->" to a blank line at the point where you want new entries inserted into your web page. Don't include the quotes.
If you want to use the archive feature, include the text "<!-- jab there -->" on a blank line below the jab here line.
A template is the snippet of HTML code that JAB will insert into your web page after the "jab here" marker. The included file "sampleTemplate.html" is an example for making a template. The following strings in a template file will be replaced with their substitution:
JAB command: | Substitution: |
<$body$> | The text of your entry |
<$date$> | The date the entry is posted |
<$time$> | The time of day the entry is posted |
<$unique$> | A unique string to mark this entry. Think: anchor tag. |
<$username$> | The username used to FTP upload this entry |
<$startdailyblock$> | Marks a portion in the template that will only show up once a day |
<$enddailyblock$> | Ends the daily block. Make sure you include this if you have a startdailyblock command. |
Note: All commands and markers are case-sensitive. Also, the template parser will choke if the first character in a template is $. This would be an easy bug to fix, but it's even easier to include some whitespace at the top of your template for now.
JAB requires all of the following information:
Starting JAB with the "java mawilson.jab.JABSwing" command will open up the settings dialog.
Don't include the quotes, but you already knew that, right?
After making an initialization file, you can start JAB by typing "java JABSwing <path to initialization file>".
Also, to find the full path to your file's directory on a UNIX server, try the command "cwd" at the UNIX prompt.
This function is still very raw and isn't idiot proofed yet. How it works is you choose a line out of your main page somewhere between the "jab here" and "jab there" lines. Also, you'll probably want to choose a line that's the beginning of a particular entry or day. JAB then splits the page into four parts: "jab here" and above, "jab here" to where you split the file, below the split line to "jab there" and everything below "jab there."
Using these parts, JAB constructs two web pages. One web page includes all the entries
above the split line and one page includes everything below the split line. The top entries
return to the main page and the bottom entries are uploaded into a new page in the archive
directory that has the file name "
It's not exactly intuitive, but it works for me. I'm pretty sure the archiver will puke if you feed it a line that isn't between the "here" and "there" markers.