Block basics
A block is identified by a given name and can take any number of user-defined attributes, which act as variables within the block code.
The basic syntax of <block>
is very
straightforward.
Here is the example above written as a <block>
statement:
<block name="block_test" col="store" value="1"> <sel value="{@col}={@value}"/> </block>
The general idea for the above statement is to wrap the original selection statement in opening
and closing <block>
tags. Once a <block>
has been
created, it must be given a name so it can be referenced in the future by other pieces of Macro
Language code. name
is the only required attribute for a
<block>
statement. All other attributes are simply user-defined variables
that can be inserted into statements within a block. These variables are defined in the following
way:
<block name="[BLOCK_NAME]" [VAR_1]="" [VAR_2]="">
In the above line of code, the new block is given a name and two variables are defined (but have not been assigned a value).
Now that the variables are defined, they're inserted into a regular Macro Language expression as scalar values via the following syntax:
{@var1}
This syntax takes user-defined variables from an opening <block>
tag and
inserts them into Macro Language expressions. This process, which results in our original
expression, is called expanding the block. You can see exactly how your
<block>
code will expand by selecting in Macro Language Workshop.
The following is the block example above in Macro Language Workshop:
Click <block>
and inserts
parameterized values into the statement, as shown below: