Making FreeB Formats

From OpenWiki

This is a brief tutorial on how to create new format variations.

The first step is to make a new format variation directory. To do this change to the formats directory,

cd freeb2/local/templates/variations

and then create a new format directory.

mkdir our_new_format

The name of the directory is important because that is the name that will show up within FreeB to choose the format. So this format would be listed in the drop downs as our_new_format.

After the format directory is created you need to create a file with the same name as the directory, except ending in _header.html . If you use the vi editor you would create the file as follows:

cd our_new_format
vi our_new_format_header.html

---

A short tutorial on making a FreeB format!

First you need to understand the concept of templating. After that, using Smarty is really down hill. Generally, lets suppose you have an array of data, something like this:

$patient_first_name = "Fred";
$patient_last_name = "Trotter";
$patient_id = "123456789";
$patient_weight_lbs = "230";
$patient_height_inches = "75";
$patient_dob = "12/01/1975";
$FreeBTemplate = "Claim";

Simple enough, and it is obvious how this might translate into billing data. This is how a FreeB Format that used this data might look:

Super Simple {$FreeBTemplate}:
Patient First Name: {$patient_first_name}
Patient Last Name: {$patient_last_name}
Patient ID: {$patient_id}

That is a super-simple FreeB format. When the format is run, with the variables above, the output would be the following:

Super Simple Claim:
Patient First Name: Fred
Patient Last Name: Trotter
Patient ID: 123456789

Thats the formula for FreeB, template + data = output! Structure the output by modifying the template. When you change the template to something like this:

Two Column {$FreeBTemplate}:
Patient First Name: {$patient_first_name}      Patient Last Name: {$patient_last_name}
Patient DOB: {$patient_dob}                    Patient Soc Sec: {$patient_id}

Then you might get an output like:

Two Column Claim:
Patient First Name: Fred                       Patient Last Name: Trotter
Patient DOB: 12/01/1975                        Patient Soc Sec: 123456789

As you can guess, inside the templates you access data by putting it inside brackets. Ok, now that you understand the general idea of a template, we need to discuss several specific issues. You will want to become familiar with the Smarty engine itself.

Smarty Basic Syntax

These simple examples do not address the hairy problem of spaces and newlines. These are tremendously important, especially for paper forms.

FreeB Formats New Lines and Padding

Now that you know something about formating you will want to know how to access the claim data held in a FreeB Claim.

FreeB Formats Accessing Claim Data

FreeB has very smart functions that help to prevent you from needing to code within your templates. The first such function is a smart is and is_not function.

FreeB Formats is and is_not