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