1 Introduction
2 ------------
3
4 XSLTools is a collection of modules and packages facilitating the development
5 of applications based on XML, XSL stylesheets and transformations, notably Web
6 applications involving complicated Web forms potentially consisting of
7 editable hierarchical structures and potentially involving "live" or "in-page"
8 dynamic updates to portions of those Web forms.
9
10 Quick Start
11 -----------
12
13 Try running the demo:
14
15 python tools/demo.py
16
17 An introductory guide to creating applications can be found in the docs
18 directory - see docs/index.html for the start page.
19
20 Contact, Copyright and Licence Information
21 ------------------------------------------
22
23 The current Web page for XSLTools at the time of release is:
24
25 http://www.boddie.org.uk/python/XSLTools.html
26
27 Copyright and licence information can be found in the docs directory - see
28 docs/COPYING.txt, docs/lgpl-3.0.txt, docs/gpl-3.0.txt,
29 docs/LICENCE-Sarissa-lgpl.txt and docs/LICENCE-Sarissa-gpl.txt for more
30 information.
31
32 Dependencies
33 ------------
34
35 XSLTools has the following basic dependencies:
36
37 Packages Release Information
38 -------- -------------------
39
40 libxml2dom 0.4.3
41 libxml2 and libxslt Some combinations may not be reliable!
42 Tested with libxml2 2.6.17 and libxslt 1.1.12
43 Tested with libxml2 2.6.27 and libxslt 1.1.20
44 libxslt 1.1.17 should be avoided
45
46 The example Web applications require WebStack (release 1.2.3 or later).
47 The example PyQt applications have been tested with PyQt 3.15.
48
49 New in XSLTools 0.4.7 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.6)
50 ----------------------------------------------------
51
52 * Added Ubuntu Feisty (7.04) package support.
53 * Tidied the documentation HTML.
54
55 New in XSLTools 0.4.6 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.5)
56 ----------------------------------------------------
57
58 * Improved the Login module, enabling the VerySimpleWithLogin example for
59 various frameworks.
60 * Relicensed under the LGPL version 3 or later.
61 * Upgraded to Sarissa 0.9.7.8 (compatible with LGPL/GPL version 3), removing
62 a test around DOMParser so that Konqueror 3.4.0 is still supported.
63
64 New in XSLTools 0.4.5 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.4)
65 ----------------------------------------------------
66
67 * Fixed the result of transformations in XSLOutput: proper document nodes
68 are now produced.
69 * Added an XSLForms.Resources.Login module which provides resources to
70 support login screens and redirects.
71 * Fixed newlines in the attributes created from fields in XSLForms: CR
72 characters are no longer included since this caused the doubling up of
73 newlines in Firefox.
74
75 New in XSLTools 0.4.4 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.3)
76 ----------------------------------------------------
77
78 * Fixed translation selection for the template:i18n annotation attribute,
79 not just for the template:i18n extension function - more apologies for
80 resulting output changes!
81 * Improved the template fixing stylesheet and added some documentation for
82 the script and the related expr-prefix attribute.
83 * Introduced WebStack 1.2.2 EncodingSelector and encoding changes.
84 * Added docstring and return value for the write_month_to_document function
85 in XSLTools.XMLCalendar.
86
87 New in XSLTools 0.4.3 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.2)
88 ----------------------------------------------------
89
90 * Fixed translation selection when an unsupported locale is specified,
91 choosing the first locale as the default (rather than exposing the values
92 themselves as translations). Note that this is an unfortunate and subtle
93 change which may affect application output - apologies are hereby offered!
94
95 New in XSLTools 0.4.2 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.1)
96 ----------------------------------------------------
97
98 * Added a content type check in the XSLFormsResource class, permitting
99 non-form-based resources to access the raw request data, rather than have
100 the data processed unsuccessfully and consequently discarded.
101 * Added a script and a function to fix template namespaces after editing in
102 a careless editor.
103 * Changed libxml2mod and libxsltmod import details to try libxmlmods -
104 suggested by Lucian Wischik for libxml2dom.
105
106 New in XSLTools 0.4.1 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4)
107 --------------------------------------------------
108
109 * Made translations specified using the template:i18n annotation take
110 priority over template:value annotations.
111 * Added expression-based template:i18n annotations, and provided fallback
112 output for such translations based on the value of the evaluated
113 expression.
114
115 New in XSLTools 0.4 (Changes since XSLTools 0.3.1)
116 --------------------------------------------------
117
118 * Changed the preparation of templates to produce rule-based output
119 stylesheets, thus permitting recursive templates. This requires an extra
120 expr-prefix annotation to be used in certain kinds of templates.
121 * Added a recursive template example application.
122 * Changed fragment production to use original template documents instead of
123 output stylesheets.
124 * Changed the in_page_resources attribute to provide the output identifier,
125 thus changing the prepare_fragment method in Web resources so that only
126 the fragment identifier needs to be supplied.
127 * Added the XSLForms.Resources.WebResources.prepare_resources method for the
128 preparation of initialiser and output stylesheets before an application is
129 run.
130 * Changed selectors to not automatically create elements in the form data
131 document unless requested to do so. Introduced a Form.get_selector
132 method in XSLForms.Fields.
133 * Permitted the creation of hierarchies of elements in
134 XSLForms.Utils.add_elements.
135 * Introduced dynamic parameter evaluation for multiple-choice fields in
136 order to support sources of multiple-choice values which reside in the
137 form data document itself.
138 * Added the FixNamespace.xsl stylesheet to correct documents saved by HTML
139 editors which strip namespace prefixes.
140 * Fixed filesystem encoding issues in the Candidate example; fixed language
141 preference access in the Configurator and VerySimple examples.
142 * Changed the BaseHTTPRequestHandler version of the Candidate example to
143 store data in a subdirectory of the current working directory, thus
144 allowing the demonstration application to work after package installation.
145
146 New in XSLTools 0.3.1 (Changes since XSLTools 0.3)
147 --------------------------------------------------
148
149 * Fixed copyright and licensing information.
150
151 New in XSLTools 0.3 (Changes since XSLTools 0.2)
152 ------------------------------------------------
153
154 * Introduced copying of multiple-choice value element contents so that
155 option element labels can differ from the underlying values.
156 * Added internationalisation support, providing the template:i18n annotation
157 and the template:i18n extension function.
158 * Updated the documentation to cover the above new features.
159 * Fixed non-GET/POST request method handling in WebResources.
160 * Added the xslform_preparemacro.py script.
161 * Added an experimental template:range extension function.
162
163 New in XSLTools 0.2 (Changes since XSLTools 0.1)
164 ------------------------------------------------
165
166 * Made a new XSLTools package and moved XSLOutput into it.
167 * Improved serialisation of transformation results so that output options
168 are observed (in some cases, at least).
169 * Fixed stylesheet and reference document paths so that libxslt should not
170 now become confused by ambiguous relative paths.
171 * Added expression parameters to XSLOutput.Processor so that in-document
172 data can be used to, for example, initialise multiple-choice field values.
173 * Added input/initialiser support so that input documents can be tidied or
174 initialised using information from the template.
175 * Added template:init for use with template:element in XSLForms to control
176 element initialisation where necessary.
177 * Added special high-level "macro" attributes (eg. template:attribute-field)
178 which should make templates easier to write and maintain.
179 * Added template:if to XSLForms, providing conditional output of annotated
180 elements.
181 * Added set_document to XSLForms.Fields.Form.
182 * Added prepare_parameters to the XSLFormsResource class in the
183 XSLForms.Resources.WebResources module.
184 * Added element-path, url-encode and choice XSLForms extension functions.
185 * Improved Unicode support in the XSLForms extension functions.
186 * Changed in-page requests to contain proper POST data.
187 * Fixed checkbox and radiobutton value detection in XSLForms.js.
188 * Updated the code to work with WebStack 1.0 changes and adopted the
189 new-style WebStack demonstration mechanism.
190 * Added XMLCalendar and XMLTable (to the XSLTools package).
191 * Added a dictionary (or word lookup) example application.
192 * Added a job candidate profile (or CV editor) example application.
193 * Added a template attribute reference and an XSLFormsResource guide to the
194 documentation.
195 * Added Debian package support (specifically Ubuntu package support).
196 * Added missing COPYING.txt file.
197 * Renamed the scripts to avoid naming issues in system-wide installations.
198 * Added a PyQt example based on the system configurator example, with the
199 form prepared in Qt Designer. This example runs in PyQt and in a Web
200 environment without any changes to the application code. In-page updates
201 are currently not implemented in the Web version, however.
202
203 Notes on In-Page Update Functionality
204 -------------------------------------
205
206 Special note #1: Konqueror seems in certain cases to remember replaced form
207 content (when replaceChild is used to replace regions of the page which
208 include form elements). This causes the browser to believe that more form
209 fields exist on the page than actually do so, and subsequent form submissions
210 thus include the values of such removed fields. A special hack is in place to
211 disable form fields by changing their names, thus causing Konqueror to not
212 associate such fields with the real, active fields; this hack does not seem to
213 cause problems for Mozilla. This needs some investigation to determine in
214 exactly which circumstances the problem arises.
215
216 Special note #2: Konqueror also seems to crash if asked to find elements using
217 an empty 'id' attribute string. This needs some investigation to see if it
218 really is the getElementById call that causes the crash.
219
220 Special note #3: Konqueror's XMLHttpRequest seems to append null characters to
221 the end of field values. Attempting to prune them before the request is sent
222 fails with a function like the following:
223
224 function fixValue(fieldValue) {
225 if (fieldValue.length == 0) {
226 return fieldValue;
227 } else if (fieldValue[fieldValue.length - 1] == '\0') {
228 return fieldValue.substr(0, fieldValue.length - 1);
229 } else {
230 return fieldValue;
231 }
232 }
233
234 This may be because it is the entire message that is terminated with the null
235 character, and that this happens only upon sending the message. Consequently,
236 some frameworks (notably mod_python) do not support in-page functionality when
237 used from Konqueror.
238
239 Various browsers (eg. Mozilla/Firefox, Konqueror) will not allow the
240 XMLHttpRequest in-page updates to function unless the URL used in the
241 requestUpdate JavaScript function is compatible with the URL at which the
242 browser finds the application. Currently, relative URLs are in use to avoid
243 this issue of compatibility, but should an absolute URL be deduced using the
244 WebStack API and then used, it may be possible that the values returned by
245 that API do not match the actual addresses entered into the address bar of the
246 browser.
247
248 To check the behaviour of the applications, it is possible to view the
249 document source of the pages served by applications and to verify that the
250 URLs mentioned in the JavaScript function calls (to 'requestUpdate') either be
251 a relative link or involve a URL similar to that which appears in the
252 browser's address bar. In some environments, the use of 'localhost' addresses
253 often confuses the browser and server; one workaround is to use real host
254 names or addresses instead of 'localhost'.
255
256 Choosing an element-path:
257
258 When specifying the "context" of the in-page update, one must imagine which
259 element the template fragment should operate within. If the template:id
260 attribute marks a particular section, then the element-path should be a path
261 to the applicable context element for that section in the complete template
262 document. Note that if a template:element attribute appears on the same
263 element as the template:id attribute then the element-path should refer to the
264 element specified in the template:element attribute.
265
266 Choosing where to put template:attribute, template:id and id:
267
268 When specifying the extent of a template fragment, one must be sure not to put
269 the template:id attribute on the same element as a template:attribute
270 annotation; otherwise, the generated code will be improperly extracted as a
271 fragment producing two versions of the element - one for when the specified
272 attribute is present, and one for when it is not present. Generally,
273 template:id and id can be placed on the same node, however.
274
275 Stable element ordering and element-path:
276
277 Within the element-path, the numbering of the elements will start at 1.
278 Therefore it is vital to choose a region of the form data structure with the
279 element-path which is isolated from surrounding elements whose positions would
280 otherwise be dependent on a stable ordering of elements, and whose processing
281 would be disrupted if some new elements suddenly appeared claiming the same
282 positions in the document. For example:
283
284 <item value=""> .../item$1/value
285 <type value=""/> .../item$1/type$1/value
286 <comment value=""/> .../item$1/comment$2/value
287 </item>
288
289 In-page update...
290
291 <comment value=""/> .../item$1/comment$1/value
292
293 Notes on XSL
294 ------------
295
296 libxslt seems to be quite liberal on the definition of runtime parameters, in
297 that there is no apparent need to explicitly declare the corresponding global
298 variables in stylesheets. Whilst this is nice, we may eventually need to
299 detect such variables and add them in the preparation process.
300
301 Release Procedures
302 ------------------
303
304 Update the XSLTools/__init__.py and XSLForms/__init__.py __version__
305 attributes.
306 Change the version number and package filename/directory in the documentation.
307 Change code examples in the documentation if appropriate.
308 Update the release notes (see above).
309 Check the setup.py file and ensure that all package directories are mentioned.
310 Check the release information in the PKG-INFO file and in the package
311 changelog (and other files).
312 Tag, export.
313 Generate the example resources.
314 Generate the API documentation.
315 Remove generated .pyc files: rm `find . -name "*.pyc"`
316 Archive, upload.
317 Upload the introductory documentation.
318 Update PyPI, PythonInfo Wiki, Vaults of Parnassus entries.
319
320 Generating the Example Resources
321 --------------------------------
322
323 In order to prepare the example resources, the prepare_demo.py script must be
324 run as follows:
325
326 python tools/prepare_demo.py
327
328 This will ensure that all initialiser and output stylesheets are created and
329 are thus installed by packages.
330
331 Generating the API Documentation
332 --------------------------------
333
334 In order to prepare the API documentation, it is necessary to generate some
335 Web pages from the Python source code. For this, the epydoc application must
336 be available on your system. Then, inside the distribution directory, run the
337 apidocs.sh tool script as follows:
338
339 ./tools/apidocs.sh
340
341 Some warnings may be generated by the script, but the result should be a new
342 apidocs directory within the distribution directory.
343
344 Making Packages
345 ---------------
346
347 To make Debian-based packages:
348
349 1. Create new package directories under packages if necessary.
350 2. Make a symbolic link in the distribution's root directory to keep the
351 Debian tools happy:
352
353 ln -s packages/ubuntu-hoary/python2.4-xsltools/debian/
354
355 3. Run the package builder:
356
357 dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot
358
359 4. Locate and tidy up the packages in the parent directory of the
360 distribution's root directory.