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