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Bug 25732 - Introduce XSLT scenario concept
Summary: Introduce XSLT scenario concept
Status: REOPENED
Alias: None
Product: xml
Classification: Unclassified
Component: XSL (show other bugs)
Version: 3.x
Hardware: PC Windows ME/2000
: P3 blocker (vote)
Assignee: Asgeir Asgeirsson
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on: 27420
Blocks:
  Show dependency tree
 
Reported: 2002-07-17 11:12 UTC by Asgeir Asgeirsson
Modified: 2007-09-25 01:34 UTC (History)
0 users

See Also:
Issue Type: ENHANCEMENT
Exception Reporter:


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Description Asgeir Asgeirsson 2002-07-17 11:12:39 UTC
An XSLT scenario is a concept used by Excelon Stylus 
Studio (http://www.exln.com/products/stylusstudio/) to 
connect XML sources to an XSL transformation.  A scenario 
is bound to a single XSLT file but many scenarios can be 
bound to the same XSLT file.  One scenario is the active 
at a time and the XML source defined in it is used in 
following cases:
+ When executing the XSL file.
+ In code completion of  XPath expressions.
+ In other tools which generate XSLT code from the XML 
source documents structure. 

From my point of view, a scenario defines an environment 
for an XSLT file, not just the source XML file.  The 
source XML is not necessarily a single XML file, because 
it might be generated dynamically by some framework.  E.g. 
if one is creating an XSLT which defines one stage in 
series of XML transformations (like in Cocoon or Dimon 
Server XSA), the source XML is the input into that 
transformation stage, not just a single XML file.

A scenario has following responsibilities:
+ Supply XML source data to use as an input to the XSLT. 
The source data may be used in the XSLT editor, e.g. by 
the XPath editor and XPath code completion. 
+ Create user interface panels to configure the scenario's 
environment. 
+ Execute the XSLT in the scenario's environment, possibly 
applying some pre-processing and post-processing of the 
XML data. The execution might end with some action such as 
opening the result in a WebBrowser or Emulator.

There can be different types of scenarios. Each type has 
it's own user interface to customize the scenario. 
Following are examples of scenario types: 

+ File based scenario: This scenario has user interface 
which allows End user to select an XML file for input and 
name of the output file. The End user should also be 
allowed to set values of parameters exposed by the XSL 
transformation. The user interface might be similar to the 
XSL Transformation dialog in Netbeans 3.4. 

+ XSA scenario:  An XSA file for Dimon Server (see 
http://www.dimonsoftware.com) describes series of XML 
transformations and their execution context.

A list of scenarios for a particular XSLT file and the 
active scenario might be displayed in a ComboBox on the 
Editor toolbar.  The editor toolbar should also have a 
button to customize the scenarios for the XSLT file, such 
as add, remove and edit.

When a new scenario is added the user should first select 
the type of the new scenario (file based, XSA based, 
Cocoon based).  A user interface for the scenario 
customization is defined by the scenarios type.
Comment 1 _ lkramolis 2002-08-02 10:08:05 UTC
Related documents/links:

Already implemented XSL Transformation action:
http://xml.netbeans.org/tools/user/xslt_execution.html
http://xml.netbeans.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=19439

XSLT Wizard to transform more documents at once:
http://xml.netbeans.org/tools/user/xslt_execution_wizard.html
http://xml.netbeans.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=22924

Possible XSL Executor API:
http://xml.netbeans.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=21968
---

Do you think, XSLT scenarios could be XSLT Executor Types? And each
XML document can set its preferred type?
Comment 2 Asgeir Asgeirsson 2002-08-02 11:38:22 UTC
I think the concept of scenarios should be extended to be 
general execution framework for XML files.  It should not 
be tied to XSL.  Everybody can write scenarios which are 
sensitive to particular types of XML.  

I have written FileXSLScenario which is sensitive to XSLT 
files.  It requires the user to enter the source XML file 
and what to do with the output when executed.  
FileXSLScenario could easily be extended to be sensitive 
to all types of XML.  If the owner XML is not an XSLT 
file, the user should enter the transforming XSLT which 
should be used in the execution.
Comment 3 dpavlica 2002-08-22 07:32:05 UTC
Great work and I have some notes an questions from UI look:

When I haven't no Scenario...Should dialog for first name 
and type of scenario start before Scenarios main dialog ?

I would like to change left part of main dialog according 
with JLF style. It means these buttons on to bottom. What 
do you thing ?

There could exists better cohesion with XSL transformation 
dialog or some merge maybe ?

Some information text for user in main dialog is missing. 
This text could be really useable for user, that will use 
dialog for fist time.

And last question is for new scenario. Only one type 
exists now. Do you plan another types to implement ?

Once again > Thanks for contributing
Comment 4 Asgeir Asgeirsson 2002-10-16 17:14:12 UTC
Scenarios have been implemented as a general XML execution 
framework.  See: 
http://xml.netbeans.org/xsl/dev/scenarios.html
Comment 5 _ pkuzel 2003-02-06 10:43:15 UTC
This functionality is targeted to  be a part of NetBeans 3.5 standard
release. At this moment it is necessary to stabilize it fully, pass
I18N checks, pass A11Y checks, pass UI checks and properly document it.

Comment 6 _ pkuzel 2003-03-13 14:59:56 UTC
I have disabled it in NetBeans 3.5 by default. Nobody volunteered to
push it through planning, UI and A11Y processes.

Hackers can use following startup script argument to enable it:
  -branding xml