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