COAP:COAP-2180/week6

Week 6 COAP 2180

Week six will focus on introducing some popular XML applications

Main topics:

1. Discussion of the exam
2. Discussion of the term project including informal short presentations of each student's intention and identification of reusable homework.
3. XML namespaces. For example, you will learn that one can integrate XML with XHTML and the other way round
4. Discussion of the ePUB format: Use of Calibre, a ePUB generating software and Sigil (an ePub editor) (Wednesday)
5. Timed text and creating captions in Flash CS6

Teaching materials

• XML namespaces
• ePub (overview page for the popular e-book format, optional reading)
• Calibre (ePub converter)
  • calibre help
• Sigil (ePub editor)
  • Sigil
  • UserGuide

Textbook chapters

• Harold, XML in a Nutshell, Chapter 4 Namespaces (more informative)
• Learning XML, Chapter "Markup and Core Concept". Namespace are shortly explained in the Elements Section

Discussion of the mid-term

(Monday)

• Help:COAP-2180/mid-term-solutions

Discussion of the term project / DTD refinement

On Monday, the instructor will discuss with each student if modifications ought to be made to DTDs made for prior homework.

The term project will include:

• A DTD that models a "domain of your choice". This domain should be somewhat text-centric, i.e. one must be able to display the data in a meaningful way with an XSLT stylesheet.
• An extensive XML test file
• Rendering in HTML via XSLT + CSS, therefore an .xsl and a .css file for the resulting HTML
• An XML Schema (week 7) that adds some data constraints
• A report/documentation in HTML, PDF or Word format (at least 1/2 page, but more if you aim for a top grade)

Other constraints

• All elements can be revisions of prior homework
• Prior to turning in the project, the instructor must validate a draft DTD if the project is different from one of the prior homework. This is to prevent both failure and cheating...

Due: Presentation on Monday week 8

Homework 6

I will give you several options:

Homework 6a

Task

(1) Create an e-book in ePub format

• We suggest using the Calibre converting tool (or similar), but you also can "handcraft" the e-pub file or use an authoring tool like Sigil i.e. write a text from start (including some copy/paste of prior work).
• Content suggestion: A term paper you wrote for a non technical class, a technical manual made from open-content tutorials found on the web. A compilation of interesting News. Avoid creating e-books from "complex" HTML pages.
• You can take contents that you didn't create yourself, but in this case your name must appear in the e-book, e.g. as the creator of e-book version and you should write a short foreword for this edition (1-2 sentences is enough)

(2) If you aim for a high grade, turn in an optional report that describes the intended audience of the e-book, its making (shortly) and other useful comments you may have.

Tips

Prior to creating an e-book, download an e-book in ePub format and display it with a reader. You also can unzip the file and study its contents.

Calibre's help should include enough information to get you started. Before picking up one tutorial, please have a look at the The official "Grand Tour Video"

Finally, EduTechWiki also includes a stub for a E-book conversion with Calibre article. The only useful information so far concerns cleaning up HTML and there are some links.

If you use other tools, you are on your own for finding help and other useful information. If you want to start from scratch, Sigil is supposed to be a fairly easy to learn/use tool. It's basically a specialized HTML editor that will package files, images and meta-information into an epub file.

Due:

• Before start of class, Monday week 7

Homework 6b

• Generate HTML5 contents with some interesting SVG visualization
• Start from a data-rich XML file. There is not need to create a DTD, a well-formed XML file with meaningful tags is enough.