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 0.5
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
55 New in XSLTools 0.6 (Changes since XSLTools 0.5)
56 ------------------------------------------------
57
58 * Added modular request handling methods to XSLFormsResource, altering some
59 of the examples to demonstrate the usage and overriding of these methods
60 in preference to overriding respond_to_form.
61 * Added methods to the Form class to support modular request handling.
62 * Added information about XSLT extension function usage to the advanced
63 template design document, linking to the housekeeping annotations section
64 of the template attribute reference guide.
65 * Observed changes in WebStack 1.3 and introduced default_charset usage in
66 the WebResources module.
67 * Added experimental OpenID support; improved the authentication resources
68 and mechanisms.
69 * Fixed the LoginResource to work correctly when detecting the protected
70 application's location.
71 * NOTE: Need to add persistence for OpenID associations.
72 * Added XInclude support in templates (requires libxml2dom 0.4.6 or later).
73 * Removed PyQt support since the advantages of designing user interfaces for
74 the Web using Qt Designer are questionable.
75 * Removed default encoding and path_encoding attributes from the
76 XSLFormsResource class, since the default response encoding should be used
77 instead or set using WebStack's EncodingSelector.
78 * Added a template:output annotation for the production of output content
79 where the annotations should not be considered for inclusion in a schema,
80 typically because the annotated content duplicates content elsewhere in a
81 template.
82 * Added a template:select annotation for the presentation of arbitrary
83 sections of a document within a template.
84 * Fixed handling of multipart form data, permitting file uploads for input
85 parameters which are outside the form document structure.
86
87 New in XSLTools 0.5 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.6)
88 --------------------------------------------------
89
90 * Renamed template:id to template:section in order to get around problems
91 and potential future problems with browsers (such as Konqueror 3.5.6)
92 which get confused loading documents with multiple id attributes, even if
93 only one is unprefixed. WARNING! This change is not backwards compatible.
94 * Added Ubuntu Feisty (7.04) package support.
95 * Tidied the documentation HTML.
96
97 New in XSLTools 0.4.6 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.5)
98 ----------------------------------------------------
99
100 * Improved the Login module, enabling the VerySimpleWithLogin example for
101 various frameworks.
102 * Relicensed under the LGPL version 3 or later.
103 * Upgraded to Sarissa 0.9.7.8 (compatible with LGPL/GPL version 3), removing
104 a test around DOMParser so that Konqueror 3.4.0 is still supported.
105
106 New in XSLTools 0.4.5 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.4)
107 ----------------------------------------------------
108
109 * Fixed the result of transformations in XSLOutput: proper document nodes
110 are now produced.
111 * Added an XSLForms.Resources.Login module which provides resources to
112 support login screens and redirects.
113 * Fixed newlines in the attributes created from fields in XSLForms: CR
114 characters are no longer included since this caused the doubling up of
115 newlines in Firefox.
116
117 New in XSLTools 0.4.4 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.3)
118 ----------------------------------------------------
119
120 * Fixed translation selection for the template:i18n annotation attribute,
121 not just for the template:i18n extension function - more apologies for
122 resulting output changes!
123 * Improved the template fixing stylesheet and added some documentation for
124 the script and the related expr-prefix attribute.
125 * Introduced WebStack 1.2.2 EncodingSelector and encoding changes.
126 * Added docstring and return value for the write_month_to_document function
127 in XSLTools.XMLCalendar.
128
129 New in XSLTools 0.4.3 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.2)
130 ----------------------------------------------------
131
132 * Fixed translation selection when an unsupported locale is specified,
133 choosing the first locale as the default (rather than exposing the values
134 themselves as translations). Note that this is an unfortunate and subtle
135 change which may affect application output - apologies are hereby offered!
136
137 New in XSLTools 0.4.2 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4.1)
138 ----------------------------------------------------
139
140 * Added a content type check in the XSLFormsResource class, permitting
141 non-form-based resources to access the raw request data, rather than have
142 the data processed unsuccessfully and consequently discarded.
143 * Added a script and a function to fix template namespaces after editing in
144 a careless editor.
145 * Changed libxml2mod and libxsltmod import details to try libxmlmods -
146 suggested by Lucian Wischik for libxml2dom.
147
148 New in XSLTools 0.4.1 (Changes since XSLTools 0.4)
149 --------------------------------------------------
150
151 * Made translations specified using the template:i18n annotation take
152 priority over template:value annotations.
153 * Added expression-based template:i18n annotations, and provided fallback
154 output for such translations based on the value of the evaluated
155 expression.
156
157 New in XSLTools 0.4 (Changes since XSLTools 0.3.1)
158 --------------------------------------------------
159
160 * Changed the preparation of templates to produce rule-based output
161 stylesheets, thus permitting recursive templates. This requires an extra
162 expr-prefix annotation to be used in certain kinds of templates.
163 * Added a recursive template example application.
164 * Changed fragment production to use original template documents instead of
165 output stylesheets.
166 * Changed the in_page_resources attribute to provide the output identifier,
167 thus changing the prepare_fragment method in Web resources so that only
168 the fragment identifier needs to be supplied.
169 * Added the XSLForms.Resources.WebResources.prepare_resources method for the
170 preparation of initialiser and output stylesheets before an application is
171 run.
172 * Changed selectors to not automatically create elements in the form data
173 document unless requested to do so. Introduced a Form.get_selector
174 method in XSLForms.Fields.
175 * Permitted the creation of hierarchies of elements in
176 XSLForms.Utils.add_elements.
177 * Introduced dynamic parameter evaluation for multiple-choice fields in
178 order to support sources of multiple-choice values which reside in the
179 form data document itself.
180 * Added the FixNamespace.xsl stylesheet to correct documents saved by HTML
181 editors which strip namespace prefixes.
182 * Fixed filesystem encoding issues in the Candidate example; fixed language
183 preference access in the Configurator and VerySimple examples.
184 * Changed the BaseHTTPRequestHandler version of the Candidate example to
185 store data in a subdirectory of the current working directory, thus
186 allowing the demonstration application to work after package installation.
187
188 New in XSLTools 0.3.1 (Changes since XSLTools 0.3)
189 --------------------------------------------------
190
191 * Fixed copyright and licensing information.
192
193 New in XSLTools 0.3 (Changes since XSLTools 0.2)
194 ------------------------------------------------
195
196 * Introduced copying of multiple-choice value element contents so that
197 option element labels can differ from the underlying values.
198 * Added internationalisation support, providing the template:i18n annotation
199 and the template:i18n extension function.
200 * Updated the documentation to cover the above new features.
201 * Fixed non-GET/POST request method handling in WebResources.
202 * Added the xslform_preparemacro.py script.
203 * Added an experimental template:range extension function.
204
205 New in XSLTools 0.2 (Changes since XSLTools 0.1)
206 ------------------------------------------------
207
208 * Made a new XSLTools package and moved XSLOutput into it.
209 * Improved serialisation of transformation results so that output options
210 are observed (in some cases, at least).
211 * Fixed stylesheet and reference document paths so that libxslt should not
212 now become confused by ambiguous relative paths.
213 * Added expression parameters to XSLOutput.Processor so that in-document
214 data can be used to, for example, initialise multiple-choice field values.
215 * Added input/initialiser support so that input documents can be tidied or
216 initialised using information from the template.
217 * Added template:init for use with template:element in XSLForms to control
218 element initialisation where necessary.
219 * Added special high-level "macro" attributes (eg. template:attribute-field)
220 which should make templates easier to write and maintain.
221 * Added template:if to XSLForms, providing conditional output of annotated
222 elements.
223 * Added set_document to XSLForms.Fields.Form.
224 * Added prepare_parameters to the XSLFormsResource class in the
225 XSLForms.Resources.WebResources module.
226 * Added element-path, url-encode and choice XSLForms extension functions.
227 * Improved Unicode support in the XSLForms extension functions.
228 * Changed in-page requests to contain proper POST data.
229 * Fixed checkbox and radiobutton value detection in XSLForms.js.
230 * Updated the code to work with WebStack 1.0 changes and adopted the
231 new-style WebStack demonstration mechanism.
232 * Added XMLCalendar and XMLTable (to the XSLTools package).
233 * Added a dictionary (or word lookup) example application.
234 * Added a job candidate profile (or CV editor) example application.
235 * Added a template attribute reference and an XSLFormsResource guide to the
236 documentation.
237 * Added Debian package support (specifically Ubuntu package support).
238 * Added missing COPYING.txt file.
239 * Renamed the scripts to avoid naming issues in system-wide installations.
240 * Added a PyQt example based on the system configurator example, with the
241 form prepared in Qt Designer. This example runs in PyQt and in a Web
242 environment without any changes to the application code. In-page updates
243 are currently not implemented in the Web version, however.
244
245 Notes on In-Page Update Functionality
246 -------------------------------------
247
248 Special note #1: Konqueror seems in certain cases to remember replaced form
249 content (when replaceChild is used to replace regions of the page which
250 include form elements). This causes the browser to believe that more form
251 fields exist on the page than actually do so, and subsequent form submissions
252 thus include the values of such removed fields. A special hack is in place to
253 disable form fields by changing their names, thus causing Konqueror to not
254 associate such fields with the real, active fields; this hack does not seem to
255 cause problems for Mozilla. This needs some investigation to determine in
256 exactly which circumstances the problem arises.
257
258 Special note #2: Konqueror also seems to crash if asked to find elements using
259 an empty 'id' attribute string. This needs some investigation to see if it
260 really is the getElementById call that causes the crash.
261
262 Special note #3: Konqueror's XMLHttpRequest seems to append null characters to
263 the end of field values. Attempting to prune them before the request is sent
264 fails with a function like the following:
265
266 function fixValue(fieldValue) {
267 if (fieldValue.length == 0) {
268 return fieldValue;
269 } else if (fieldValue[fieldValue.length - 1] == '\0') {
270 return fieldValue.substr(0, fieldValue.length - 1);
271 } else {
272 return fieldValue;
273 }
274 }
275
276 This may be because it is the entire message that is terminated with the null
277 character, and that this happens only upon sending the message. Consequently,
278 some frameworks (notably mod_python) do not support in-page functionality when
279 used from Konqueror.
280
281 Various browsers (eg. Mozilla/Firefox, Konqueror) will not allow the
282 XMLHttpRequest in-page updates to function unless the URL used in the
283 requestUpdate JavaScript function is compatible with the URL at which the
284 browser finds the application. Currently, relative URLs are in use to avoid
285 this issue of compatibility, but should an absolute URL be deduced using the
286 WebStack API and then used, it may be possible that the values returned by
287 that API do not match the actual addresses entered into the address bar of the
288 browser.
289
290 To check the behaviour of the applications, it is possible to view the
291 document source of the pages served by applications and to verify that the
292 URLs mentioned in the JavaScript function calls (to 'requestUpdate') either be
293 a relative link or involve a URL similar to that which appears in the
294 browser's address bar. In some environments, the use of 'localhost' addresses
295 often confuses the browser and server; one workaround is to use real host
296 names or addresses instead of 'localhost'.
297
298 Choosing an element-path:
299
300 When specifying the "context" of the in-page update, one must imagine which
301 element the template fragment should operate within. If the template:section
302 attribute marks a particular section, then the element-path should be a path
303 to the applicable context element for that section in the complete template
304 document. Note that if a template:element attribute appears on the same
305 element as the template:section attribute then the element-path should refer
306 to the element specified in the template:element attribute.
307
308 Choosing where to put template:attribute, template:section and id:
309
310 When specifying the extent of a template fragment, one must be sure not to put
311 the template:section attribute on the same element as a template:attribute
312 annotation; otherwise, the generated code will be improperly extracted as a
313 fragment producing two versions of the element - one for when the specified
314 attribute is present, and one for when it is not present. Generally,
315 template:section and id can be placed on the same node, however.
316
317 Stable element ordering and element-path:
318
319 Within the element-path, the numbering of the elements will start at 1.
320 Therefore it is vital to choose a region of the form data structure with the
321 element-path which is isolated from surrounding elements whose positions would
322 otherwise be dependent on a stable ordering of elements, and whose processing
323 would be disrupted if some new elements suddenly appeared claiming the same
324 positions in the document. For example:
325
326 <item value=""> .../item$1/value
327 <type value=""/> .../item$1/type$1/value
328 <comment value=""/> .../item$1/comment$2/value
329 </item>
330
331 In-page update...
332
333 <comment value=""/> .../item$1/comment$1/value
334
335 Notes on XSL
336 ------------
337
338 libxslt seems to be quite liberal on the definition of runtime parameters, in
339 that there is no apparent need to explicitly declare the corresponding global
340 variables in stylesheets. Whilst this is nice, we may eventually need to
341 detect such variables and add them in the preparation process.
342
343 Release Procedures
344 ------------------
345
346 Update the XSLTools/__init__.py and XSLForms/__init__.py __version__
347 attributes.
348 Change the version number and package filename/directory in the documentation.
349 Change code examples in the documentation if appropriate.
350 Update the release notes (see above).
351 Check the setup.py file and ensure that all package directories are mentioned.
352 Check the release information in the PKG-INFO file and in the package
353 changelog (and other files).
354 Tag, export.
355 Generate the example resources.
356 Generate the API documentation.
357 Remove generated .pyc files: find . -name "*.pyc" | xargs rm
358 Archive, upload.
359 Upload the introductory documentation.
360 Update PyPI, PythonInfo Wiki, Vaults of Parnassus entries.
361
362 Generating the Example Resources
363 --------------------------------
364
365 In order to prepare the example resources, the prepare_demo.py script must be
366 run as follows:
367
368 python tools/prepare_demo.py
369
370 This will ensure that all initialiser and output stylesheets are created and
371 are thus installed by packages.
372
373 Generating the API Documentation
374 --------------------------------
375
376 In order to prepare the API documentation, it is necessary to generate some
377 Web pages from the Python source code. For this, the epydoc application must
378 be available on your system. Then, inside the distribution directory, run the
379 apidocs.sh tool script as follows:
380
381 ./tools/apidocs.sh
382
383 Some warnings may be generated by the script, but the result should be a new
384 apidocs directory within the distribution directory.
385
386 Making Packages
387 ---------------
388
389 To make Debian-based packages:
390
391 1. Create new package directories under packages if necessary.
392 2. Make a symbolic link in the distribution's root directory to keep the
393 Debian tools happy. Try one of the following:
394
395 ln -s packages/ubuntu-hoary/python2.4-xsltools/debian/
396 ln -s packages/ubuntu-feisty/python-xsltools/debian/
397
398 3. Run the package builder:
399
400 dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot
401
402 4. Locate and tidy up the packages in the parent directory of the
403 distribution's root directory.