Image File References in Templates

[TheSmitchell]

As per a suggestion from Michael Cornford, I replaced a grid with a template today. I just wanted to throw this out here in case anyone else has experience with Image File Reference Fields & Templates.

My Project - aka, the office - is image oriented. http://www.artformhomeplans.com is a site for marketing/selling home designs to people who are building houses. There is a lot of information that needs to be communicated about a plan - size, layout, expandability, etc. Until the future arrives, the best way to communicate this information is with pictures. Warning to the curious: artform is a version 11 application - still. I am currently porting to 12. And after the conference, part of my process is going to include replacing a lot of what you can see with templates because this site runs very slowly and I am not very good at optimizing. I am good, however, at debugging code. So do continue to throw those on the message board.

SO, I took the little, what I call, 3-card grid on our home page and replaced with a template. And, I must say, replacing a grid with a template is pretty much unicorns, rainbows, ice cream, cake, and tacos.

newShowcase.png

Back to the images part, I haven't seen anyone mention how to handle image file reference fields in a template. This is how I handled it (this, btw, is ALL of the code I had to write):

<%a5

dim sql as c =<<%sql%
PRETEND THERE IS A SQL QUERY HERE
Omitted for reasons
%sql%

dim cn as sql::Connection
if (cn.open("::Name::conn") = .f.) then
        'my project-specific error handling stuff
	end
end if

if (cn.execute(sql) = .f.) then
        'my project-specific error handling stuff
	cn.close();
	end
end if

dim tmpl as p
tmpl.request = request
tmpl.session = session 
tmpl.serversetting = serversetting

dim template as c = <<%html%
<div class="showcase">
  <div class="title">{ds.data("TITLE")}</div>
  <div class="image"><a href="Plan.a5w?Plan_Name={ds.data("URL_NAME")}"><img src="{a5w_Decode_IFR(tmpl, ds.data("IMAGE"), "[PlanImages]")}"/></a></div>
  <div class="blurb">{ds.data("BLURB")}</div>
</div>
%html%

dim rs as sql::ResultSet
rs = cn.ResultSet

result = a5_mergedataintotemplate(template,rs)
cn.close()

?result
%>

I used a5w_Decod_IFR for my image file reference fields. If anyone else has worked with IFRs in a template, I'd like to hear how you handled them.
---
Sarah