[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       koffice-devel
Subject:    [RFC] New filter status made around XML/XSLT
From:       Nicolas Goutte <nicog () snafu ! de>
Date:       2002-07-14 23:17:25
[Download RAW message or body]

Discussions/critics have started around the current filter status system, 
both from user and developer views.

Developers would wnat to put more information in it, while users want the 
status of the current stable version and not the one of CVS HEAD. (Most users 
do not even know that they are reading the status of CVS HEAD.)

Therefore I have taken some time to make a new system that could be ready 
before the branching of KOffice 1.2 would take place.

The new filter status system is based around a central XML file (attached 
file: filterstatus.xml.bz2 ) Also attached are two XSLT files for converting 
this XML file, one to PHP ( wwwphp.xslt.bz2 ) and one directly to HTML 
(wwwhtml.xslt.bz2 .)

Use the templates like:
  xsltproc -o output.html wwwhtml.xslt filterstatus.xml
where output.html is the output file.

Advantages of the new system:
- it can be used to contain information for many versions of KOffice.
- it is open to be translated, if I18N teams would want to translate it to 
better inform their users.
- the central XML file could be placed in the regular CVS (non-ACL-controlled) 
so that the developer could change themselves the status. The web site itself 
would still be ACL-controlled.
- the central XML file could be used to generate other documents, perhaps even 
some for KWord (at least through RTF, which is the best import filter for 
tables.)
- new information could be added (like for example the current maintainer), 
independantly if we want or not the new information on the web site.

Question still open:
One question is still open. It is about how we will keep track of different 
versions. Either we can keep track with the CVS branches or we can put 
everything in CVS HEAD.

Branches:
+ easy to maintain
- however, we cannot generate tables for more than one version. That means 
that the filter status on the web will need to be splitted in two part: the 
stable and the unstable status. (Perhaps it is even better so, not 
to confuse users.)

All in CVS HEAD:
+ all data in one place.
+ tables can be created for comparing two versions.
- file will grow huge
- the files in the branches are out-of-date (which is annoying.)

I hope that you will like the new system.

Have a nice day/evening/night!

PS.: in filterstatus.xml, I have introduced the new status "working" and 
changed the status of some filters to it. Also I have raised the status of 
KWord's RTF import filter to "beta."

["filterstatus.xml.bz2" (application/x-bzip2)]
["wwwhtml.xslt.bz2" (application/x-bzip2)]
["wwwphp.xslt.bz2" (application/x-bzip2)]
_______________________________________________
koffice-devel mailing list
koffice-devel@mail.kde.org
http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/koffice-devel

[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]