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/lgpl-3.0.txt, docs/gpl-3.0.txt,
29 docs/LICENCE-Sarissa-lgpl.txt and docs/LICENCE-Sarissa-gpl.txt for more
30 information.
31
32 Dependencies
33 ------------
34
35 XSLTools has the following basic dependencies:
36
37 Packages Release Information
38 -------- -------------------
39
40 libxml2dom 0.4.3
41 libxml2 and libxslt Some combinations may not be reliable!
42 Tested with libxml2 2.6.17 and libxslt 1.1.12
43 Tested with libxml2 2.6.27 and libxslt 1.1.20
44 libxslt 1.1.17 should be avoided
45
46 The example Web applications require WebStack (release 1.2.3 or later).
47 The example PyQt applications have been tested with PyQt 3.15.
48
49 New in XSLTools 0.4.6 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.5)
50 ----------------------------------------------------
51
52 * Improved the Login module, enabling the VerySimpleWithLogin example for
53 various frameworks.
54 * Relicensed under the LGPL version 3 or later.
55 * Upgraded to Sarissa 0.9.7.8 (compatible with LGPL/GPL version 3), removing
56 a test around DOMParser so that Konqueror 3.4.0 is still supported.
57
58 New in XSLTools 0.4.5 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.4)
59 ----------------------------------------------------
60
61 * Fixed the result of transformations in XSLOutput: proper document nodes
62 are now produced.
63 * Added an XSLForms.Resources.Login module which provides resources to
64 support login screens and redirects.
65 * Fixed newlines in the attributes created from fields in XSLForms: CR
66 characters are no longer included since this caused the doubling up of
67 newlines in Firefox.
68
69 New in XSLTools 0.4.4 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.3)
70 ----------------------------------------------------
71
72 * Fixed translation selection for the template:i18n annotation attribute,
73 not just for the template:i18n extension function - more apologies for
74 resulting output changes!
75 * Improved the template fixing stylesheet and added some documentation for
76 the script and the related expr-prefix attribute.
77 * Introduced WebStack 1.2.2 EncodingSelector and encoding changes.
78 * Added docstring and return value for the write_month_to_document function
79 in XSLTools.XMLCalendar.
80
81 New in XSLTools 0.4.3 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.2)
82 ----------------------------------------------------
83
84 * Fixed translation selection when an unsupported locale is specified,
85 choosing the first locale as the default (rather than exposing the values
86 themselves as translations). Note that this is an unfortunate and subtle
87 change which may affect application output - apologies are hereby offered!
88
89 New in XSLTools 0.4.2 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.1)
90 ----------------------------------------------------
91
92 * Added a content type check in the XSLFormsResource class, permitting
93 non-form-based resources to access the raw request data, rather than have
94 the data processed unsuccessfully and consequently discarded.
95 * Added a script and a function to fix template namespaces after editing in
96 a careless editor.
97 * Changed libxml2mod and libxsltmod import details to try libxmlmods -
98 suggested by Lucian Wischik for libxml2dom.
99
100 New in XSLTools 0.4.1 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4)
101 --------------------------------------------------
102
103 * Made translations specified using the template:i18n annotation take
104 priority over template:value annotations.
105 * Added expression-based template:i18n annotations, and provided fallback
106 output for such translations based on the value of the evaluated
107 expression.
108
109 New in XSLTools 0.4 (Changes since XSLTools 0.3.1)
110 --------------------------------------------------
111
112 * Changed the preparation of templates to produce rule-based output
113 stylesheets, thus permitting recursive templates. This requires an extra
114 expr-prefix annotation to be used in certain kinds of templates.
115 * Added a recursive template example application.
116 * Changed fragment production to use original template documents instead of
117 output stylesheets.
118 * Changed the in_page_resources attribute to provide the output identifier,
119 thus changing the prepare_fragment method in Web resources so that only
120 the fragment identifier needs to be supplied.
121 * Added the XSLForms.Resources.WebResources.prepare_resources method for the
122 preparation of initialiser and output stylesheets before an application is
123 run.
124 * Changed selectors to not automatically create elements in the form data
125 document unless requested to do so. Introduced a Form.get_selector
126 method in XSLForms.Fields.
127 * Permitted the creation of hierarchies of elements in
128 XSLForms.Utils.add_elements.
129 * Introduced dynamic parameter evaluation for multiple-choice fields in
130 order to support sources of multiple-choice values which reside in the
131 form data document itself.
132 * Added the FixNamespace.xsl stylesheet to correct documents saved by HTML
133 editors which strip namespace prefixes.
134 * Fixed filesystem encoding issues in the Candidate example; fixed language
135 preference access in the Configurator and VerySimple examples.
136 * Changed the BaseHTTPRequestHandler version of the Candidate example to
137 store data in a subdirectory of the current working directory, thus
138 allowing the demonstration application to work after package installation.
139
140 New in XSLTools 0.3.1 (Changes since XSLTools 0.3)
141 --------------------------------------------------
142
143 * Fixed copyright and licensing information.
144
145 New in XSLTools 0.3 (Changes since XSLTools 0.2)
146 ------------------------------------------------
147
148 * Introduced copying of multiple-choice value element contents so that
149 option element labels can differ from the underlying values.
150 * Added internationalisation support, providing the template:i18n annotation
151 and the template:i18n extension function.
152 * Updated the documentation to cover the above new features.
153 * Fixed non-GET/POST request method handling in WebResources.
154 * Added the xslform_preparemacro.py script.
155 * Added an experimental template:range extension function.
156
157 New in XSLTools 0.2 (Changes since XSLTools 0.1)
158 ------------------------------------------------
159
160 * Made a new XSLTools package and moved XSLOutput into it.
161 * Improved serialisation of transformation results so that output options
162 are observed (in some cases, at least).
163 * Fixed stylesheet and reference document paths so that libxslt should not
164 now become confused by ambiguous relative paths.
165 * Added expression parameters to XSLOutput.Processor so that in-document
166 data can be used to, for example, initialise multiple-choice field values.
167 * Added input/initialiser support so that input documents can be tidied or
168 initialised using information from the template.
169 * Added template:init for use with template:element in XSLForms to control
170 element initialisation where necessary.
171 * Added special high-level "macro" attributes (eg. template:attribute-field)
172 which should make templates easier to write and maintain.
173 * Added template:if to XSLForms, providing conditional output of annotated
174 elements.
175 * Added set_document to XSLForms.Fields.Form.
176 * Added prepare_parameters to the XSLFormsResource class in the
177 XSLForms.Resources.WebResources module.
178 * Added element-path, url-encode and choice XSLForms extension functions.
179 * Improved Unicode support in the XSLForms extension functions.
180 * Changed in-page requests to contain proper POST data.
181 * Fixed checkbox and radiobutton value detection in XSLForms.js.
182 * Updated the code to work with WebStack 1.0 changes and adopted the
183 new-style WebStack demonstration mechanism.
184 * Added XMLCalendar and XMLTable (to the XSLTools package).
185 * Added a dictionary (or word lookup) example application.
186 * Added a job candidate profile (or CV editor) example application.
187 * Added a template attribute reference and an XSLFormsResource guide to the
188 documentation.
189 * Added Debian package support (specifically Ubuntu package support).
190 * Added missing COPYING.txt file.
191 * Renamed the scripts to avoid naming issues in system-wide installations.
192 * Added a PyQt example based on the system configurator example, with the
193 form prepared in Qt Designer. This example runs in PyQt and in a Web
194 environment without any changes to the application code. In-page updates
195 are currently not implemented in the Web version, however.
196
197 Notes on In-Page Update Functionality
198 -------------------------------------
199
200 Special note #1: Konqueror seems in certain cases to remember replaced form
201 content (when replaceChild is used to replace regions of the page which
202 include form elements). This causes the browser to believe that more form
203 fields exist on the page than actually do so, and subsequent form submissions
204 thus include the values of such removed fields. A special hack is in place to
205 disable form fields by changing their names, thus causing Konqueror to not
206 associate such fields with the real, active fields; this hack does not seem to
207 cause problems for Mozilla. This needs some investigation to determine in
208 exactly which circumstances the problem arises.
209
210 Special note #2: Konqueror also seems to crash if asked to find elements using
211 an empty 'id' attribute string. This needs some investigation to see if it
212 really is the getElementById call that causes the crash.
213
214 Special note #3: Konqueror's XMLHttpRequest seems to append null characters to
215 the end of field values. Attempting to prune them before the request is sent
216 fails with a function like the following:
217
218 function fixValue(fieldValue) {
219 if (fieldValue.length == 0) {
220 return fieldValue;
221 } else if (fieldValue[fieldValue.length - 1] == '\0') {
222 return fieldValue.substr(0, fieldValue.length - 1);
223 } else {
224 return fieldValue;
225 }
226 }
227
228 This may be because it is the entire message that is terminated with the null
229 character, and that this happens only upon sending the message. Consequently,
230 some frameworks (notably mod_python) do not support in-page functionality when
231 used from Konqueror.
232
233 Various browsers (eg. Mozilla/Firefox, Konqueror) will not allow the
234 XMLHttpRequest in-page updates to function unless the URL used in the
235 requestUpdate JavaScript function is compatible with the URL at which the
236 browser finds the application. Currently, relative URLs are in use to avoid
237 this issue of compatibility, but should an absolute URL be deduced using the
238 WebStack API and then used, it may be possible that the values returned by
239 that API do not match the actual addresses entered into the address bar of the
240 browser.
241
242 To check the behaviour of the applications, it is possible to view the
243 document source of the pages served by applications and to verify that the
244 URLs mentioned in the JavaScript function calls (to 'requestUpdate') either be
245 a relative link or involve a URL similar to that which appears in the
246 browser's address bar. In some environments, the use of 'localhost' addresses
247 often confuses the browser and server; one workaround is to use real host
248 names or addresses instead of 'localhost'.
249
250 Choosing an element-path:
251
252 When specifying the "context" of the in-page update, one must imagine which
253 element the template fragment should operate within. If the template:id
254 attribute marks a particular section, then the element-path should be a path
255 to the applicable context element for that section in the complete template
256 document. Note that if a template:element attribute appears on the same
257 element as the template:id attribute then the element-path should refer to the
258 element specified in the template:element attribute.
259
260 Choosing where to put template:attribute, template:id and id:
261
262 When specifying the extent of a template fragment, one must be sure not to put
263 the template:id attribute on the same element as a template:attribute
264 annotation; otherwise, the generated code will be improperly extracted as a
265 fragment producing two versions of the element - one for when the specified
266 attribute is present, and one for when it is not present. Generally,
267 template:id and id can be placed on the same node, however.
268
269 Stable element ordering and element-path:
270
271 Within the element-path, the numbering of the elements will start at 1.
272 Therefore it is vital to choose a region of the form data structure with the
273 element-path which is isolated from surrounding elements whose positions would
274 otherwise be dependent on a stable ordering of elements, and whose processing
275 would be disrupted if some new elements suddenly appeared claiming the same
276 positions in the document. For example:
277
278 <item value=""> .../item$1/value
279 <type value=""/> .../item$1/type$1/value
280 <comment value=""/> .../item$1/comment$2/value
281 </item>
282
283 In-page update...
284
285 <comment value=""/> .../item$1/comment$1/value
286
287 Notes on XSL
288 ------------
289
290 libxslt seems to be quite liberal on the definition of runtime parameters, in
291 that there is no apparent need to explicitly declare the corresponding global
292 variables in stylesheets. Whilst this is nice, we may eventually need to
293 detect such variables and add them in the preparation process.
294
295 Release Procedures
296 ------------------
297
298 Update the XSLTools/__init__.py and XSLForms/__init__.py __version__
299 attributes.
300 Change the version number and package filename/directory in the documentation.
301 Change code examples in the documentation if appropriate.
302 Update the release notes (see above).
303 Check the setup.py file and ensure that all package directories are mentioned.
304 Check the release information in the PKG-INFO file and in the package
305 changelog (and other files).
306 Tag, export.
307 Generate the example resources.
308 Generate the API documentation.
309 Remove generated .pyc files: rm `find . -name "*.pyc"`
310 Archive, upload.
311 Upload the introductory documentation.
312 Update PyPI, PythonInfo Wiki, Vaults of Parnassus entries.
313
314 Generating the Example Resources
315 --------------------------------
316
317 In order to prepare the example resources, the prepare_demo.py script must be
318 run as follows:
319
320 python tools/prepare_demo.py
321
322 This will ensure that all initialiser and output stylesheets are created and
323 are thus installed by packages.
324
325 Generating the API Documentation
326 --------------------------------
327
328 In order to prepare the API documentation, it is necessary to generate some
329 Web pages from the Python source code. For this, the epydoc application must
330 be available on your system. Then, inside the distribution directory, run the
331 apidocs.sh tool script as follows:
332
333 ./tools/apidocs.sh
334
335 Some warnings may be generated by the script, but the result should be a new
336 apidocs directory within the distribution directory.
337
338 Making Packages
339 ---------------
340
341 To make Debian-based packages:
342
343 1. Create new package directories under packages if necessary.
344 2. Make a symbolic link in the distribution's root directory to keep the
345 Debian tools happy:
346
347 ln -s packages/ubuntu-hoary/python2.4-xsltools/debian/
348
349 3. Run the package builder:
350
351 dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot
352
353 4. Locate and tidy up the packages in the parent directory of the
354 distribution's root directory.