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Stylesheets That Generate HTML - Getting Started

 

The XSLT Editor WYSIWYG tab is available only in Stylus Studio XML Professional Edition.

You can use the WYSIWYG tab of the XSLT Editor to create stylesheets that generate HTML. Stylus Studio automatically generates the XSLT instructions that output the HTML you define on the WYSIWYG tab.

This section helps you get started working with stylesheets that generate HTML. To get started with the features common to all stylesheets, see Working with Stylesheets - Getting Started. To focus on stylesheets that map XML to XML, see Using the XSLT Mapper - Getting Started.

This section is organized as follows:

Before you begin

To get started, you'll need to start Stylus Studio if you haven't already. See Starting Stylus Studio.

Video Demonstrations of the XSLT WYSIWYG Editor

Stylus Studio provides several video demonstrations that show you how to use the XSLT WYSIWYG editor. You can watch these videos instead of (or in addition to) performing the tutorial procedures in this section.

Descriptions

Video demonstrations for using the XSLT WYSIWYG editor include the following:

  • Introduction to WYSIWYG in Stylus Studio - shows how to access the XSLT WYSIWYG editor, how to create static and dynamic contents, and how to create tables and nested tables.
  • Working with Tables - shows how to sort a table and how to do advanced formatting using XSLT conditional processing on atomic entities or on table rows.
  • Using Templates - shows how to use the xsl:apply-templates instruction with the XSLT WYSIWYG editor, how to create new templates, how to edit templates, how to reuse them.

Note

 

This video demonstration is not described in the tutorial procedures in this section.

  • Converting Static HTML - shows how to convert a static HTML page to a dynamic HTML page.

The videos are available here: http://www.StylusStudio.com/xml_videos.html

Tip

 

This page also contains video demonstrations for other Stylus Studio features.

System Requirements

The system on which you play Stylus Studio video demonstrations must meet the following requirements:

  • Windows 2000 or XP operating system.
  • Windows Media Player 9 or higher. You can download the Windows Media Player from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/

In addition, for best results set your Media Player options as follows:

  • Uncheck the Use Overlays ( Tools> Options > Performance > Advanced)
  • Set Video Size to 100% ( View > Video Size)

Getting Started with the XSLT WYSIWYG Editor

This section provides instructions for getting started with the XSLT WYSIWYG editor. It introduces the basic WYSIWYG editor features, and provides background information needed to edit simple stylesheets.

You should perform the steps in each topic before you move on to the next topic. After the first topic, some steps in subsequent topics depend on actions you performed in a previous topic.

This section is organized as follows:

Creating Static HTML

To create static HTML:
1. In the Stylus Studio menu bar, select File > New > XSLT: WYSIWYG. Stylus Studio displays the Scenario Properties dialog box.
2. In the Scenario Properties dialog box, to the right of the Source XML URL field, click Browse .
3. Navigate to and select examples\query\books.xml in the Stylus Studio installation directory, and click Open.
4. In the Scenario Properties dialog box, click OK.

Stylus Studio displays the XSLT Editor open to the WYSIWYG tab. The HTML canvas, the center pane on the WYSIWYG tab, is empty. A tree that represents the XML source document, books.xml, appears to the right of the HTML canvas. The Properties window is displayed by default.

Figure 34. XSLT Editor WYSIWYG Tab

5. Click the XSLT Source tab. As you can see, the basic XSLT instructions that Stylus Studio inserts in every new stylesheet are there. Because you created the stylesheet by selecting the WYSIWYG editor, which is used to design HTML, Stylus Studio has set the output method to HTML ( <xsl:output method="html"/>).
6. Click the WYSIWYG tab.
7. Click in the HTML canvas and type My Favorite Books.
8. In the WYSIWYG tool bar, in the HTML Element field, click the down arrow to display the element menu and click Heading 1.

Figure 35. Select HTML Formatting from Drop-down Menus

9. In the HTML canvas, select My Favorite Books.
10. In the WYSIWYG tool bar, click Text Color and select a color, and then click Center . You can enter and format text in the HTML canvas as you would in any other WYSIWYG editor. What you are creating is static HTML.
11. Click Preview Result .

The Save As dialog box appears.

12. Type myBooks.xsl in the URL field and click the Save button.
13. As you can see in the Preview window, the contents of the HTML canvas and the contents of the result document are identical.

Tip

 

Resize the Preview window by dragging the splitter that separates the Preview window from the XSLT Editor.

Figure 36. Preview Result in the WYSIWYG Editor

14. Click the XSLT Source tab. Stylus Studio has captured the formatting and translated it into XSLT instructions. The stylesheet now contains these instructions in the template that matches the root node. 

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
               
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" 
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
               
<xsl:output method="html"/>
               
 
               
<xsl:template match="/">
               
	<p align="center">
               
		<html><head/>
               
			<body>
               
				<font color="#008000">My Favorite Books</font>
               
			</body>
               
		</html>
               
	</p>
               
</xsl:template>
               
 
               
</xsl:stylesheet>

15. Click the WYSIWYG tab before continuing.

Defining Dynamic Contents

This topic is part of a sequence that starts with Creating Static HTML.

To define dynamic contents:
1. In the source XML document tree, click books and press the asterisk key (*) in the numeric keypad to expand all the elements.
2. In the HTML canvas, position the cursor at the end of My Favorite Books and press Enter.
3. Type This is a list of :.
4. In the XML source tree, drag the name attribute to just before the colon ( :). Stylus Studio displays a pop-up menu.
5. Click xsl:value-of. Stylus Studio adds <<@name>> to the canvas; this statement is a placeholder for the value returned by /books/@name.
6. Move the pointer over this placeholder to display a yellow marker . This is the value-of marker.
7. Move the pointer over the value-of marker.

Stylus Studio displays the instruction that generates the contents for the placeholder.

Figure 37. xsl:value-of Marker in the HTML Canvas

In this example, it is xsl:value-of. Stylus Studio also displays the context for the placeholder. In this example, the context is books/@name.

8. Select This is a list of <<@name>>:.
9. In the WYSIWYG tool bar, click the down arrow in the HTML Element field.
10. Click Heading 2. As you can see, you can format a mixture of static and dynamic HTML.
11. Click Preview Result . The result document contains This is a list of My books: where the HTML canvas contains This is a list of <<@name>>:
12. Press the Enter key to move the cursor to the next line before continuing.

Adding a Table with Dynamic Contents

This topic is part of a sequence that starts with Creating Static HTML.

To add a table with dynamic contents:
1. In the XML source tree, notice the symbol; this symbol identifies repeating elements, such as book and author.
2. Drag the book element from the XML source tree and drop it onto the HTML canvas.

Stylus Studio displays the pop-up menu with an additional option, Add Table.

3. Click Add Table.

Stylus Studio inserts a two-column table with a marker to the left of the table. This marker indicates a looping element.

Figure 38. Table Created Using WYSIWYG Editor

4. Move the pointer over the marker. Stylus Studio displays the instruction that generates the contents of the table, xsl:for-each, and the context for the instruction, books/book. Anything you enter in the table is in the context of books/book.
5. Drag the title element from the XML source tree and drop it into the first column of the table in the HTML canvas.

Stylus Studio displays a pop-up menu.

6. Click xsl:value-of.

Stylus Studio displays the «title» placeholder in the first column. When you apply the stylesheet, the title of each book will appear in a row of the first column of the table.

7. Drag the author element from the XML source tree and drop it into the second column of the table in the HTML canvas.

Stylus Studio displays the pop-up menu.

8. Click Add table.

Stylus Studio displays a subtable in the second column of the table.

9. Right-click in the second column of the subtable to display a new pop-up menu.
10. Click Delete Columns to delete the second column in the subtable.
11. Drag the author element from the XML source tree and drop it into the subtable again.
12. In the pop-up menu that appears, click xsl:value-of.

Stylus Studio displays the «author» placeholder in the second column.

13. Click Preview XSLT . The result document now contains a table that displays the title and authors for each book in books.xml.

Figure 39. Table with Dynamic Content

Using the Properties Window

This topic is part of a sequence that starts with Creating Static HTML.

To get started using the HTML editor to format a table with dynamic contents:
1. In the HTML canvas, click the «author» placeholder, which represents an xsl:value-of instruction.
2. In the Properties window, click the down arrow to display a list of elements.

Figure 40. Drop-Down List Shows Enclosing Elements

Starting with the xsl:value-of element itself, these are the elements that enclose the xsl:value-of element in the XSLT, from the innermost to the outermost. You can specify properties for any of these elements, and what you specify can affect the display represented by the placeholder you clicked.

3. Click the second td element to specify properties for the table data. (If you click the first td element, you specify properties for the subtable that is in the second column of the main table.)

Stylus Studio displays only the properties that can be specified for the element you clicked. For the td element, there are many such properties, or attributes, and you can click the tabs at the bottom of the Properties window to view a particular subset ( Color, Layout, Position, and so on).

4. At the bottom of the Properties window, click the Color tab.
5. Double-click the background-color field.
6. Click Browse to display a drop-down color menu.

Figure 41. WYSIWYG background-color Drop-Down Menu

7. Click the color you want for the background of the table rows and click OK.
8. Click Preview Result .

The result document now displays the table rows with the background color you selected.

Figure 42. Colors Applied by Editing Properties

9. Click the XSLT Source tab.

Stylus Studio has inserted the XSLT instructions that display the table in the color you specified.

Making a Static Web Page Dynamic Using the WYSIWYG Editor

In Making a Static Web Page Dynamic by Editing XSLT, you learned how to use the XSLT Editor's XSLT Source tab to build a Web page that displays dynamic content.

This section provides step-by-step instructions for using the Stylus Studio XSLT WYSIWYG editor to convert a static Web page that displays information about one video into a dynamic Web page that displays information about many videos.

Before You Begin

Before starting this part of the tutorial, you must import an HTML file as described in Importing a Sample HTML File, with the following changes:

  • In step 6, give the scenario a different name, or use the current default.
  • In step 11, give the stylesheet a different name.

When you are done, your copy of Stylus Studio should look something like this:

Figure 43. Preview of myVideos.xsl

After you perform step 11 in that topic, return here, and start with Making Repeating Table Rows in the WYSIWYG Editor.

Making Repeating Table Rows in the WYSIWYG Editor

This topic is part of a sequence that starts with Importing a Sample HTML File.

In the Preview window, you can see that the information for one video appears in a row of a table. You want to make this a repeating row and have each row contain information for a different video.

To create repeating rows in the HTML canvas:
1. Click the WYSIWYG tab.
2. In the source tree pane, expand the result and videos nodes.
3. Drag the video repeating element to the Title table cell, which contains Enemy of the State.
4. In the pop-up menu that appears, click Make repeating.

Stylus Studio displays a looping marker to the left of the table row to indicate that it is a repeating row. If you move the cursor over the marker, Stylus Studio displays the information that the marker represents an xsl:for-each instruction that executes in the context of /result/videos/video.

Figure 44. Repeating Element Depicted in WYSIWYG

5. Click Preview Result . The result document now displays multiple rows. Each row contains information for the same movie: Enemy of the State.

Now that the XSLT describes a table with repeating rows, our next task is to make each of the rows' columns dynamic, that is, to ensure that each row displays information for a different movie.

Making Contents Dynamic in the WYSIWYG Editor

This topic is part of a sequence that starts with Importing a Sample HTML File.

To create dynamic contents in the HTML canvas:
1. In the HTML canvas, select the title Enemy of the State.
2. In the source tree pane, expand the video node and drag and drop the title element on the selected text.
3. In the pop-up menu that appears, click xsl:value-of.

Stylus Studio removes the text for Enemy of the State and replaces it with the <<title>> placeholder.

4. Move the cursor over the <<title>> placeholder and then shift it slowly over the value-of marker ( ) to the left.

Stylus Studio displays the information that the marker represents an xsl:value-of instruction and that it executes in the context of /result/videos/video/title.

5. Click Preview Result .

The result document now displays a different video title in each row. If you want, you can select the title placeholder, apply some formatting and preview the results. Every title in the result document will have the formatting you specified.

6. Repeat step 1 through step 4 for each of the following elements:
    • summary - select all the text in the summary before you drag the summary element
    • genre - select action
    • vhs - select 16.99 (leave the dollar sign ($))
    • dvd - select 29.99
    • director - select Tony Scott
    • studio - select Buena Vista
    • year - select 1999
    • runtime - select 113
7. Click Preview Result . Each row now contains information for a different video. However, the video image in each row is still the same.

Rendering Images as Dynamic Content in the WYSIWYG Editor

This topic is part of a sequence that starts with Importing a Sample HTML File.

The image for each movie is still the same. For this part of the XSLT, you will use the XSLT Source tab:

1. Click the XSLT Source tab.
2. In the Preview window, click the video image to backmap to the instruction that generates it in the XSLT Source tab.

Stylus Studio displays the XSLT Source tab, and flags the line that contains the instruction. As you can see, the stylesheet uses an image ID.

3. In the string "images/video/id1244100.gif", select id1244100.
4. Type {@id} to replace the selected text. This specifies an attribute value template.
5. Click Preview Result .

Each row now contains the correct image for the video described in that row.

6. Click the WYSIWYG tab.

As you can see, there is now a placeholder where the original image was.

7. Click the image's placeholder.

In the Properties window, Stylus Studio displays the properties for the image. If you scroll down to the src property, you can see that the value is images/video/{@id}.gif.

Figure 45. XSLT Properties for Image Source

8. Scroll the result document towards the bottom and examine the VHS and DVD prices. As you can see, some of the prices are missing the decimal places.
9. In the result document, click on the price for a VHS video.

Stylus Studio backmaps to <xsl:value-of select="vhs"/> in the XSLT Source tab.

10. Replace "vhs" with "format-number(vhs, '##.00')". This ensures that every VHS price is formatted with two decimal places.
11. In the XSLT Source tab, scroll down about eight lines, and repeat the previous step for the DVD price. That is replace select= "dvd" with select="format-number(dvd, '##.00')".
12. Click Preview Result . Each price now includes two decimal places. However, small circles appear when no VHS tapes or DVDs are available for sale. The next topic describes how to use conditional processing to remove these circles.
13. Click the WYSIWYG tab. Stylus Studio displays <<format-number()>> as the placeholder for the VHS and DVD prices.

Using Conditional If Processing in the WYSIWYG Editor

This topic is part of a sequence that starts with Importing a Sample HTML File.

In the current videos result document, there are small circles when no VHS tapes or DVDs are available.

Figure 46. Circles Show Processing of Empty Strings

These circles appear when the XSLT processor tries to process an empty string with select=format-number.

To remove these small circles:
1. In the WYSIWYG tab, select the <<format-number()>> that is the placeholder for the VHS price.
2. Right-click the selected placeholder.
3. In the pop-up menu, select Conditional Processing > Add If. Stylus Studio displays the Input dialog box.
4. In the Input dialog box, type vhs in the Test Condition field. This tests whether there are any vhs elements.
5. Repeat step 1 through step 4, but this time select the DVD price placeholder, and specify dvd as the test condition.
6. Click Preview Result . The small circles no longer appear. Instead, nothing appears when there are no VHS tapes or DVDs for a particular video.
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