paulb@104 | 1 | Introduction
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paulb@104 | 2 | ------------
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paulb@76 | 3 |
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paulb@104 | 4 | XSLTools is a collection of modules and packages facilitating the development
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paulb@104 | 5 | of applications based on XML, XSL stylesheets and transformations, notably Web
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paulb@104 | 6 | applications involving complicated Web forms potentially consisting of
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paulb@104 | 7 | editable hierarchical structures and potentially involving "live" or "in-page"
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paulb@104 | 8 | dynamic updates to portions of those Web forms.
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paulb@28 | 9 |
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paulb@109 | 10 | Quick Start
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paulb@109 | 11 | -----------
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paulb@109 | 12 |
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paulb@109 | 13 | Try running the demo:
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paulb@109 | 14 |
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paulb@109 | 15 | python tools/demo.py
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paulb@109 | 16 |
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paulb@109 | 17 | An introductory guide to creating applications can be found in the docs
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paulb@109 | 18 | directory - see docs/index.html for the start page.
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paulb@109 | 19 |
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paulb@109 | 20 | Contact, Copyright and Licence Information
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paulb@109 | 21 | ------------------------------------------
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paulb@109 | 22 |
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paulb@109 | 23 | The current Web page for XSLTools at the time of release is:
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paulb@109 | 24 |
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paulb@109 | 25 | http://www.boddie.org.uk/python/XSLTools.html
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paulb@109 | 26 |
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paulb@109 | 27 | Copyright and licence information can be found in the docs directory - see
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paulb@194 | 28 | docs/COPYING.txt, docs/LICENCE.txt and docs/LICENCE-Sarissa.txt for more
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paulb@194 | 29 | information.
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paulb@109 | 30 |
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paulb@104 | 31 | Dependencies
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paulb@104 | 32 | ------------
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paulb@104 | 33 |
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paulb@104 | 34 | XSLTools has the following basic dependencies:
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paulb@28 | 35 |
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paulb@104 | 36 | Package Release Information
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paulb@104 | 37 | ------- -------------------
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paulb@104 | 38 |
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paulb@496 | 39 | libxml2dom 0.3.3
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paulb@185 | 40 | libxml2 Tested with 2.6.17
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paulb@185 | 41 | libxslt Tested with 1.1.12
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paulb@28 | 42 |
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paulb@471 | 43 | The example Web applications require WebStack (release 1.1.2 or later).
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paulb@329 | 44 | The example PyQt applications have been tested with PyQt 3.15.
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paulb@104 | 45 |
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paulb@464 | 46 | New in XSLTools 0.4 (Changes since XSLTools 0.3.1)
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paulb@464 | 47 | --------------------------------------------------
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paulb@461 | 48 |
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paulb@478 | 49 | * Changed the preparation of templates to produce rule-based output
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paulb@504 | 50 | stylesheets, thus permitting recursive templates. This requires an extra
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paulb@504 | 51 | expr-prefix annotation to be used in certain kinds of templates.
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paulb@492 | 52 | * Added a recursive template example application.
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paulb@478 | 53 | * Changed fragment production to use original template documents instead of
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paulb@478 | 54 | output stylesheets.
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paulb@508 | 55 | * Changed the in_page_resources attribute to provide the output identifier,
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paulb@508 | 56 | thus changing the prepare_fragment method in Web resources so that only
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paulb@508 | 57 | the fragment identifier needs to be supplied.
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paulb@508 | 58 | * Added the XSLForms.Resources.WebResources.prepare_resources method for the
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paulb@508 | 59 | preparation of initialiser and output stylesheets before an application is
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paulb@508 | 60 | run.
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paulb@478 | 61 | * Changed selectors to not automatically create elements in the form data
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paulb@478 | 62 | document unless requested to do so. Introduced a Form.get_selector
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paulb@478 | 63 | method in XSLForms.Fields.
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paulb@461 | 64 | * Introduced dynamic parameter evaluation for multiple-choice fields in
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paulb@461 | 65 | order to support sources of multiple-choice values which reside in the
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paulb@461 | 66 | form data document itself.
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paulb@472 | 67 | * Added the FixNamespace.xsl stylesheet to correct documents saved by HTML
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paulb@472 | 68 | editors which strip namespace prefixes.
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paulb@501 | 69 | * Fixed filesystem encoding issues in the Candidate example; fixed language
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paulb@501 | 70 | preference access in the Configurator and VerySimple examples.
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paulb@508 | 71 | * Changed the BaseHTTPRequestHandler version of the Candidate example to
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paulb@508 | 72 | store data in a subdirectory of the current working directory, thus
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paulb@508 | 73 | allowing the demonstration application to work after package installation.
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paulb@461 | 74 |
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paulb@464 | 75 | New in XSLTools 0.3.1 (Changes since XSLTools 0.3)
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paulb@464 | 76 | --------------------------------------------------
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paulb@464 | 77 |
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paulb@464 | 78 | * Fixed copyright and licensing information.
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paulb@464 | 79 |
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paulb@424 | 80 | New in XSLTools 0.3 (Changes since XSLTools 0.2)
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paulb@424 | 81 | ------------------------------------------------
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paulb@424 | 82 |
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paulb@424 | 83 | * Introduced copying of multiple-choice value element contents so that
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paulb@424 | 84 | option element labels can differ from the underlying values.
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paulb@447 | 85 | * Added internationalisation support, providing the template:i18n annotation
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paulb@447 | 86 | and the template:i18n extension function.
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paulb@447 | 87 | * Updated the documentation to cover the above new features.
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paulb@449 | 88 | * Fixed non-GET/POST request method handling in WebResources.
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paulb@424 | 89 | * Added the xslform_preparemacro.py script.
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paulb@453 | 90 | * Added an experimental template:range extension function.
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paulb@424 | 91 |
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paulb@190 | 92 | New in XSLTools 0.2 (Changes since XSLTools 0.1)
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paulb@190 | 93 | ------------------------------------------------
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paulb@190 | 94 |
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paulb@231 | 95 | * Made a new XSLTools package and moved XSLOutput into it.
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paulb@252 | 96 | * Improved serialisation of transformation results so that output options
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paulb@252 | 97 | are observed (in some cases, at least).
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paulb@252 | 98 | * Fixed stylesheet and reference document paths so that libxslt should not
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paulb@252 | 99 | now become confused by ambiguous relative paths.
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paulb@286 | 100 | * Added expression parameters to XSLOutput.Processor so that in-document
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paulb@286 | 101 | data can be used to, for example, initialise multiple-choice field values.
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paulb@252 | 102 | * Added input/initialiser support so that input documents can be tidied or
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paulb@252 | 103 | initialised using information from the template.
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paulb@286 | 104 | * Added template:init for use with template:element in XSLForms to control
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paulb@286 | 105 | element initialisation where necessary.
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paulb@252 | 106 | * Added special high-level "macro" attributes (eg. template:attribute-field)
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paulb@252 | 107 | which should make templates easier to write and maintain.
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paulb@286 | 108 | * Added template:if to XSLForms, providing conditional output of annotated
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paulb@286 | 109 | elements.
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paulb@290 | 110 | * Added set_document to XSLForms.Fields.Form.
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paulb@400 | 111 | * Added prepare_parameters to the XSLFormsResource class in the
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paulb@400 | 112 | XSLForms.Resources.WebResources module.
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paulb@420 | 113 | * Added element-path, url-encode and choice XSLForms extension functions.
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paulb@286 | 114 | * Improved Unicode support in the XSLForms extension functions.
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paulb@231 | 115 | * Changed in-page requests to contain proper POST data.
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paulb@422 | 116 | * Fixed checkbox and radiobutton value detection in XSLForms.js.
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paulb@252 | 117 | * Updated the code to work with WebStack 1.0 changes and adopted the
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paulb@252 | 118 | new-style WebStack demonstration mechanism.
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paulb@286 | 119 | * Added XMLCalendar and XMLTable (to the XSLTools package).
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paulb@231 | 120 | * Added a dictionary (or word lookup) example application.
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paulb@286 | 121 | * Added a job candidate profile (or CV editor) example application.
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paulb@297 | 122 | * Added a template attribute reference and an XSLFormsResource guide to the
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paulb@297 | 123 | documentation.
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paulb@392 | 124 | * Added Debian package support (specifically Ubuntu package support).
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paulb@231 | 125 | * Added missing COPYING.txt file.
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paulb@231 | 126 | * Renamed the scripts to avoid naming issues in system-wide installations.
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paulb@329 | 127 | * Added a PyQt example based on the system configurator example, with the
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paulb@392 | 128 | form prepared in Qt Designer. This example runs in PyQt and in a Web
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paulb@392 | 129 | environment without any changes to the application code. In-page updates
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paulb@392 | 130 | are currently not implemented in the Web version, however.
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paulb@190 | 131 |
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paulb@104 | 132 | Notes on In-Page Update Functionality
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paulb@104 | 133 | -------------------------------------
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paulb@28 | 134 |
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paulb@185 | 135 | Special note #1: Konqueror seems in certain cases to remember replaced form
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paulb@185 | 136 | content (when replaceChild is used to replace regions of the page which
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paulb@185 | 137 | include form elements). This causes the browser to believe that more form
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paulb@185 | 138 | fields exist on the page than actually do so, and subsequent form submissions
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paulb@185 | 139 | thus include the values of such removed fields. A special hack is in place to
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paulb@185 | 140 | disable form fields by changing their names, thus causing Konqueror to not
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paulb@185 | 141 | associate such fields with the real, active fields; this hack does not seem to
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paulb@185 | 142 | cause problems for Mozilla. This needs some investigation to determine in
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paulb@185 | 143 | exactly which circumstances the problem arises.
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paulb@185 | 144 |
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paulb@185 | 145 | Special note #2: Konqueror also seems to crash if asked to find elements using
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paulb@185 | 146 | an empty 'id' attribute string. This needs some investigation to see if it
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paulb@185 | 147 | really is the getElementById call that causes the crash.
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paulb@125 | 148 |
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paulb@221 | 149 | Special note #3: Konqueror's XMLHttpRequest seems to append null characters to
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paulb@221 | 150 | the end of field values. Attempting to prune them before the request is sent
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paulb@221 | 151 | fails with a function like the following:
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paulb@221 | 152 |
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paulb@221 | 153 | function fixValue(fieldValue) {
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paulb@221 | 154 | if (fieldValue.length == 0) {
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paulb@221 | 155 | return fieldValue;
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paulb@221 | 156 | } else if (fieldValue[fieldValue.length - 1] == '\0') {
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paulb@221 | 157 | return fieldValue.substr(0, fieldValue.length - 1);
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paulb@221 | 158 | } else {
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paulb@221 | 159 | return fieldValue;
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paulb@221 | 160 | }
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paulb@221 | 161 | }
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paulb@221 | 162 |
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paulb@221 | 163 | This may be because it is the entire message that is terminated with the null
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paulb@221 | 164 | character, and that this happens only upon sending the message. Consequently,
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paulb@221 | 165 | some frameworks (notably mod_python) do not support in-page functionality when
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paulb@221 | 166 | used from Konqueror.
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paulb@207 | 167 |
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paulb@104 | 168 | Various browsers (eg. Mozilla/Firefox, Konqueror) will not allow the
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paulb@185 | 169 | XMLHttpRequest in-page updates to function unless the URL used in the
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paulb@185 | 170 | requestUpdate JavaScript function is compatible with the URL at which the
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paulb@185 | 171 | browser finds the application. Currently, relative URLs are in use to avoid
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paulb@185 | 172 | this issue of compatibility, but should an absolute URL be deduced using the
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paulb@185 | 173 | WebStack API and then used, it may be possible that the values returned by
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paulb@185 | 174 | that API do not match the actual addresses entered into the address bar of the
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paulb@185 | 175 | browser.
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paulb@28 | 176 |
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paulb@104 | 177 | To check the behaviour of the applications, it is possible to view the
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paulb@104 | 178 | document source of the pages served by applications and to verify that the
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paulb@185 | 179 | URLs mentioned in the JavaScript function calls (to 'requestUpdate') either be
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paulb@185 | 180 | a relative link or involve a URL similar to that which appears in the
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paulb@185 | 181 | browser's address bar. In some environments, the use of 'localhost' addresses
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paulb@185 | 182 | often confuses the browser and server; one workaround is to use real host
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paulb@185 | 183 | names or addresses instead of 'localhost'.
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paulb@155 | 184 |
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paulb@166 | 185 | Choosing an element-path:
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paulb@166 | 186 |
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paulb@166 | 187 | When specifying the "context" of the in-page update, one must imagine which
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paulb@166 | 188 | element the template fragment should operate within. If the template:id
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paulb@166 | 189 | attribute marks a particular section, then the element-path should be a path
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paulb@166 | 190 | to the applicable context element for that section in the complete template
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paulb@166 | 191 | document. Note that if a template:element attribute appears on the same
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paulb@166 | 192 | element as the template:id attribute then the element-path should refer to the
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paulb@166 | 193 | element specified in the template:element attribute.
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paulb@166 | 194 |
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paulb@166 | 195 | Choosing where to put template:attribute, template:id and id:
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paulb@166 | 196 |
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paulb@166 | 197 | When specifying the extent of a template fragment, one must be sure not to put
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paulb@166 | 198 | the template:id attribute on the same element as a template:attribute
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paulb@166 | 199 | annotation; otherwise, the generated code will be improperly extracted as a
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paulb@166 | 200 | fragment producing two versions of the element - one for when the specified
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paulb@166 | 201 | attribute is present, and one for when it is not present. Generally,
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paulb@166 | 202 | template:id and id can be placed on the same node, however.
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paulb@173 | 203 |
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paulb@173 | 204 | Stable element ordering and element-path:
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paulb@173 | 205 |
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paulb@173 | 206 | Within the element-path, the numbering of the elements will start at 1.
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paulb@173 | 207 | Therefore it is vital to choose a region of the form data structure with the
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paulb@173 | 208 | element-path which is isolated from surrounding elements whose positions would
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paulb@173 | 209 | otherwise be dependent on a stable ordering of elements, and whose processing
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paulb@173 | 210 | would be disrupted if some new elements suddenly appeared claiming the same
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paulb@173 | 211 | positions in the document. For example:
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paulb@173 | 212 |
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paulb@173 | 213 | <item value=""> .../item$1/value
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paulb@173 | 214 | <type value=""/> .../item$1/type$1/value
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paulb@173 | 215 | <comment value=""/> .../item$1/comment$2/value
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paulb@173 | 216 | </item>
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paulb@173 | 217 |
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paulb@173 | 218 | In-page update...
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paulb@173 | 219 |
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paulb@173 | 220 | <comment value=""/> .../item$1/comment$1/value
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paulb@173 | 221 |
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paulb@173 | 222 | Notes on XSL
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paulb@173 | 223 | ------------
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paulb@173 | 224 |
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paulb@173 | 225 | libxslt seems to be quite liberal on the definition of runtime parameters, in
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paulb@173 | 226 | that there is no apparent need to explicitly declare the corresponding global
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paulb@173 | 227 | variables in stylesheets. Whilst this is nice, we may eventually need to
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paulb@173 | 228 | detect such variables and add them in the preparation process.
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paulb@184 | 229 |
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paulb@184 | 230 | Release Procedures
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paulb@184 | 231 | ------------------
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paulb@184 | 232 |
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paulb@201 | 233 | Update the XSLTools/__init__.py and XSLForms/__init__.py __version__
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paulb@201 | 234 | attributes.
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paulb@184 | 235 | Change the version number and package filename/directory in the documentation.
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paulb@184 | 236 | Change code examples in the documentation if appropriate.
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paulb@184 | 237 | Update the release notes (see above).
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paulb@184 | 238 | Check the setup.py file and ensure that all package directories are mentioned.
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paulb@207 | 239 | Check the release information in the PKG-INFO file and in the package
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paulb@207 | 240 | changelog (and other files).
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paulb@184 | 241 | Tag, export.
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paulb@508 | 242 | Generate the example resources.
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paulb@184 | 243 | Generate the API documentation.
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paulb@184 | 244 | Remove generated .pyc files: rm `find . -name "*.pyc"`
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paulb@184 | 245 | Archive, upload.
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paulb@184 | 246 | Upload the introductory documentation.
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paulb@184 | 247 | Update PyPI, PythonInfo Wiki, Vaults of Parnassus entries.
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paulb@184 | 248 |
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paulb@508 | 249 | Generating the Example Resources
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paulb@508 | 250 | --------------------------------
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paulb@508 | 251 |
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paulb@508 | 252 | In order to prepare the example resources, the prepare_demo.py script must be
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paulb@508 | 253 | run as follows:
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paulb@508 | 254 |
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paulb@508 | 255 | python tools/prepare_demo.py
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paulb@508 | 256 |
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paulb@508 | 257 | This will ensure that all initialiser and output stylesheets are created and
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paulb@508 | 258 | are thus installed by packages.
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paulb@508 | 259 |
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paulb@184 | 260 | Generating the API Documentation
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paulb@184 | 261 | --------------------------------
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paulb@184 | 262 |
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paulb@184 | 263 | In order to prepare the API documentation, it is necessary to generate some
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paulb@184 | 264 | Web pages from the Python source code. For this, the epydoc application must
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paulb@231 | 265 | be available on your system. Then, inside the distribution directory, run the
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paulb@184 | 266 | apidocs.sh tool script as follows:
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paulb@184 | 267 |
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paulb@184 | 268 | ./tools/apidocs.sh
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paulb@184 | 269 |
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paulb@184 | 270 | Some warnings may be generated by the script, but the result should be a new
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paulb@231 | 271 | apidocs directory within the distribution directory.
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paulb@218 | 272 |
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paulb@218 | 273 | Making Packages
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paulb@218 | 274 | ---------------
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paulb@218 | 275 |
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paulb@312 | 276 | To make Debian-based packages:
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paulb@218 | 277 |
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paulb@312 | 278 | 1. Create new package directories under packages if necessary.
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paulb@230 | 279 | 2. Make a symbolic link in the distribution's root directory to keep the
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paulb@230 | 280 | Debian tools happy:
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paulb@218 | 281 |
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paulb@312 | 282 | ln -s packages/ubuntu-hoary/python2.4-xsltools/debian/
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paulb@218 | 283 |
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paulb@230 | 284 | 3. Run the package builder:
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paulb@218 | 285 |
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paulb@230 | 286 | dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot
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paulb@218 | 287 |
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paulb@230 | 288 | 4. Locate and tidy up the packages in the parent directory of the
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paulb@230 | 289 | distribution's root directory.
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