Create a Website using Notenik ↑

12. Create Notenik Merge Templates

Now create a Merge Template for each page layout. These would contain HTML tags, as well as your Merge Commands and Merge Variables. You would create these with your trusty text editor.

Example

The Website starter pack contains three merge templates, and these are representative of ones you would typically create. Two of these are used to display content pages for your two content types, and the remaining one is used to create an include file of teasers.

The HTML commands you see in the template files are pretty basic, and I will not provide any further explanation here.

In addition to the HTML, you will find some Merge commands and Merge variables.

Let me discuss a few examples of each.

Nextrec command

A nextrec command such as the following indicates to Notenik that the lines of code following the command should be generated for each input Note.

<?nextrec?>

Output command

An output command indicates the name and location of the output file which is to receive the following lines of code.

Here is an example:

<?output "../../web/=$title&f$=.html"?>

Title field

Note that the string =$title&f$= represents a merge variable: in this case, the title field. The &f within represents a variable modifier: in this case, a request to modify the title field to make it more web-friendly file name.

Loop command

A loop command must always follow a nextrec command, to indicate the end of the code to be produced repetitively. See below for an example.

<?loop?>

Body field

Here is one more important example of a merge variable with modifiers.

=$body&w1o$=

This will cause the body of the Note to appear within the output page, but it has two important modifiers. The o modifier will convert the Markdown syntax to HTML. The preceding w1 modifier will cause any embedded wiki-style links to be appropriately formatted for inter-page linkage on your website.