Most of QTool's functionality can be reached through Server Side Includes (SSI). This technique allows you to write an HTML page with your preferred editor. Whenever you want to interface with QTool (e.g., to include a product list) you insert special SSI-directives. Those directives are processed by the web server before the HTML page is sent to the user. Therefore, the user never sees the SSI directives. E.g., the following line within the HTML-document:
<!--#include virtual="/cgi-bin/qtool.cgi?PROFILE=PENCIL&ACTION=INDEX" -->will produce the following list (which reflects the current content of the Pencil product database):
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
QTool generates HTML that is inlined to produce the above list of submitted product profiles. The parameter ACTION=INDEX tells QTool to generate an index. Using a similar technique, QTool can generate a product matrix (ACTION=MATRIX) that gives a nice visual overview in form of a feature matrix. The following line in the HTML-document:
<!--#include virtual="/cgi-bin/qtool.cgi?PROFILE=PENCIL&ACTION=MATRIX&COLS=eraser@sharpener" -->Yields the following matrix that is automatically generated by QTool:
Note that the COLS parameter gives a list of columns to be be displayed. The names Eraser and Sharpener correspond with the question-ids of the schema definition of the pencil questionnaire. The color scheme of the matrix has the following meaning:
Symbol | Category |
---|---|
|
Yes - feature is supported |
|
No - feature is not supported |
|
Planned - support for feature is planned |
|
Unknown |