Online documentation - Websydian v6.5

Improving the layout of your templates using XSLT

Background
Getting started with the XSLT transformation
Using the XSLT tool
Improving the XSLT document
Further information

Background

Changing the document template generator to accommodate your layout and requirements can in some cases be a problem. This document describes the use of a small tool which we have been using in order to create the administration interface of WebsydianExpress.

The main part of this tool is based on using XSLT. The idea of XSLT is to provide the functionality of transforming an XML document to another format that being another XML document, CSV file or even an HTML file.

In this case we use the XSLT to transform an XHTML file to an HTML file.

XHTML is HTML that fully complies with XML formatting and can therefore be parsed by an XML parser. In the tool we use tidy to transform HTML to XHTML.

Getting started with the XSLT transformation

This tool is provided as is, please feel free to comment and suggest improvements. No support can be expected.

Please complete the following easy steps to use the XSLT tool for your Websydian document templates.

Install the XSLT tool

Download the XSLT tool here and unpack the zip file to the same directory as your local model.

Download the XSLT tool

After unpacking the XSLT tool you will find the following subdirectories.

html (root directory of the XSLT tool)
- bin (java runtime, XSLT, and tidy)
- final (final document templates)
- raw (document templates created by the document template generator)

Setup your local model

Open the Generate and Build Options panel in Plex and locate the Web HTML source setting in Build Directories.

Change the location of your Web HTML source to the directory named HTML\RAW in the directory where you unpacked the XSLT tool.

Using the XSLT tool

In order for you to use the XSLT tool you will need to complete the following easy steps

Run all the document template generator functions of you pagegenerators from within your Plex model
Run the the batch file name processall.cmd which is located in the directory \HTML\.
The new and improved document templates are now located in the directory named final.

Improving the XSLT document

Feel free to improve the XSLT file "Skelet_Raw.xsl" to accommodate your requirements.