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 Additional Software
33 -------------------
34
35 The XSLTools examples make use of sarissa.js from the Sarissa distribution,
36 release 0.9.8.1. Copies of this file are found in the Resources/scripts
37 directory within each example's package.
38
39 Dependencies
40 ------------
41
42 XSLTools has the following basic dependencies:
43
44 Packages Release Information
45 -------- -------------------
46
47 libxml2dom 0.4.3
48 libxml2 and libxslt Some combinations may not be reliable!
49 Tested with libxml2 2.6.17 and libxslt 1.1.12
50 Tested with libxml2 2.6.27 and libxslt 1.1.20
51 libxslt 1.1.17 should be avoided
52
53 The example Web applications require WebStack (release 1.3 or later).
54 The example PyQt applications have been tested with PyQt 3.15.
55
56 New in XSLTools 0.6 (Changes since XSLTools 0.5)
57 ------------------------------------------------
58
59 * Added modular request handling methods to XSLFormsResource, altering some
60 of the examples to demonstrate the usage and overriding of these methods
61 in preference to overriding respond_to_form.
62 * Added methods to the Form class to support modular request handling.
63 * Added information about XSLT extension function usage to the advanced
64 template design document, linking to the housekeeping annotations section
65 of the template attribute reference guide.
66 * Observed changes in WebStack 1.3 and introduced default_charset usage in
67 the WebResources and PyQtWebResources modules.
68 * Added experimental OpenID support; improved the authentication resources
69 and mechanisms.
70
71 New in XSLTools 0.5 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.6)
72 --------------------------------------------------
73
74 * Renamed template:id to template:section in order to get around problems
75 and potential future problems with browsers (such as Konqueror 3.5.6)
76 which get confused loading documents with multiple id attributes, even if
77 only one is unprefixed. WARNING! This change is not backwards compatible.
78 * Added Ubuntu Feisty (7.04) package support.
79 * Tidied the documentation HTML.
80
81 New in XSLTools 0.4.6 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.5)
82 ----------------------------------------------------
83
84 * Improved the Login module, enabling the VerySimpleWithLogin example for
85 various frameworks.
86 * Relicensed under the LGPL version 3 or later.
87 * Upgraded to Sarissa 0.9.7.8 (compatible with LGPL/GPL version 3), removing
88 a test around DOMParser so that Konqueror 3.4.0 is still supported.
89
90 New in XSLTools 0.4.5 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.4)
91 ----------------------------------------------------
92
93 * Fixed the result of transformations in XSLOutput: proper document nodes
94 are now produced.
95 * Added an XSLForms.Resources.Login module which provides resources to
96 support login screens and redirects.
97 * Fixed newlines in the attributes created from fields in XSLForms: CR
98 characters are no longer included since this caused the doubling up of
99 newlines in Firefox.
100
101 New in XSLTools 0.4.4 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.3)
102 ----------------------------------------------------
103
104 * Fixed translation selection for the template:i18n annotation attribute,
105 not just for the template:i18n extension function - more apologies for
106 resulting output changes!
107 * Improved the template fixing stylesheet and added some documentation for
108 the script and the related expr-prefix attribute.
109 * Introduced WebStack 1.2.2 EncodingSelector and encoding changes.
110 * Added docstring and return value for the write_month_to_document function
111 in XSLTools.XMLCalendar.
112
113 New in XSLTools 0.4.3 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.2)
114 ----------------------------------------------------
115
116 * Fixed translation selection when an unsupported locale is specified,
117 choosing the first locale as the default (rather than exposing the values
118 themselves as translations). Note that this is an unfortunate and subtle
119 change which may affect application output - apologies are hereby offered!
120
121 New in XSLTools 0.4.2 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.1)
122 ----------------------------------------------------
123
124 * Added a content type check in the XSLFormsResource class, permitting
125 non-form-based resources to access the raw request data, rather than have
126 the data processed unsuccessfully and consequently discarded.
127 * Added a script and a function to fix template namespaces after editing in
128 a careless editor.
129 * Changed libxml2mod and libxsltmod import details to try libxmlmods -
130 suggested by Lucian Wischik for libxml2dom.
131
132 New in XSLTools 0.4.1 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4)
133 --------------------------------------------------
134
135 * Made translations specified using the template:i18n annotation take
136 priority over template:value annotations.
137 * Added expression-based template:i18n annotations, and provided fallback
138 output for such translations based on the value of the evaluated
139 expression.
140
141 New in XSLTools 0.4 (Changes since XSLTools 0.3.1)
142 --------------------------------------------------
143
144 * Changed the preparation of templates to produce rule-based output
145 stylesheets, thus permitting recursive templates. This requires an extra
146 expr-prefix annotation to be used in certain kinds of templates.
147 * Added a recursive template example application.
148 * Changed fragment production to use original template documents instead of
149 output stylesheets.
150 * Changed the in_page_resources attribute to provide the output identifier,
151 thus changing the prepare_fragment method in Web resources so that only
152 the fragment identifier needs to be supplied.
153 * Added the XSLForms.Resources.WebResources.prepare_resources method for the
154 preparation of initialiser and output stylesheets before an application is
155 run.
156 * Changed selectors to not automatically create elements in the form data
157 document unless requested to do so. Introduced a Form.get_selector
158 method in XSLForms.Fields.
159 * Permitted the creation of hierarchies of elements in
160 XSLForms.Utils.add_elements.
161 * Introduced dynamic parameter evaluation for multiple-choice fields in
162 order to support sources of multiple-choice values which reside in the
163 form data document itself.
164 * Added the FixNamespace.xsl stylesheet to correct documents saved by HTML
165 editors which strip namespace prefixes.
166 * Fixed filesystem encoding issues in the Candidate example; fixed language
167 preference access in the Configurator and VerySimple examples.
168 * Changed the BaseHTTPRequestHandler version of the Candidate example to
169 store data in a subdirectory of the current working directory, thus
170 allowing the demonstration application to work after package installation.
171
172 New in XSLTools 0.3.1 (Changes since XSLTools 0.3)
173 --------------------------------------------------
174
175 * Fixed copyright and licensing information.
176
177 New in XSLTools 0.3 (Changes since XSLTools 0.2)
178 ------------------------------------------------
179
180 * Introduced copying of multiple-choice value element contents so that
181 option element labels can differ from the underlying values.
182 * Added internationalisation support, providing the template:i18n annotation
183 and the template:i18n extension function.
184 * Updated the documentation to cover the above new features.
185 * Fixed non-GET/POST request method handling in WebResources.
186 * Added the xslform_preparemacro.py script.
187 * Added an experimental template:range extension function.
188
189 New in XSLTools 0.2 (Changes since XSLTools 0.1)
190 ------------------------------------------------
191
192 * Made a new XSLTools package and moved XSLOutput into it.
193 * Improved serialisation of transformation results so that output options
194 are observed (in some cases, at least).
195 * Fixed stylesheet and reference document paths so that libxslt should not
196 now become confused by ambiguous relative paths.
197 * Added expression parameters to XSLOutput.Processor so that in-document
198 data can be used to, for example, initialise multiple-choice field values.
199 * Added input/initialiser support so that input documents can be tidied or
200 initialised using information from the template.
201 * Added template:init for use with template:element in XSLForms to control
202 element initialisation where necessary.
203 * Added special high-level "macro" attributes (eg. template:attribute-field)
204 which should make templates easier to write and maintain.
205 * Added template:if to XSLForms, providing conditional output of annotated
206 elements.
207 * Added set_document to XSLForms.Fields.Form.
208 * Added prepare_parameters to the XSLFormsResource class in the
209 XSLForms.Resources.WebResources module.
210 * Added element-path, url-encode and choice XSLForms extension functions.
211 * Improved Unicode support in the XSLForms extension functions.
212 * Changed in-page requests to contain proper POST data.
213 * Fixed checkbox and radiobutton value detection in XSLForms.js.
214 * Updated the code to work with WebStack 1.0 changes and adopted the
215 new-style WebStack demonstration mechanism.
216 * Added XMLCalendar and XMLTable (to the XSLTools package).
217 * Added a dictionary (or word lookup) example application.
218 * Added a job candidate profile (or CV editor) example application.
219 * Added a template attribute reference and an XSLFormsResource guide to the
220 documentation.
221 * Added Debian package support (specifically Ubuntu package support).
222 * Added missing COPYING.txt file.
223 * Renamed the scripts to avoid naming issues in system-wide installations.
224 * Added a PyQt example based on the system configurator example, with the
225 form prepared in Qt Designer. This example runs in PyQt and in a Web
226 environment without any changes to the application code. In-page updates
227 are currently not implemented in the Web version, however.
228
229 Notes on In-Page Update Functionality
230 -------------------------------------
231
232 Special note #1: Konqueror seems in certain cases to remember replaced form
233 content (when replaceChild is used to replace regions of the page which
234 include form elements). This causes the browser to believe that more form
235 fields exist on the page than actually do so, and subsequent form submissions
236 thus include the values of such removed fields. A special hack is in place to
237 disable form fields by changing their names, thus causing Konqueror to not
238 associate such fields with the real, active fields; this hack does not seem to
239 cause problems for Mozilla. This needs some investigation to determine in
240 exactly which circumstances the problem arises.
241
242 Special note #2: Konqueror also seems to crash if asked to find elements using
243 an empty 'id' attribute string. This needs some investigation to see if it
244 really is the getElementById call that causes the crash.
245
246 Special note #3: Konqueror's XMLHttpRequest seems to append null characters to
247 the end of field values. Attempting to prune them before the request is sent
248 fails with a function like the following:
249
250 function fixValue(fieldValue) {
251 if (fieldValue.length == 0) {
252 return fieldValue;
253 } else if (fieldValue[fieldValue.length - 1] == '\0') {
254 return fieldValue.substr(0, fieldValue.length - 1);
255 } else {
256 return fieldValue;
257 }
258 }
259
260 This may be because it is the entire message that is terminated with the null
261 character, and that this happens only upon sending the message. Consequently,
262 some frameworks (notably mod_python) do not support in-page functionality when
263 used from Konqueror.
264
265 Various browsers (eg. Mozilla/Firefox, Konqueror) will not allow the
266 XMLHttpRequest in-page updates to function unless the URL used in the
267 requestUpdate JavaScript function is compatible with the URL at which the
268 browser finds the application. Currently, relative URLs are in use to avoid
269 this issue of compatibility, but should an absolute URL be deduced using the
270 WebStack API and then used, it may be possible that the values returned by
271 that API do not match the actual addresses entered into the address bar of the
272 browser.
273
274 To check the behaviour of the applications, it is possible to view the
275 document source of the pages served by applications and to verify that the
276 URLs mentioned in the JavaScript function calls (to 'requestUpdate') either be
277 a relative link or involve a URL similar to that which appears in the
278 browser's address bar. In some environments, the use of 'localhost' addresses
279 often confuses the browser and server; one workaround is to use real host
280 names or addresses instead of 'localhost'.
281
282 Choosing an element-path:
283
284 When specifying the "context" of the in-page update, one must imagine which
285 element the template fragment should operate within. If the template:id
286 attribute marks a particular section, then the element-path should be a path
287 to the applicable context element for that section in the complete template
288 document. Note that if a template:element attribute appears on the same
289 element as the template:id attribute then the element-path should refer to the
290 element specified in the template:element attribute.
291
292 Choosing where to put template:attribute, template:id and id:
293
294 When specifying the extent of a template fragment, one must be sure not to put
295 the template:id attribute on the same element as a template:attribute
296 annotation; otherwise, the generated code will be improperly extracted as a
297 fragment producing two versions of the element - one for when the specified
298 attribute is present, and one for when it is not present. Generally,
299 template:id and id can be placed on the same node, however.
300
301 Stable element ordering and element-path:
302
303 Within the element-path, the numbering of the elements will start at 1.
304 Therefore it is vital to choose a region of the form data structure with the
305 element-path which is isolated from surrounding elements whose positions would
306 otherwise be dependent on a stable ordering of elements, and whose processing
307 would be disrupted if some new elements suddenly appeared claiming the same
308 positions in the document. For example:
309
310 <item value=""> .../item$1/value
311 <type value=""/> .../item$1/type$1/value
312 <comment value=""/> .../item$1/comment$2/value
313 </item>
314
315 In-page update...
316
317 <comment value=""/> .../item$1/comment$1/value
318
319 Notes on XSL
320 ------------
321
322 libxslt seems to be quite liberal on the definition of runtime parameters, in
323 that there is no apparent need to explicitly declare the corresponding global
324 variables in stylesheets. Whilst this is nice, we may eventually need to
325 detect such variables and add them in the preparation process.
326
327 Release Procedures
328 ------------------
329
330 Update the XSLTools/__init__.py and XSLForms/__init__.py __version__
331 attributes.
332 Change the version number and package filename/directory in the documentation.
333 Change code examples in the documentation if appropriate.
334 Update the release notes (see above).
335 Check the setup.py file and ensure that all package directories are mentioned.
336 Check the release information in the PKG-INFO file and in the package
337 changelog (and other files).
338 Tag, export.
339 Generate the example resources.
340 Generate the API documentation.
341 Remove generated .pyc files: find . -name "*.pyc" | xargs rm
342 Archive, upload.
343 Upload the introductory documentation.
344 Update PyPI, PythonInfo Wiki, Vaults of Parnassus entries.
345
346 Generating the Example Resources
347 --------------------------------
348
349 In order to prepare the example resources, the prepare_demo.py script must be
350 run as follows:
351
352 python tools/prepare_demo.py
353
354 This will ensure that all initialiser and output stylesheets are created and
355 are thus installed by packages.
356
357 Generating the API Documentation
358 --------------------------------
359
360 In order to prepare the API documentation, it is necessary to generate some
361 Web pages from the Python source code. For this, the epydoc application must
362 be available on your system. Then, inside the distribution directory, run the
363 apidocs.sh tool script as follows:
364
365 ./tools/apidocs.sh
366
367 Some warnings may be generated by the script, but the result should be a new
368 apidocs directory within the distribution directory.
369
370 Making Packages
371 ---------------
372
373 To make Debian-based packages:
374
375 1. Create new package directories under packages if necessary.
376 2. Make a symbolic link in the distribution's root directory to keep the
377 Debian tools happy. Try one of the following:
378
379 ln -s packages/ubuntu-hoary/python2.4-xsltools/debian/
380 ln -s packages/ubuntu-feisty/python-xsltools/debian/
381
382 3. Run the package builder:
383
384 dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot
385
386 4. Locate and tidy up the packages in the parent directory of the
387 distribution's root directory.