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