Properties of the Plain Vanilla Player

This data structure has the purpose of providing a list of properties robust enough to produce a wide variety of complex documents. It also has a second and possibly more important purpose and that is to provide the bridge between complex algorithmic processing on a server and potentially highly customized and tedious report generation (read "tinkering") at the client end. It is possible that the Plain Vanilla Player will work on the client machine while complex processing occurs on a server. That will make it possible to charge a substantial fee for the work that only we (our black box) can do while charging only a one time fee (with upgrades) for the time consuming customization that our customers will want to do.

This page describes our data structure and definitions important to the data structure.

1. PVP - did mean "Property Value Pair" (vector of pairs or 2 column matrix), for us it means Plain Vanilla Player
2. PVM - Property Value Pairs arranged as a 2 column matrix (the kind we use)
3. M1M - a PVM with a specific set of properties
4. M3M - a vector of M1M's, capable of being source data for a very complex document
5. MDM - an optional first element of an M3M providing document title, table of contents and perhaps a template

The core element of our data structure is the M1M. You can think of it as a table with all the properties it might need. It is likely to include a table (nested matrix or numeric matrix). It can have accompanying test both above and below it; both can have multiple paragraphs and simple additional tables. There can only be one complex table in an M1M because many of the properties only make sense in relation to one table.

Here are the properties of an M1M (in order of frequency of use). For a more complete description of the PVP/PVM/M1M/M3M data structure, see M1M, M3M and RenderedSize.

tXT	pvTXT	text	text to be printed before the table
M	pvM	data	the data matrix to be presented in a table
lL	pvRT	rowtitles	titles for each row of the data matrix
lC	pvCT	coltitles	titles for each column of the data matrix
tIT3	pvTTL3	title	report title, displayed top center before the table
hDR3	pvHDR3		section title to be placed before text in html "H3" style
gPS	pvGPS	rowgroups	vector to group the data matrix rows
lN	pvGH	rowgrouptitles	headings for horizontal groups identified by pvGPS
lCHL	pvCTLVL	coltitlelevels	level for column headings (if not all same level)
TTL	pvTTL	toprighttitle	title to put in upper right corner of every page (the project title)
tblMV	pvTBLV		miscellaneous vector of programmer defined table parameters
fM	pvFMV		programmer defined parameters for printing reports
dTS	pvDTS	datetimestamp	date time stamp for when the M3M var was produced
rTTL	pvRTTL	documenttitle	title for the entire document (all pages), not same as pvTTL (the project title)
qkStr	pvSTR	docstructure	document structure, provides special handling features beyond those of the gallery
tIT4	pvTTL4	subtitle	title to put under pvTTL3
tIT7	pvTTL7	titlenote	title to put under pvTTL4 (not emphasized)
tIT8	pvTTL8	cornertitle	title to put in corner over row titles and left of column titles
bTOT	pvBTOT	coltotals	boolean: 1=show column totals; 0=blank column totals as they are meaningless
fDV	pvFLDP	fieldchars	field characteristics: width, decimals, datatype, justification, etc
vCOM	pvVCOM		variables common to all elements of M3M
iCON	pvICON		logo, or other image(s) for the document or form
cTIT	pvCTTL	toplefttitle	title for top left of every page: time stamp, file used, calling WS/FN
hDR4	pvHDR4		section title to be placed before text in html "H4" style
tXTB	pvTXTB	textafter	text to be printed after the table
cREDIT	pvCRDT	authorcredit	literal vector for credit line (bottom left of every page) ("botlefttitle")
iNPNM	pvVAR	varname	name of the global array used to define the data matrix to be displayed in a table
iMAP	pvIMAP		map to guide use of this var, iMAP = incoming map for grid (by row/col range or by cell)
iMAPC	pvIMAC		map to guide use of this var, "iMAP" = "incoming map" for grid (by cell)
gGPS	pvGGPS
gGPS2	pvGPS2
mD	pvMMO	memocells	data cells to be displayed freely between rowtitles and the data matrix
cENH	pvCENH	cellenhance	grid control properties for individual cells
formMV	pvFRMV
tOT	pvRTOT	rowtotals	actual data values to be placed in row totals at left (if not want plus summation)
tTL	pvTTL	toprighttitle	title to put in upper right corner of the page (the project title)
FM	pvFMV		programmer defined parameters for printing reports
PROPT	pvPRPT		codes to identify standard acceptable manipulations for input arrays
VINIT	pvINIT		function or executable character string to initialize the data matrix
BTOT	pvBTOT	coltotals	boolean: 1=show column totals; 0=blank column totals as they are meaningless
TOT	pvRTOT	rowtotals	actual data values to be placed in row totals at left
bRTIT	pvBRTTL	botrighttitle	title to put in bottom right corner of every page
	pvXLBL
	pvYLBL
	pvLGND
	pvXTCK
	pvYTCK