Inline HTML

corblimey

I'm in the middle of an horrific project where I'm redesigning a classic ASP website without touching the code, ie sticking to relocating and streamling the HTML only. The previous developer just mixed up ASP code and HTML as needed, so there's a lot of code like this

<tr><td>
<% if x=1 then %>
hello</td></tr>
<%
else
  p = p+1
end if%>
<%=p%>
</td></tr>

It's pretty ugly and often impossible to find where an IF...END IF starts and ends, while making sure inline <TABLE>s etc keep their context aswell. I started indenting everything to try and get some order, but sometimes that looks worse:

<tr>
  <td>
<% 
if x=1 then
%>
    hello
  </td>
</tr>
<%
else
  p = p+1
end if%>
    <%=p%>
  </td>
</tr>

I just can't seem to get any sort of order and was wondering what other people do with code like this, where the HTML is intertwined.

tricky D

Would colour coding be of any help? NotePad++ treats the delimiters in yellow and code with some bold and some coloured.

corblimey

We use VS which has some basic colour coding with ASP files, but to be honest, most of the problems occur when you pull out a load of code, but accidentally leave behind a </table> or a </div> and the whole page gets messed up. With indenting, it's easy to see where a section begins and ends. but then do you indent everything according to the HTML or to the ASP?

Giblet

Yes there are templates and view engines which encourage this type of coding. Usually you make sure that it's only used for presentation logic though, I would't be setting variables, only reading.

MargeS

This is how I used to write my classic ASP about 10 years ago.
You're only option really is to use VS, go through it line by line & move your codebehind and use asp controls.

Malice

In addition to the syntax highlighting that Tricky D mentioned, NotePad++ uses a plugin called HTML Tidy which might be some help. I use to reformat browser output from the View Source command occasionally. I can't remember if it supports script though. It might not.

stevenmu

VS also has a "Format Document" option which can sometimes work wonders. Not sure how it stacks up against HTML Tidy but worth a go.

Malice

stevenmu wrote: »

VS also has a "Format Document" option which can sometimes work wonders. Not sure how it stacks up against HTML Tidy but worth a go.

Good point. I find the Visual Studio IDE awkward to just create a simple file though. You hit Ctrl+N and then you've got to select the file you want. With NotePad++ Ctrl+N gets you a new blank document which you can start working with straight away.

stevenmu

Good point, Visual Studio can be overkill if you're just making little change to lots of files, and notepad++ is nice for that.