This topic came up from a cf-newbie discussion this weekend, but did you know that cfpresentation can be used to create HTML presentations? The reference is a bit confusing on the matter. If you look at the docs for the format attribute, it says this:
Specifies the file format for conversion:
- ppt
converts html input provided in cfpresentationslide to a PowerPoint file.- html
converts ppt to an HTML presentation.
The implication being that you can use the tag just to convert a Powerpoint file into HTML. You can do that. But you can also create ad-hoc presentations and feed them right into html. So an example:
<cfpresentation title="Ray's Presentation" format="html" destination="#dest#" overwrite="true"> <cfpresentationslide title="Slide One"> This is my first slide. Epic. </cfpresentationslide> <cfpresentationslide title="Slide Two"> This is my second slide. Epic. </cfpresentationslide> <cfpresentationslide title="Slide Three"> This is my third slide. Epic. </cfpresentationslide> </cfpresentation> Done.<cfset dest = expandPath("./mypreso")> <cfif not directoryExists(dest)> <cfset directoryCreate(dest)> </cfif>
In this code template, I'm saving the presentation to a directory. You don't have to do that. If you leave off the destination it will render in the browser. I've added "Done" to the end of the script just so I know, well, when the CFM is done. I've got three simple slides. Once done, the output is saved to a folder:
The result is a HTML/JavaScript slide viewer. I'll be honest. It isn't... stellar. You can view this yourself here: http://www.coldfusionjedi.com/demos/aug82011/mypreso2/
Sexy, right? Ok, maybe not. But for a quick and dirty result, it's better than nothing. Be careful with it. I tried embedding a PNG chart and while it worked locally, it wasn't available when pushed to production.