[XSL-LIST Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: Output of a FLowchart from XML
If you read the thread that I started, you will recall David Pawson's suggestion of the ATT free software tool set called "graphviz". http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/ I have worked with it some over the past several days. My process involves transforming my XML data source document to graphML, then I transform the graphML document to the "dot" language understood by the directed graphing program "dot" that is a component of graphviz. This is a very easy language to understand and produce via an XSL transformation. At that point I have a dot program that I run through the dot, er, formatter? I can choose the output format with a command-line switch. So far I have produced SVG, encapsulated PostScript, PNG, and GIF. Why are you still reading this? You should be downloading the program and documentation already! -- Charles Knell cknell@xxxxxxxxxx - email -----Original Message----- From: Sam Byland <shbyland@xxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 13:35:10 -0500 To: <xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: Output of a FLowchart from XML Hello all, I am fairly new to this list, but not to XSLT. After reading the "Network diagram - node set intersection" thread I decided to post this question (perhaps graphML/SVG or something else, or a combination, will help us). Some background: a few years ago we decided to use XML and XSLT to solve a "documentation" problem in our industry (we consult in the area of Satellite Design and Operations). Our clients often face the problem of developing and maintaining operational information in multiple places and formats. For example, for a given task or operation, there is usually 1) a technical document maintained by the engineers filled with background and equations, explaining the sequence and often answering "why" things are done in the order specified. Format is usually MS Word or similar. 2) an operational document maintained by satellite operators. Rarely if ever addresses "why", only "how" in gory detail, usually specific to the "syntax" of the specific ground software used to operate the satellite. Format is usually MS Word or similar. 3) an "automatic software" procedure, called out via document from 2) above and runs within the specific ground software; these are text files of software code conforming to a specific syntax. One or more of these for each item 2) document. We have created a DTD defining a procedure-like source document (I suppose it's now a new Markup Language?) and stylesheets to output the three kinds of formats listed above (although we're not done with them; still working on item 3). However, our main client (who has been quite happy with our product so far) has asked if we can output Flowcharts corresponding to the software files of item 3. Initially, I quickly abandoned SVG or Visio XML as it looked like the stylesheets would have to "create the drawings" and line connections along with where they need to appear on the page. This sounds like a lot of code. The other option we've been looking into is flowcharting applications that support some kind of text-to-flowchart capabilities. We think we have a working solution here, but it requires extra steps to get to the final output (graphic files to eventually end up in the Word documents of item 2). The process would be something like a) stylesheets to output text in the flowcharter's "syntax", b) open each file in the flowcharting application, c) do some touch-up work within the app, d) save and export to JPEG or similar format). It occurred to me that if there exists the right bundle of tools somewhere, perhaps we could use SVG in some way as to bypass a number of manual steps associated with the flowcharting application. Any ideas? Our source XML files look something like: procedure purpose/ discussion/ instruction step "action" elements /step step etc /instruction instruction etc. /procedure where purpose and discussion contain paragraphs of text/equations to describe the activity, one or more instruction elements provide the operational steps for each task, and one or more step elements contain the various "actions" such as command transmission and execution, and telemetry verifications. In general, each step element would result in a particular kind of flowchart box (with, say, the title inside and bolded), and each action element would result in it's own box (or perhaps groups of action elements in a single box), with connectors needed for "if" statements and "goto's" etc. Sorry for the long-winded post :) ..sam Sam Byland byland@xxxxxxxxxx www.moltek.com XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
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