matrixdef File Syntax
The file matrixdef defines the Matrix customization web interface, specifically the form fields that appear, their possible values, and the HTML surrounding and formatting them. It currently allows for sections, labels, check boxes, radio buttons, and text fields, and is broken up into sections, each of which corresponds to a different sub-page of our multi-page questionnaire.
The file consists of a series of form-field declarations, separated by blank lines. The syntax of a form-field definition in matrixdef is as follows:
Keyword Variable-Name "Friendly-Name" ["HTML-before" "HTML-after" [Width]]
Keyword is one of { Section, Label, Check, Radio, Text, TextArea }
Variable is the name of the form field, consisting of alphanumeric characters, _, and -. Generally, variable names should consist of English words or abbreviations separated by -. Iterable choices are separated by _. Thus, variable names are described the the following regular expression: ([-a-zA-Z]+[0-9]+_)*[-a-zA-Z]+
Friendly-Name is an English-language name for the form field that will appear in the main page of the questionnaire
HTML-before is the HTML that will appear before the form field
HTML-after is the HTML that will appear after the form field
Width is the width, in characters, of a text field
The last three parts of a form field definition are irrelevant for keywords Section and Label, and the last, Width, is only relevant only the Text keyword. Irrelevant parts of a definition are ignored.
Radio buttons have additional syntax associated with them. Whereas the other form field definitions consist of single lines separated by blank lines, radio button definitions consist of multiple lines: the first defines the name of the radio button group and the subsequent lines define the radio buttons and the values associated with them. A sample radio button definition appears below:
Radio neg-infl-type "Negative inflection type" "On: " ""
aux "Auxiliaries only" "" "auxiliaries only "
main "Main verbs only" "" "main verbs only "
aux-main "Main or auxiliary verbs" "" "any finite verb (main or auxiliary)<br>"
Notice that the radio button lines have a keyword of ".". This is a placeholder that keeps the number of parts in all definitions consistent. The definition above produces the following HTML:
On:
<input type="radio" name="neg-infl-type" value="aux">auxiliaries only
<input type="radio" name="neg-infl-type" value="main">main verbs only
<input type="radio" name="neg-infl-type" value="aux-main">any finite verb (main or auxiliary)<br>
Select (which creates drop-downs) may also have additional syntax. A 'select' line may be followed by one or more lines specifying the values in the drop-down. These values can be defined overtly as radio button values are defined above. Alternatively, or in addition, select lines may be followed by 'fill' statements that can take zero or more arguments, e.g., fillregex p=number[0-9]+_name n=1, where the arguments in this example are p=pattern and n=1. Possible arguments are defined in deffile.py.
fill commands
The possible fill commands are as follows:
fillregex p=REGEXPATTERN (n=1)
Searches item on current page matching the regular expression REGEXPATTERN. If n=1 is given, only the variable name will be displayed, rather than "variable (friendly)" names
fillnames c=CATEGORY
Fill with feature names from CATEGORY
fillvalues p=PATTERN (l=1)
Fill with values from PATTERN. If l=1 is given, PATTERN is just a feature name. Otherwise it is a key specifying an element on the page
fillverbpat
(No arguments) Fill with verb patterns (currently "intransitive" and "transitive")
fillnumbers
(No arguments) Fill with the number features
fillcache c=CACHENAME
Fill with items in the cache CACHENAME. The cache is created with a Cache command (see below)
Choice Caching
A questionnaire page does not have direct access to the choices file or other questionnaire subpages, so if you need values from other pages you can use a Cache command to store them in a Javascript array.
Cache CACHENAME REGEXPATTERN DISPLAYSUBKEY
The Javascript variable will be called CACHENAME, and will include any items matching REGEXPATTERN. This regular expression must match the beginning of the choice key, but is not required to match the end of the key. Thus, if you want to get non-terminal choices (e.g. noun1, but not noun1_name, noun1_feat1_name, etc), use a $ at the end of the pattern. DISPLAYSUBKEY, if provided, is used to get the choice value displayed in the questionnaire. For instance, if you want to cache all nouns, but want them to be displayed by their name, use the following:
Cache nouns noun[0-9]+$ name