COAP:COAP-2180/week5

The educational technology and digital learning wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Week 5 COAP 2180

On week five you will continue learning how to transform XML content, e.g. use XSLT to render XML with HTML + CSS

  • Elementary XPath and XSLT value extraction
  • Some simple XML to HTML node transformation design patterns, e.g. how to deal with pictures
  • Use CSS styling for the HTML output
  • Some SVG

This homework can be part of your term project.

Sample code snippets for embedding pictures

URL is text of an element (<image>filename.png</image>):

<xsl:template match="image">
   <p> <img src="{.}"/> </p>
</xsl:template>

URL is defined with an "source" attribute (<image source="filename.png">Cool picture</image>):

<xsl:template match="image">
   <p> 
      <img src="{@source}"/><br/>
      <xsl:value-of select="."/>  <!-- insert a caption -->
    </p>
</xsl:template>

Links follow the same logic, identify the HTML result you need, and read this

Links

Creating links follows the same logic as dealing with pictures.

Internal tables of contents

Creating an internal table of contents is a bit more complicated. You must

  • create internal anchors (<a name="....">...</a>)
  • then create links that point to these (<a href="#....">...</a>)

Try to find a solution on the web, e.g. on with a google search like "stackoverflow xslt TOC". Make sure to narrow down good answers to simple solutions. Alternatively, search for "xslt create simple table of content"

New: Read Creating_an_internal_table_of_contents] (two examples that may help)

Code snippets for SVG visualization

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" 
   xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
   xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" 
   xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
   >
 
<xsl:output
     method="xml"
     doctype-system="about:legacy-compat"
     omit-xml-declaration = "yes"
     encoding="UTF-8"
     indent="yes" />
 
 <xsl:template match="/">
   <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
     <head>
       <meta charset="utf-8"></meta>
       <title>Anything</title>
     </head>
     <body>
       <xsl:apply-templates/>
     </body>
 </html>
 </xsl:template>
 
 <xsl:template match="ELEMENT_THAT_CONTAINS_A_NUMBER">
   Something here: <xsl:apply-templates/>
   <xsl:variable name="NUMBER" select="."/>
   <svg style="background-color:yellow;float:right" width="20" height="100" 
	xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" 
	xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
     <rect x="5px" y="5px" height="{$NUMBER*1.2}" width="10px" fill="green" />
   </svg>
 </xsl:template>
 
</xsl:stylesheet>
  • See this for a complete example...

Midterm - preparation

For your mid-term exam (Wednesday) you will receive a task like the following one:


Please create a DTD that models the following type of Documents: __________________

  • Your model should "capture" the most important information blocks
  • Use at least ___ elements

Suggested procedure:

  • Sketch out the DTD structure on paper (or with an editor)
  • Create the DTD
  • Validate the DTD
  • Create an XML test file
  • Revise DTD if needed

Tips:

  • Save frequently
  • If you start making revisions to the DTD towards the end of the exam, create a new version of DTD and the XML.

Bonus points:

  • Use of attributes and/or DTD entities when appropriate
  • Use of some elements for styling longer text, e.g. bullets and paragraphs
  • Very complete test files
  • Comments in the DTD

Upload the following:

  • DTD file
  • XML test file

Teaching materials

Tour de XML (cancelled this week)

Demonstration

Using the editor

  • Exchanger XML Editor (in particular, read the sections concerning XSLT)
  • In case you are using another XML editor that can't do XSLT transformations, you could use the debug tools of IE (hit F12).

XSLT and XPath texts

SVG texts (optional)

Examples files (also on the N: drive)

Textbook chapters

If you find that my lecture notes and slides are incomplete, too short or not good enough, reading either one or both texts is mandatory !

  • Ray, Learning XML, Second Edition, Transformation with XSLT chapter
  • Ray, Learning XML, Second Edition, XPath and XPointer chapter (pp. 205-213)
  • Harold, XML in a Nutshell, XSL Transformations (XSLT) chapter (optional)

These chapters are available through the world classroom.

For the adventurous
  • Follow up the links in the XSLT page.
  • XML Category (All XML-related articles in this wiki)
  • XML (on Wikipedia)

Homework 5 - Week 5

Task

  • Revise homework 4 so that the DTD includes links and pictures. Alternatively, create a new DTD
  • Modify or create the XSLT so that it will display pictures and links
  • Create a CSS for the generated HTML or improve the existing one, either use inline styles or better: an external CSS file)
  • (Optional), output HTML5 including some SVG

Tips:

  • Use a rule for each of your elements, otherwise make sure that you include contents using xsl:value-of or {...} within HTML attributes.
  • Elements that only include other elements and no text should just be made into <div> .... </div> blocks for styling
  • For debugging, use an XSLT processor (e.g. in the Exchanger editor) to manually create an HTML file, then look at its structure. You also should validate the file. Alternatively, use IE to look at the HTML transformation.

Deadline and submission:

  • Wednesday week 6 (before start of class)
  • Use the world classroom: https://webster.blackboard.edu/
  • Submit the *.dtd, the *.xml test files, the *.xslt file, the *.css file, multimedia assets (pictures), an optional optional report file (see below)

Evaluation criteria (roughly)

Work considered as weak:

  • Incomplete rendering of elements, e.g. pictures do not show.

Work considered as minimalistic:

  • Minimal rendering of elements, e.g. no extra information inserted
  • XSLT can deal with pictures and links
  • Very minimal CSS

Good work and excellent work (B to A-) may include one or several of the following:

  • Inserted comments in the XSLT that explain some (not all of the translation)
  • XSLT will add output that is needed to make the XML contents understandable
  • A report (e.g. in HTML, word, PDF etc.)
  • Good styling (usability)
  • Good styling (coolness)
  • Almost valid HTML produced
  • HTML5 + SVG output
  • Automatically generated table of contents.

Brilliant work (A)

  • Does most of the above, i.e. produces a result that could be used in real life.