Variables Defined by the dtml-in Tag

When text is inserted using an dtml-in tag, a copy of the text is inserted for each item in the sequence. Tags in the inserted text have access to variables not available outside the dtml-in tag. These include:

• Attributes of the current item,
• Item variables defined by the dtml-in tag (table 19),
• Summary statistic variables defined by the dtml-in tag (table 19),
• Grouping variables defined by the dtml-in tag (table 21), and
• Batch-processing variables defined by the dtml-in tag (table 22).

In addition, for each of the variables listed in tables 19, 22, and 23 with names ending in "-index", there exist variables whose names end in "-number", "-roman", "-Roman", "-letter", and "-Letter" which are indexed from 1, "i","I", "a", and "A", respectively. The sequence-index variable is used to number items as text is inserted. Variables like sequence-letter and sequence-roman provide numbering using letters and Roman numerals.

There also exist variables ending in "-even" and "-odd", which test whether the sequence index is even or odd. This is useful to display rows more visibly by alternating colors.

Finally, for each of the variables ending in "-index", there are variables whose names end in "-var-xxx", where "xxx" is an element attribute name or key. This is useful when displaying previous- and next-batch information. The construct is also useful if used in an dtml-if tag to test whether or not an attribute is present since the attribute lookup will not be extended to the full document template name space.