Chapter 1:  Introduction

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This document is the reference guide for CML, the Caucus Markup Language.  CML is a scripting language that combines HTML tags with simple programming constructs and database functions.  The CML language interpreter is the core of the World Wide Web interface to the Caucus conferencing system (hence the name).

This guide assumes considerable familiarity with HTML, the World Wide Web, Web browsers, and the Caucus conferencing system.  For more information about Caucus, see the CaucusCare home page at http://caucuscare.com.

This document is copyright © 1996-2005 by CaucusCare.  This is a work-in-progress, and will be frequently revised.  This edition corresponds to the CML interpreter provided with the "Caucus 4.6" package.  Corrections and comments (but not questions) should be sent to the author at roth@caucuscare.com.

New features and functions in 4.6

	$addtarget	Add TARGET field to <A HREF...> tags when necessary
	Auth3Tag	swebd.conf parameter for external authentication
	$encode64	Encodes a file into base64
	$h2url	Translates plain URLs in HTML text to <A HREF...> links
	$it_cnums	List of conferences user is member of
	$it_hidden	Is item hidden?
	$mkdir	Create a directory
	$peo_access	List of userids that access a conference with specified priv
	$set_it_hidden	Hide (unhide) an item
	$sql_query_open	Many new SQL query functions
	$sql_query_select	Evaluate SQL SELECT query
	$str_replace	Search and replace strings
	$unhtml	Remove HTML tags from string

New features and functions in 4.4

	$exists	Does a file exist?
	$auth_cookie	Generate cookies for user authentication
	$auth_pw	Save/fetch user's password for single-signon
	$auth_method	Which authentication method is in use?
	$url_decode	Decode url-encoded text
	$request_uri	Current page url (after hostname)
	$pw_methods	available password authentication methods
	$pw_source	password authentication source for current user
	$sleep	sleep for N seconds
	$escsingle	escape single quotes in text

New features and functions in 4.3

	$includecml	"include" (parse) a CML file in a function evaluation.
	Array manipulation	A variety of array functions.
	Real numbers	math functions handle real numbers.
	$quotient	real number division
	$round	rounding real numbers
	$in_group	Is a user in a group? With what permissions?
	$groupperm	Map permission names to numeric values
	$pw_can_reset	Can passwords be reset?
	$pw_change	Change: $pw_change() can "reset" passwords.

New features and functions in 4.21

	$chg_author	change author (owner) of an item or response
	$config	Value of Config parameters in swebd.conf
	$set_per_name	All 4 $set_per... functions may now be used by current user
	$http_referer	Referer to this & 1st caucus page
	$http_accept	HTTP data type 'accept' string
	$dst	Daylight Savings Time in effect?

New features and functions in 4.11

	$lines	extract lines from string
	$eval	evaluate contents and throw them away

New features and functions in 4.10

	$cache_clear	Clears (conference) cache
	$cache_timeout	Set maximum age of (conference) cache
	$char	Convert decimal value to character
	$charval	Value of a character in a string (previously undocumented)
	$cl_access	(Added new optional argument)
	$co_name	name of conference
	Continue directive	Start next iteration in for/while/count loop
	Copy directive	Equivalent to Set, but preserves leading blanks
	$copyfile	copy a file from one place to another
	$create_conf	extended to add userlist argument
	$deldir	Delete a directory (and all subdirectories)
	$errors	display accumulated error messages
	$http_remote_user	access authorization userid
	$it_pack	pack an item triplet list as "english"
	$it_lastresp	Last (undeleted) response in item
	$is_num	position of 1st non-numeric char (previously undocumented)
	$lice_confs	Maximum number of conferences allowed by license
	$lice_customer	License customer number
	$list_conf_var	list conference variables
	$list_item_var	list item variables
	$list_site_var	list site variables
	$list_user_var	list user variables
	$lock	Cooperative advisory locking mechanism
	$numeric	Is a word a number?
	$pagetime	Value of PageTime parameter in swebd.conf
	$page_flush	Flush buffered page output
	$readterm	read a line from user's terminal (sweba only)
	$reloaded	Was this page just reloaded?
	$set_per_intro	Change a person's brief introduction
	$set_per_join	Make a person a member of a conference
	$set_per_name	Change a person's name
	$set_per_phone	Change a person's telephone number
	$strlen	length of a string
	$timeout	Set new value of Timeout parameter
	$unlock	unlock locks granted by $lock()
	$variables	display names and values of all variables
	$weekday	day # of week
	$words	Subset of words in a string
	$wordpos	Character position of a word in a string

What's new in Caucus 4.1

First of all, if you are upgrading from version 3.x of Caucus, first see What's new in Caucus 4.0.  The rest of this page describes changes since version 4.0.

In some special cirumstances, CML variable names containing a dot (".") may not be interpreted correctly.  If at all possible, please avoid the use of CML variables containing a dot.