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