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