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