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/LICENCE.txt and docs/LICENCE-Sarissa.txt for more
29 information.
30
31 Dependencies
32 ------------
33
34 XSLTools has the following basic dependencies:
35
36 Package Release Information
37 ------- -------------------
38
39 libxml2dom 0.3.3 (0.3.6 recommended)
40 libxml2 Tested with 2.6.17
41 libxslt Tested with 1.1.12
42
43 The example Web applications require WebStack (release 1.2.3 or later).
44 The example PyQt applications have been tested with PyQt 3.15.
45
46 New in XSLTools 0.4.5 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.4)
47 ----------------------------------------------------
48
49 * Fixed the result of transformations in XSLOutput: proper document nodes
50 are now produced.
51 * Added an XSLForms.Resources.Login module which provides resources to
52 support login screens and redirects.
53
54 New in XSLTools 0.4.4 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.3)
55 ----------------------------------------------------
56
57 * Fixed translation selection for the template:i18n annotation attribute,
58 not just for the template:i18n extension function - more apologies for
59 resulting output changes!
60 * Improved the template fixing stylesheet and added some documentation for
61 the script and the related expr-prefix attribute.
62 * Introduced WebStack 1.2.2 EncodingSelector and encoding changes.
63 * Added docstring and return value for the write_month_to_document function
64 in XSLTools.XMLCalendar.
65
66 New in XSLTools 0.4.3 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.2)
67 ----------------------------------------------------
68
69 * Fixed translation selection when an unsupported locale is specified,
70 choosing the first locale as the default (rather than exposing the values
71 themselves as translations). Note that this is an unfortunate and subtle
72 change which may affect application output - apologies are hereby offered!
73
74 New in XSLTools 0.4.2 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.1)
75 ----------------------------------------------------
76
77 * Added a content type check in the XSLFormsResource class, permitting
78 non-form-based resources to access the raw request data, rather than have
79 the data processed unsuccessfully and consequently discarded.
80 * Added a script and a function to fix template namespaces after editing in
81 a careless editor.
82 * Changed libxml2mod and libxsltmod import details to try libxmlmods -
83 suggested by Lucian Wischik for libxml2dom.
84
85 New in XSLTools 0.4.1 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4)
86 --------------------------------------------------
87
88 * Made translations specified using the template:i18n annotation take
89 priority over template:value annotations.
90 * Added expression-based template:i18n annotations, and provided fallback
91 output for such translations based on the value of the evaluated
92 expression.
93
94 New in XSLTools 0.4 (Changes since XSLTools 0.3.1)
95 --------------------------------------------------
96
97 * Changed the preparation of templates to produce rule-based output
98 stylesheets, thus permitting recursive templates. This requires an extra
99 expr-prefix annotation to be used in certain kinds of templates.
100 * Added a recursive template example application.
101 * Changed fragment production to use original template documents instead of
102 output stylesheets.
103 * Changed the in_page_resources attribute to provide the output identifier,
104 thus changing the prepare_fragment method in Web resources so that only
105 the fragment identifier needs to be supplied.
106 * Added the XSLForms.Resources.WebResources.prepare_resources method for the
107 preparation of initialiser and output stylesheets before an application is
108 run.
109 * Changed selectors to not automatically create elements in the form data
110 document unless requested to do so. Introduced a Form.get_selector
111 method in XSLForms.Fields.
112 * Permitted the creation of hierarchies of elements in
113 XSLForms.Utils.add_elements.
114 * Introduced dynamic parameter evaluation for multiple-choice fields in
115 order to support sources of multiple-choice values which reside in the
116 form data document itself.
117 * Added the FixNamespace.xsl stylesheet to correct documents saved by HTML
118 editors which strip namespace prefixes.
119 * Fixed filesystem encoding issues in the Candidate example; fixed language
120 preference access in the Configurator and VerySimple examples.
121 * Changed the BaseHTTPRequestHandler version of the Candidate example to
122 store data in a subdirectory of the current working directory, thus
123 allowing the demonstration application to work after package installation.
124
125 New in XSLTools 0.3.1 (Changes since XSLTools 0.3)
126 --------------------------------------------------
127
128 * Fixed copyright and licensing information.
129
130 New in XSLTools 0.3 (Changes since XSLTools 0.2)
131 ------------------------------------------------
132
133 * Introduced copying of multiple-choice value element contents so that
134 option element labels can differ from the underlying values.
135 * Added internationalisation support, providing the template:i18n annotation
136 and the template:i18n extension function.
137 * Updated the documentation to cover the above new features.
138 * Fixed non-GET/POST request method handling in WebResources.
139 * Added the xslform_preparemacro.py script.
140 * Added an experimental template:range extension function.
141
142 New in XSLTools 0.2 (Changes since XSLTools 0.1)
143 ------------------------------------------------
144
145 * Made a new XSLTools package and moved XSLOutput into it.
146 * Improved serialisation of transformation results so that output options
147 are observed (in some cases, at least).
148 * Fixed stylesheet and reference document paths so that libxslt should not
149 now become confused by ambiguous relative paths.
150 * Added expression parameters to XSLOutput.Processor so that in-document
151 data can be used to, for example, initialise multiple-choice field values.
152 * Added input/initialiser support so that input documents can be tidied or
153 initialised using information from the template.
154 * Added template:init for use with template:element in XSLForms to control
155 element initialisation where necessary.
156 * Added special high-level "macro" attributes (eg. template:attribute-field)
157 which should make templates easier to write and maintain.
158 * Added template:if to XSLForms, providing conditional output of annotated
159 elements.
160 * Added set_document to XSLForms.Fields.Form.
161 * Added prepare_parameters to the XSLFormsResource class in the
162 XSLForms.Resources.WebResources module.
163 * Added element-path, url-encode and choice XSLForms extension functions.
164 * Improved Unicode support in the XSLForms extension functions.
165 * Changed in-page requests to contain proper POST data.
166 * Fixed checkbox and radiobutton value detection in XSLForms.js.
167 * Updated the code to work with WebStack 1.0 changes and adopted the
168 new-style WebStack demonstration mechanism.
169 * Added XMLCalendar and XMLTable (to the XSLTools package).
170 * Added a dictionary (or word lookup) example application.
171 * Added a job candidate profile (or CV editor) example application.
172 * Added a template attribute reference and an XSLFormsResource guide to the
173 documentation.
174 * Added Debian package support (specifically Ubuntu package support).
175 * Added missing COPYING.txt file.
176 * Renamed the scripts to avoid naming issues in system-wide installations.
177 * Added a PyQt example based on the system configurator example, with the
178 form prepared in Qt Designer. This example runs in PyQt and in a Web
179 environment without any changes to the application code. In-page updates
180 are currently not implemented in the Web version, however.
181
182 Notes on In-Page Update Functionality
183 -------------------------------------
184
185 Special note #1: Konqueror seems in certain cases to remember replaced form
186 content (when replaceChild is used to replace regions of the page which
187 include form elements). This causes the browser to believe that more form
188 fields exist on the page than actually do so, and subsequent form submissions
189 thus include the values of such removed fields. A special hack is in place to
190 disable form fields by changing their names, thus causing Konqueror to not
191 associate such fields with the real, active fields; this hack does not seem to
192 cause problems for Mozilla. This needs some investigation to determine in
193 exactly which circumstances the problem arises.
194
195 Special note #2: Konqueror also seems to crash if asked to find elements using
196 an empty 'id' attribute string. This needs some investigation to see if it
197 really is the getElementById call that causes the crash.
198
199 Special note #3: Konqueror's XMLHttpRequest seems to append null characters to
200 the end of field values. Attempting to prune them before the request is sent
201 fails with a function like the following:
202
203 function fixValue(fieldValue) {
204 if (fieldValue.length == 0) {
205 return fieldValue;
206 } else if (fieldValue[fieldValue.length - 1] == '\0') {
207 return fieldValue.substr(0, fieldValue.length - 1);
208 } else {
209 return fieldValue;
210 }
211 }
212
213 This may be because it is the entire message that is terminated with the null
214 character, and that this happens only upon sending the message. Consequently,
215 some frameworks (notably mod_python) do not support in-page functionality when
216 used from Konqueror.
217
218 Various browsers (eg. Mozilla/Firefox, Konqueror) will not allow the
219 XMLHttpRequest in-page updates to function unless the URL used in the
220 requestUpdate JavaScript function is compatible with the URL at which the
221 browser finds the application. Currently, relative URLs are in use to avoid
222 this issue of compatibility, but should an absolute URL be deduced using the
223 WebStack API and then used, it may be possible that the values returned by
224 that API do not match the actual addresses entered into the address bar of the
225 browser.
226
227 To check the behaviour of the applications, it is possible to view the
228 document source of the pages served by applications and to verify that the
229 URLs mentioned in the JavaScript function calls (to 'requestUpdate') either be
230 a relative link or involve a URL similar to that which appears in the
231 browser's address bar. In some environments, the use of 'localhost' addresses
232 often confuses the browser and server; one workaround is to use real host
233 names or addresses instead of 'localhost'.
234
235 Choosing an element-path:
236
237 When specifying the "context" of the in-page update, one must imagine which
238 element the template fragment should operate within. If the template:id
239 attribute marks a particular section, then the element-path should be a path
240 to the applicable context element for that section in the complete template
241 document. Note that if a template:element attribute appears on the same
242 element as the template:id attribute then the element-path should refer to the
243 element specified in the template:element attribute.
244
245 Choosing where to put template:attribute, template:id and id:
246
247 When specifying the extent of a template fragment, one must be sure not to put
248 the template:id attribute on the same element as a template:attribute
249 annotation; otherwise, the generated code will be improperly extracted as a
250 fragment producing two versions of the element - one for when the specified
251 attribute is present, and one for when it is not present. Generally,
252 template:id and id can be placed on the same node, however.
253
254 Stable element ordering and element-path:
255
256 Within the element-path, the numbering of the elements will start at 1.
257 Therefore it is vital to choose a region of the form data structure with the
258 element-path which is isolated from surrounding elements whose positions would
259 otherwise be dependent on a stable ordering of elements, and whose processing
260 would be disrupted if some new elements suddenly appeared claiming the same
261 positions in the document. For example:
262
263 <item value=""> .../item$1/value
264 <type value=""/> .../item$1/type$1/value
265 <comment value=""/> .../item$1/comment$2/value
266 </item>
267
268 In-page update...
269
270 <comment value=""/> .../item$1/comment$1/value
271
272 Notes on XSL
273 ------------
274
275 libxslt seems to be quite liberal on the definition of runtime parameters, in
276 that there is no apparent need to explicitly declare the corresponding global
277 variables in stylesheets. Whilst this is nice, we may eventually need to
278 detect such variables and add them in the preparation process.
279
280 Release Procedures
281 ------------------
282
283 Update the XSLTools/__init__.py and XSLForms/__init__.py __version__
284 attributes.
285 Change the version number and package filename/directory in the documentation.
286 Change code examples in the documentation if appropriate.
287 Update the release notes (see above).
288 Check the setup.py file and ensure that all package directories are mentioned.
289 Check the release information in the PKG-INFO file and in the package
290 changelog (and other files).
291 Tag, export.
292 Generate the example resources.
293 Generate the API documentation.
294 Remove generated .pyc files: rm `find . -name "*.pyc"`
295 Archive, upload.
296 Upload the introductory documentation.
297 Update PyPI, PythonInfo Wiki, Vaults of Parnassus entries.
298
299 Generating the Example Resources
300 --------------------------------
301
302 In order to prepare the example resources, the prepare_demo.py script must be
303 run as follows:
304
305 python tools/prepare_demo.py
306
307 This will ensure that all initialiser and output stylesheets are created and
308 are thus installed by packages.
309
310 Generating the API Documentation
311 --------------------------------
312
313 In order to prepare the API documentation, it is necessary to generate some
314 Web pages from the Python source code. For this, the epydoc application must
315 be available on your system. Then, inside the distribution directory, run the
316 apidocs.sh tool script as follows:
317
318 ./tools/apidocs.sh
319
320 Some warnings may be generated by the script, but the result should be a new
321 apidocs directory within the distribution directory.
322
323 Making Packages
324 ---------------
325
326 To make Debian-based packages:
327
328 1. Create new package directories under packages if necessary.
329 2. Make a symbolic link in the distribution's root directory to keep the
330 Debian tools happy:
331
332 ln -s packages/ubuntu-hoary/python2.4-xsltools/debian/
333
334 3. Run the package builder:
335
336 dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot
337
338 4. Locate and tidy up the packages in the parent directory of the
339 distribution's root directory.