Re: OpenDocument as an output format
Gerhard and Clay, Thanks for your interesting info on Open Document Format (ODF or ODT?). Later this year I hope to be able to spend some more work on ODF. But I am afraid that ODF as an output format for FOP is not a priority for me. Regards, Simon On Sun, Jun 04, 2006 at 09:11:43AM -0700, Web Maestro Clay wrote: > On Jun 4, 2006, at 2:05 AM, gerhard oettl wrote: > >My conclusion at this time was, that is is "more or less" easy to > >convert to opendocument from an arbitrary (self defined) to > >opendocument format, but "more or less" impossible to convert > >xml-fo to opendocument. This means that i have to maintain two > >xslt sets, but my intention was to have one toolchain like: > > > >[my-xml] + [my-xslt-templates] --> [xml-fo] and then > >[xml-fo] + [xslt-tmplates | prog-like-fop | ooo-importfilter] --> > >opendocument > > > >so that i have to write (or better others have written ;-)) the > >conversation from one standard format (xsl-fo) to another > >standard format (opendocument format) only once. > > > >As written above i see three possibilities: > >a) a common developed set of xslt templates > > (i failed to go far this route - maybe others have more success) > >b) opendocument format as output format of fop > > (i think it would be the most probable way - having the > >experience of rtf-output in mind) > >c) a importfilter in openoffice that can read xsl-fo files > > (though not impossible i dont remember any thinking of the > >ooo-developers for such a feature) > > Another possibility might be to output to complete FOP's RTF output, > and then convert RTF to ODT/OpenDocument. > > BTW, there's already some work started on an Apache Forrest > OpenDocument input plugin in the Forrest 'whiteboard' section: > > forrest/trunk/whiteboard/plugins/org.apache.forrest.plugin.input.odt/ > > In addition, Apache Lenya folks have been working on OpenDocument > input and output modules. > > One other possibility is to study the Docbook2opendocument: > > http://open.comsultia.com/docbook2odf/ -- Simon Pepping home page: http://www.leverkruid.eu
Re: OpenDocument as an output format
On Jun 4, 2006, at 2:05 AM, gerhard oettl wrote: On Wed, May 31, 2006 at 04:17:26PM -0300, Stefan Ziel wrote: hi folks, creating an Output Handler for OASIS OpenDocument, as mentioned in the "wish list" don?t seem to make much sense, as XSL:FO can easily be converted to OpenDocument using a XSLT style sheet. without doing all that rendering in between ;) I did some steps in this direction last autumn because it looks temptingly easy. There where some parts of the opendocument format that make it easy (in comparision with the original openoffice format). For example a "flat xml" format is defined: it is not necessary to split style and content (and some other parts - i dont remember exactly) into different files - you can put all into one uncompressed xml file absolutly unordered. But the more i come to details the more the problems araised (at least for my limited but not unexisting xslt knowledge). Inheriance - as also mentionted by jeremias - was one showstopper. Another was that openoffice had not realy better possibilities to handle autoformating (detecting column width) tables which was one goal of my tests to bypass limitations of fop. My conclusion at this time was, that is is "more or less" easy to convert to opendocument from an arbitrary (self defined) to opendocument format, but "more or less" impossible to convert xml-fo to opendocument. This means that i have to maintain two xslt sets, but my intention was to have one toolchain like: [my-xml] + [my-xslt-templates] --> [xml-fo] and then [xml-fo] + [xslt-tmplates | prog-like-fop | ooo-importfilter] --> opendocument so that i have to write (or better others have written ;-)) the conversation from one standard format (xsl-fo) to another standard format (opendocument format) only once. As written above i see three possibilities: a) a common developed set of xslt templates (i failed to go far this route - maybe others have more success) b) opendocument format as output format of fop (i think it would be the most probable way - having the experience of rtf-output in mind) c) a importfilter in openoffice that can read xsl-fo files (though not impossible i dont remember any thinking of the ooo-developers for such a feature) Another possibility might be to output to complete FOP's RTF output, and then convert RTF to ODT/OpenDocument. BTW, there's already some work started on an Apache Forrest OpenDocument input plugin in the Forrest 'whiteboard' section: forrest/trunk/whiteboard/plugins/org.apache.forrest.plugin.input.odt/ In addition, Apache Lenya folks have been working on OpenDocument input and output modules. One other possibility is to study the Docbook2opendocument: http://open.comsultia.com/docbook2odf/ If there are leaders for implementing b) to fop i would try to contribute - beeing cautious to dont prommise more than i could deliver. I willcontribute in anyway I can. I started working on the Forrest 'odt' plugin, and contributed code to improve the XSL output of the & elements, and adding 'images' (although I'm currently having a problem with images being placed in ../images/ instead of images/--they end up *above* the root directory!). gerhard -- .''`. gerhard oettl on Debian/Gnu Linux : :' : `. `'` gpg key: 1024D/D59131AA 2002-06-18 `- Web Maestro Clay [EMAIL PROTECTED] My religion is simple. My religion is kindness. -- HH Dalai Lama of Tibet
Re: OpenDocument as an output format
On Wed, May 31, 2006 at 04:17:26PM -0300, Stefan Ziel wrote: >hi folks, > >creating an Output Handler for OASIS OpenDocument, as mentioned in the >"wish list" don?t seem to make much sense, as XSL:FO can easily be >converted to OpenDocument using a XSLT style sheet. without doing all >that rendering in between ;) I did some steps in this direction last autumn because it looks temptingly easy. There where some parts of the opendocument format that make it easy (in comparision with the original openoffice format). For example a "flat xml" format is defined: it is not necessary to split style and content (and some other parts - i dont remember exactly) into different files - you can put all into one uncompressed xml file absolutly unordered. But the more i come to details the more the problems araised (at least for my limited but not unexisting xslt knowledge). Inheriance - as also mentionted by jeremias - was one showstopper. Another was that openoffice had not realy better possibilities to handle autoformating (detecting column width) tables which was one goal of my tests to bypass limitations of fop. My conclusion at this time was, that is is "more or less" easy to convert to opendocument from an arbitrary (self defined) to opendocument format, but "more or less" impossible to convert xml-fo to opendocument. This means that i have to maintain two xslt sets, but my intention was to have one toolchain like: [my-xml] + [my-xslt-templates] --> [xml-fo] and then [xml-fo] + [xslt-tmplates | prog-like-fop | ooo-importfilter] --> opendocument so that i have to write (or better others have written ;-)) the conversation from one standard format (xsl-fo) to another standard format (opendocument format) only once. As written above i see three possibilities: a) a common developed set of xslt templates (i failed to go far this route - maybe others have more success) b) opendocument format as output format of fop (i think it would be the most probable way - having the experience of rtf-output in mind) c) a importfilter in openoffice that can read xsl-fo files (though not impossible i dont remember any thinking of the ooo-developers for such a feature) If there are leaders for implementing b) to fop i would try to contribute - beeing cautious to dont prommise more than i could deliver. gerhard -- .''`. gerhard oettl on Debian/Gnu Linux : :' : `. `'` gpg key: 1024D/D59131AA 2002-06-18 `-
Re: OpenDocument as an output format
On Wed, May 31, 2006 at 04:17:26PM -0300, Stefan Ziel wrote: > hi folks, > > creating an Output Handler for OASIS OpenDocument, as mentioned in the > "wish list" don?t seem to make much sense, as XSL:FO can easily be > converted to OpenDocument using a XSLT style sheet. without doing all > that rendering in between ;) Can you really? AFAIK, an OpenDocument contains rendering information to the extent that it can reproduce the rendering which the user has saved. Even another OpenDocument compliant viewer can reproduce that rendering. That would mean that you cannot create an OpenDocument without a rendering. Regards, Simon -- Simon Pepping home page: http://www.leverkruid.eu
Re: OpenDocument as an output format
That's a fair comment. Still, you have to deal with ODF's ZIP-based container, multiple output files and resources. You won't get around writing some helper code around the XSLT. The other question is whether you can handle all the FO tree features (like inheritance) easily in XSLT. Any interest on your side to look into this? On 31.05.2006 21:17:26 Stefan Ziel wrote: > hi folks, > > creating an Output Handler for OASIS OpenDocument, as mentioned in the > "wish list" don´t seem to make much sense, as XSL:FO can easily be > converted to OpenDocument using a XSLT style sheet. without doing all > that rendering in between ;) > > best regards > > stefan ziel > clan informatica do brasil Jeremias Maerki
