OLS Message Entry

What you see in the OLS edit window may be this:

This equation is a quadratic equation.

What will be STORED in the OLS database, in the Message table, in a text field (column) is

This equation is a <b><i>quadratic</i></b> equation.

So any workaround that we can perform has to take advantage of the fact that what is being stored CAN BE HTML. Can we force the HTML to do what we need to do, with minimal fuss? Let's suppose you somehow see this in your OLS Edit Window:

is a quadratic equation.

The equation itself is a Microsoft EquationTM  object and can only be there in a text window by virtue of having HTML code that is loading that GIF image. Where is that image stored? This is like a shell game!

What will be stored is something like this:

<img src="img_002.gif"> is a quadratic equation. (1)

or

<img src="file:\\\c:\Mydocument_files\img_002.gif"> is a quadratic equation. (2)

The first of these, (1), will tell the browser, eventually, to look on the OLS server in its current directory for this file - a file you have not uploaded TO the server. That will fail.

The second (2) will render while you edit, leaving you with the false impression that it will "work." However, at the moment you are entering that, the image is being loaded from your computer (notice the backslashes), where it exists.  When anyone ELSE views that message,  it will attempt to find that image on the OLS server, where it does not exist.

Unfortunately we cannot type HTML directly into the OLS Edit Window.  Remember that the OLS Edit window is an interface, and whatever you type, it will translate THAT into HTML for you.  If you type

<img src="myFile.gif"> , then what will be stored is

&lt;img src=&quot;myFile.gif&quot;&gt;

since that is a translation of what you typed into HTML. For example, "&lt;" is HTML code for "<"  and "&quot;" is the HTML code to render the double quotes mark.

The facts then are:

  1. We can only store HTML on the server
  2. We are not allowed to store images on the OLS server
  3. We cannot store both text and images in the same field (column) in the Messages Table.
  4. We are not allowed to enter an HTML view of the message in order to paste raw HTML into the message properly.
  5. We cannot type HTML into the OLS Edit Window. The browser will ONLY display the code - it will not render it into formatted text.