Removing <root> entry

[Jeff]

I remember fighting a while back to remove the <root> text from a
dirhtml listing, I spent the better part of an hour pulling my hair
out trying it with the latest release, but can't seem to find it in
the code anywhere. I can remove '&lt;root&gt;' from the Root Anchor
Default words, but then I have an empty table row in the upper left of
the list, no text, but the empty box.
This is a screenshot of the <root> I am trying to get rid of.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h44/trudy_w/Jeff_Storage/dirhtml.png

[dirhtml]

That's a good question.

At one time, clearing the root default word did suppress root anchor
link generation in the anchor table as well in the file table. It
also suppressed /ANCHOR and /ANCHOR_BEFORE and /ANCHOR_TD script
sections for the root anchor.

[dirhtml]

Well, I remember why I did it.

If you have a script with something like this:

/ANCHOR
%%FILEdescription.txt%</td></tr>
<tr class="noborder"><td colspan="%%COLUMNS%" style="background:
#a4997b; color: #595959">
<center>Files: %%ANCHOR_TOTAL_FILES%&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Size: %
%ANCHOR_TOTAL_SIZE%</center>

...and the root anchor is blank, the generated file will have an empty
<td><tr> which looks bad (very bad if there's a background color that
stands out).

I'm not sure of the best way to fix the problem at the moment.

[dirhtml]

In order for /ANCHOR to work the way it was originally intended, it
needs to be able to close out the current anchor <tr><td> and start a
new row. If a root anchor table row/cell is not generated, any script
that closes the anchor row/cell will break html validity. Not a good
result at all.

It's not acceptable for dirhtml to adjust script code in any way.

Here's a sample with no root showing in the anchor table and a bad
looking first row in the file table:
http://dirhtml.home.comcast.net/~dirhtml/no-root-anchor.html

[Jeff]

Would it be possible in the future for the script to use if/else
statements when clearing the default words to get around the td/tr
problem?

[dirhtml]

That solution would work, but it seems wildly complicated to
implement.

In the end, what I will probably do is test for an unmatched </td></
tr> in /ANCHOR sections for blank root anchors only. If it's present,
the table row won't be generated and the first </td></tr> will be
deleted from the script code (just for the root anchor). That would
mean that no scripts would need be changed and no new sections added.

[Jeff]

Sounds good, thanks!

[dirhtml]

Alpha 1 of dirhtml v4.855 is up and seems to be working:
http://dirhtml.home.comcast.net/~dirhtml/dirhtml_v4-855_ALPHA_1.zip

It's a good thing I had multiple levels of indirection in the sample
script. Otherwise, scripts that had something before the first </td></
tr> in an /ANCHOR section would have not worked properly under certain
conditions.

Here is a sample included file in a root folder ("description.txt").
It works with or without a root anchor being generated:
</td></tr>
<tr class="noborder"><td colspan="%%COLUMNS%" class="notes-color">This
is the root folder (blah, blah, blah)

And the script snippet that references the file (which works correctly
whether or not the "description.txt" file exists):

/ANCHOR
%%FILEdescription.txt%</td></tr>
<tr class="noborder"><td colspan="%%COLUMNS%" style="background:

#a4997b; color: #595959 text-align: center">

[dirhtml]

A working example, which no root anchors generated, and an included
file via an /ANCHOR section:

http://dirhtml.home.comcast.net/~dirhtml/no-root-anchor_(working).html

Incidentally, you can ignore the malformed URI references that some
validation engines complain about on that page. They are all for
filenames with chinese, cyrillic or greek characters.

[dirhtml]

On second thought, an opening </td></tr> does not belong in an
included file. It should always be in the script, where it can be
removed if needed.

So, the "description.txt" above should be:

[Jeff]

Downloaded A1 as linked above, it works the way I hoped, thank you.