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
40 libxml2 Tested with 2.6.17
41 libxslt Tested with 1.1.12
42
43 The example Web applications require WebStack (release 1.1.2 or later).
44 The example PyQt applications have been tested with PyQt 3.15.
45
46 New in XSLTools 0.4.2 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.1)
47 ----------------------------------------------------
48
49 * Added a content type check in the XSLFormsResource class, permitting
50 non-form-based resources to access the raw request data, rather than have
51 the data processed unsuccessfully and consequently discarded.
52 * Added a script and a function to fix template namespaces after editing in
53 a careless editor.
54 * Changed libxml2mod and libxsltmod import details to try libxmlmods -
55 suggested by Lucian Wischik for libxml2dom.
56
57 New in XSLTools 0.4.1 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4)
58 --------------------------------------------------
59
60 * Made translations specified using the template:i18n annotation take
61 priority over template:value annotations.
62 * Added expression-based template:i18n annotations, and provided fallback
63 output for such translations based on the value of the evaluated
64 expression.
65
66 New in XSLTools 0.4 (Changes since XSLTools 0.3.1)
67 --------------------------------------------------
68
69 * Changed the preparation of templates to produce rule-based output
70 stylesheets, thus permitting recursive templates. This requires an extra
71 expr-prefix annotation to be used in certain kinds of templates.
72 * Added a recursive template example application.
73 * Changed fragment production to use original template documents instead of
74 output stylesheets.
75 * Changed the in_page_resources attribute to provide the output identifier,
76 thus changing the prepare_fragment method in Web resources so that only
77 the fragment identifier needs to be supplied.
78 * Added the XSLForms.Resources.WebResources.prepare_resources method for the
79 preparation of initialiser and output stylesheets before an application is
80 run.
81 * Changed selectors to not automatically create elements in the form data
82 document unless requested to do so. Introduced a Form.get_selector
83 method in XSLForms.Fields.
84 * Permitted the creation of hierarchies of elements in
85 XSLForms.Utils.add_elements.
86 * Introduced dynamic parameter evaluation for multiple-choice fields in
87 order to support sources of multiple-choice values which reside in the
88 form data document itself.
89 * Added the FixNamespace.xsl stylesheet to correct documents saved by HTML
90 editors which strip namespace prefixes.
91 * Fixed filesystem encoding issues in the Candidate example; fixed language
92 preference access in the Configurator and VerySimple examples.
93 * Changed the BaseHTTPRequestHandler version of the Candidate example to
94 store data in a subdirectory of the current working directory, thus
95 allowing the demonstration application to work after package installation.
96
97 New in XSLTools 0.3.1 (Changes since XSLTools 0.3)
98 --------------------------------------------------
99
100 * Fixed copyright and licensing information.
101
102 New in XSLTools 0.3 (Changes since XSLTools 0.2)
103 ------------------------------------------------
104
105 * Introduced copying of multiple-choice value element contents so that
106 option element labels can differ from the underlying values.
107 * Added internationalisation support, providing the template:i18n annotation
108 and the template:i18n extension function.
109 * Updated the documentation to cover the above new features.
110 * Fixed non-GET/POST request method handling in WebResources.
111 * Added the xslform_preparemacro.py script.
112 * Added an experimental template:range extension function.
113
114 New in XSLTools 0.2 (Changes since XSLTools 0.1)
115 ------------------------------------------------
116
117 * Made a new XSLTools package and moved XSLOutput into it.
118 * Improved serialisation of transformation results so that output options
119 are observed (in some cases, at least).
120 * Fixed stylesheet and reference document paths so that libxslt should not
121 now become confused by ambiguous relative paths.
122 * Added expression parameters to XSLOutput.Processor so that in-document
123 data can be used to, for example, initialise multiple-choice field values.
124 * Added input/initialiser support so that input documents can be tidied or
125 initialised using information from the template.
126 * Added template:init for use with template:element in XSLForms to control
127 element initialisation where necessary.
128 * Added special high-level "macro" attributes (eg. template:attribute-field)
129 which should make templates easier to write and maintain.
130 * Added template:if to XSLForms, providing conditional output of annotated
131 elements.
132 * Added set_document to XSLForms.Fields.Form.
133 * Added prepare_parameters to the XSLFormsResource class in the
134 XSLForms.Resources.WebResources module.
135 * Added element-path, url-encode and choice XSLForms extension functions.
136 * Improved Unicode support in the XSLForms extension functions.
137 * Changed in-page requests to contain proper POST data.
138 * Fixed checkbox and radiobutton value detection in XSLForms.js.
139 * Updated the code to work with WebStack 1.0 changes and adopted the
140 new-style WebStack demonstration mechanism.
141 * Added XMLCalendar and XMLTable (to the XSLTools package).
142 * Added a dictionary (or word lookup) example application.
143 * Added a job candidate profile (or CV editor) example application.
144 * Added a template attribute reference and an XSLFormsResource guide to the
145 documentation.
146 * Added Debian package support (specifically Ubuntu package support).
147 * Added missing COPYING.txt file.
148 * Renamed the scripts to avoid naming issues in system-wide installations.
149 * Added a PyQt example based on the system configurator example, with the
150 form prepared in Qt Designer. This example runs in PyQt and in a Web
151 environment without any changes to the application code. In-page updates
152 are currently not implemented in the Web version, however.
153
154 Notes on In-Page Update Functionality
155 -------------------------------------
156
157 Special note #1: Konqueror seems in certain cases to remember replaced form
158 content (when replaceChild is used to replace regions of the page which
159 include form elements). This causes the browser to believe that more form
160 fields exist on the page than actually do so, and subsequent form submissions
161 thus include the values of such removed fields. A special hack is in place to
162 disable form fields by changing their names, thus causing Konqueror to not
163 associate such fields with the real, active fields; this hack does not seem to
164 cause problems for Mozilla. This needs some investigation to determine in
165 exactly which circumstances the problem arises.
166
167 Special note #2: Konqueror also seems to crash if asked to find elements using
168 an empty 'id' attribute string. This needs some investigation to see if it
169 really is the getElementById call that causes the crash.
170
171 Special note #3: Konqueror's XMLHttpRequest seems to append null characters to
172 the end of field values. Attempting to prune them before the request is sent
173 fails with a function like the following:
174
175 function fixValue(fieldValue) {
176 if (fieldValue.length == 0) {
177 return fieldValue;
178 } else if (fieldValue[fieldValue.length - 1] == '\0') {
179 return fieldValue.substr(0, fieldValue.length - 1);
180 } else {
181 return fieldValue;
182 }
183 }
184
185 This may be because it is the entire message that is terminated with the null
186 character, and that this happens only upon sending the message. Consequently,
187 some frameworks (notably mod_python) do not support in-page functionality when
188 used from Konqueror.
189
190 Various browsers (eg. Mozilla/Firefox, Konqueror) will not allow the
191 XMLHttpRequest in-page updates to function unless the URL used in the
192 requestUpdate JavaScript function is compatible with the URL at which the
193 browser finds the application. Currently, relative URLs are in use to avoid
194 this issue of compatibility, but should an absolute URL be deduced using the
195 WebStack API and then used, it may be possible that the values returned by
196 that API do not match the actual addresses entered into the address bar of the
197 browser.
198
199 To check the behaviour of the applications, it is possible to view the
200 document source of the pages served by applications and to verify that the
201 URLs mentioned in the JavaScript function calls (to 'requestUpdate') either be
202 a relative link or involve a URL similar to that which appears in the
203 browser's address bar. In some environments, the use of 'localhost' addresses
204 often confuses the browser and server; one workaround is to use real host
205 names or addresses instead of 'localhost'.
206
207 Choosing an element-path:
208
209 When specifying the "context" of the in-page update, one must imagine which
210 element the template fragment should operate within. If the template:id
211 attribute marks a particular section, then the element-path should be a path
212 to the applicable context element for that section in the complete template
213 document. Note that if a template:element attribute appears on the same
214 element as the template:id attribute then the element-path should refer to the
215 element specified in the template:element attribute.
216
217 Choosing where to put template:attribute, template:id and id:
218
219 When specifying the extent of a template fragment, one must be sure not to put
220 the template:id attribute on the same element as a template:attribute
221 annotation; otherwise, the generated code will be improperly extracted as a
222 fragment producing two versions of the element - one for when the specified
223 attribute is present, and one for when it is not present. Generally,
224 template:id and id can be placed on the same node, however.
225
226 Stable element ordering and element-path:
227
228 Within the element-path, the numbering of the elements will start at 1.
229 Therefore it is vital to choose a region of the form data structure with the
230 element-path which is isolated from surrounding elements whose positions would
231 otherwise be dependent on a stable ordering of elements, and whose processing
232 would be disrupted if some new elements suddenly appeared claiming the same
233 positions in the document. For example:
234
235 <item value=""> .../item$1/value
236 <type value=""/> .../item$1/type$1/value
237 <comment value=""/> .../item$1/comment$2/value
238 </item>
239
240 In-page update...
241
242 <comment value=""/> .../item$1/comment$1/value
243
244 Notes on XSL
245 ------------
246
247 libxslt seems to be quite liberal on the definition of runtime parameters, in
248 that there is no apparent need to explicitly declare the corresponding global
249 variables in stylesheets. Whilst this is nice, we may eventually need to
250 detect such variables and add them in the preparation process.
251
252 Release Procedures
253 ------------------
254
255 Update the XSLTools/__init__.py and XSLForms/__init__.py __version__
256 attributes.
257 Change the version number and package filename/directory in the documentation.
258 Change code examples in the documentation if appropriate.
259 Update the release notes (see above).
260 Check the setup.py file and ensure that all package directories are mentioned.
261 Check the release information in the PKG-INFO file and in the package
262 changelog (and other files).
263 Tag, export.
264 Generate the example resources.
265 Generate the API documentation.
266 Remove generated .pyc files: rm `find . -name "*.pyc"`
267 Archive, upload.
268 Upload the introductory documentation.
269 Update PyPI, PythonInfo Wiki, Vaults of Parnassus entries.
270
271 Generating the Example Resources
272 --------------------------------
273
274 In order to prepare the example resources, the prepare_demo.py script must be
275 run as follows:
276
277 python tools/prepare_demo.py
278
279 This will ensure that all initialiser and output stylesheets are created and
280 are thus installed by packages.
281
282 Generating the API Documentation
283 --------------------------------
284
285 In order to prepare the API documentation, it is necessary to generate some
286 Web pages from the Python source code. For this, the epydoc application must
287 be available on your system. Then, inside the distribution directory, run the
288 apidocs.sh tool script as follows:
289
290 ./tools/apidocs.sh
291
292 Some warnings may be generated by the script, but the result should be a new
293 apidocs directory within the distribution directory.
294
295 Making Packages
296 ---------------
297
298 To make Debian-based packages:
299
300 1. Create new package directories under packages if necessary.
301 2. Make a symbolic link in the distribution's root directory to keep the
302 Debian tools happy:
303
304 ln -s packages/ubuntu-hoary/python2.4-xsltools/debian/
305
306 3. Run the package builder:
307
308 dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot
309
310 4. Locate and tidy up the packages in the parent directory of the
311 distribution's root directory.