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