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Glenn Roberts

Subject: XML Mapper Limitations
Author: Glenn Roberts
Date: 13 May 2002 10:53 AM

I am currently evaluating your product to assist our requirement to write XSLT files.

I was particularly interested in using your XML Mapper, as it may speed up development and provide "coverage" information whilst writing a transformation source file; it could also be useful to assist maintenance.

However after successfully creating an XSLT file using the XML Mapper, I wanted to improve the file to make it easier to read for maintenance purposes.

My first requirement was to insert blank lines to highlight parts of the source file. Unfortunately when I move between the XSLT source and the XML mapper tabs the source file is reformatted and blank lines are lost.

My second requirement was to break up the single template into a set of templates within the same source file. I did this and re-tested, however the mapper only displayed the links for the "root" template, and therefore only a small part of the mapping is shown. The requirement for using templates was two fold, to make it easier to understand the translation process by breaking it up into potentially re-usable parts and also to enable support a more complicated XML hierarchy.

As a more minor comment, the mapper does not show "graphically" attributes that have been defined with a fixed value; it would be nice if the Mapper did this.

My conclusions are that the XML Mapper facility cannot be used for requirements where maintainability is an issue. I am also concerned that the accidental selection of this tab would cause re-formatting which can only be recovered by avoiding saving the source file.

Is my understanding of these issues correct? Are there any enhancements in progress which will address these issues?

Ivan Pedruzzi

Subject: RE: XML Mapper Limitations
Author: Ivan Pedruzzi
Date: 13 May 2002 11:25 AM

Hi Glenn,

> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylus-studio-xslt Listmanager [mailto:listmanager]
> Sent: Monday, May 13, 2002 11:05 AM
> To: Recipients of 'stylus-studio-xslt' suppressed
> Subject: XML Mapper Limitations
>
>
> From: "Glenn Roberts"
>
> I am currently evaluating your product to assist our
> requirement to write XSLT files.
>
> I was particularly interested in using your XML Mapper, as it
> may speed up development and provide "coverage" information
> whilst writing a transformation source file; it could also be
> useful to assist maintenance.
>
> However after successfully creating an XSLT file using the
> XML Mapper, I wanted to improve the file to make it easier to
> read for maintenance purposes.
>
> My first requirement was to insert blank lines to highlight
> parts of the source file. Unfortunately when I move between
> the XSLT source and the XML mapper tabs the source file is
> reformatted and blank lines are lost.

You should use XML comment like

(!-- my comment -->

they will be preserved and will not affect your output

>
> My second requirement was to break up the single template
> into a set of templates within the same source file. I did
> this and re-tested, however the mapper only displayed the
> links for the "root" template, and therefore only a small
> part of the mapping is shown. The requirement for using
> templates was two fold, to make it easier to understand the
> translation process by breaking it up into potentially
> re-usable parts and also to enable support a more complicated
> XML hierarchy.

Select the link, right click on it and choose "Properties", a docking
window will appear. The last line is "Uses Template" if you change the
value to True Mapper will generate named template for you

Hope this helps

Ivan Pedruzzi
eXcelon Corporation
http://www.stylusstudio.com

>
> As a more minor comment, the mapper does not show
> "graphically" attributes that have been defined with a fixed
> value; it would be nice if the Mapper did this.
>
> My conclusions are that the XML Mapper facility cannot be
> used for requirements where maintainability is an issue. I
> am also concerned that the accidental selection of this tab
> would cause re-formatting which can only be recovered by
> avoiding saving the source file.
>
> Is my understanding of these issues correct? Are there any
> enhancements in progress which will address these issues?
>
>
>
> To reply: mailto:stylus-studio-xslt.5073@edn.exceloncorp.com
> To start a new topic: mailto:stylus-studio-xslt@edn.exceloncorp.com
> To login: http://edn.exceloncorp.com/~SSDN
>
>

Glenn Roberts

Subject: RE: XML Mapper Limitations
Author: Glenn Roberts
Date: 13 May 2002 12:48 PM

Thank you for your prompt response.

Both suggestions worked and satisfy my main requirements (I would have liked to add blank lines; but I can now at least put comments in important "code" sections).

I guess (I'm a novice at XSLT) for simple requirements the following code generated by the mapper:

is functionally equivalent to

Apart from these problems, I am very impressed with the product so far.

Glenn Roberts

Subject: RE: XML Mapper Limitations
Author: Glenn Roberts
Date: 13 May 2002 12:49 PM

Thank you for your prompt response.

Both suggestions worked and satisfy my main requirements (I would have liked to add blank lines; but I can now at least put comments in important "code" sections).

I guess (I'm a novice at XSLT) for simple requirements the following code generated by the mapper:

\
\
\

is functionally equivalent to

\

Apart from these problems, I am very impressed with the product so far.

Glenn Roberts

Subject: RE: XML Mapper Limitations
Author: Glenn Roberts
Date: 13 May 2002 12:51 PM

Thank you for your prompt response.

Both suggestions worked and satisfy my main requirements (I would have liked to add blank lines; but I can now at least put comments in important "code" sections).

I guess (I'm a novice at XSLT) for simple requirements the following code generated by the mapper:

xsl:for-each select="xxx"
xsl:call-template name="xxx-xxx"
xsl:for-each

is functionally equivalent to

xsl:apply-templates select="xxx"

Apart from these problems, I am very impressed with the product so far.

SORRY FOR THE REPETITION - I couldn't make the email pass through the xsl tags.

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