Embedded HTML

Embedded HTML (EHTML) enables you to output HTML directly from a COBOL CGI program.

Using EHTML, you can output HTML statements, complete or partial HTML pages, or a combination of both, without including any special data declarations. This provides tremendous flexibility in that it enables you to customize the HTML output generated by your programs.

To achieve customized HTML output, you embed HTML statements or references to one or more copybooks that contain HTML into a COBOL program using the EXEC HTML statement. This is translated by the EHTML preprocessor, htmlpp, which outputs your HTML statements directly to the Web server that initiated your COBOL CGI program.

You can also pass variable data from your COBOL program directly into the HTML output by coding substitution markers into your embedded HTML.