File: XML

XML |
Path: | docs/XML
Modified: | Wed Nov 06 15:02:26 JST 2002

# Amrita and XML

## summary

amrita can be used with XML as well as HTML.

- amrita has REXML-based XML parser

  amrita's HTML parser was developed very ad hoc way. I have found no major problem with it yet , but I think it's good idea to have an option for XML: a strictly defined standard.

- amrita can generate XHTML documents as well as HTML.

  amrita produces xhtml output from xhtml template.

- amrita can treat XML documents as a template.

  amrita has a little code depend upon HTML's DTD(tag structure), and they can be detached easily. So any XML(not XHTML) document can be used as a template with amrita.

- amrita can get model data from XML documents

  REXML has very natural API for ruby. And it is easy to make model datas for amrita from XML documents read by REXML.

- amx: yet anothor style-sheet for XML

  see docs/Tour2

## XHTML Document

### code and output

code:

      require "amrita/template"
      include Amrita

      tmpl_text = <<-END
      <?xml version="1.0"?>
      <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
      <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
      <head>
          <title>xhtml sample</title>
      </head>
      <body>
        <h1 id=title>title</h1>
        <p id=body>body text</p>
        <hr />
      </body>
      </html>
         END

      data = {
          :title => "SAMPLE1",
          :body => "members of this HASH will be inserted here and title"
      }

      tmpl = TemplateText.new tmpl_text
      tmpl.prettyprint = true
       tmpl.xml = true # use REXML parser
      tmpl.asxml = true
      tmpl.expand(STDOUT, data)

output:

       <?xml version="1.0"?>
       <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
           "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
       <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
         <head>
           <title>xhtml sample</title>
         </head>
         <body>
           <h1>SAMPLE1</h1>
           <p>members of this HASH will be inserted here and title</p>
           <hr />
         </body>
       </html>

### description

Basicaly amrita produce xhtml output from xhtml template, html4.0 from html4.0 template.So programers don't need tobother about comformation for some paticular standards or browser or devices. Only designers (template writers) do.

The only thing programers should do is set asxml flag to Template object.If this was set a single tag like `<hr>` will be printed like `<hr />`.

## XML template

### code and output

code:

       data = {
          :table1=>[
             { :name=>"Ruby In A Nutshell", :author=>"Yukihiro Matsumoto, David L. Reynolds", :isbn=>"0596002149" }
             { :name=>"Programming Ruby", :author=>"David Thomas, Andrew Hunt", :isbn=>"0201710897" },
             { :name=>"The Ruby Way", :author=>"Hal Fulton", :isbn=>"0672320835" },
          ]
       }

       xml_tmpl = TemplateText.new <<END
       <booklist>
         <book id="table1">
            <title id="name" />
            <author id="author" />
            <isbn id="isbn" />
         </book>
       </booklist>
       END

       xml_tmpl.xml = true # use REXML-based parser
       puts "------------XML output ----------------------"
       xml_tmpl.expand(STDOUT, data)

output:

       <booklist>
         <book>
           <title>Ruby In A Nutshell</title>
           <author>Yukihiro Matsumoto, David L. Reynolds</author>
           <isbn>0596002149</isbn>
         </book><book>
           <title>Programming Ruby</title>
           <author>David Thomas, Andrew Hunt</author>
           ..........

### description

       xml_tmpl.xml = true # use REXML-based parser
       puts "------------XML output ----------------------"
       xml_tmpl.expand(STDOUT, data)

amrita loads templates on demand. If `xml` flag is set when `expand` is called, amrita uses REXML based parser.

You can use single model data for two templates. So single code with amrita produce both XML output and HTML output.For detail see sample/tour/xml1.rb .

## Use XML document as a model data

XML document(data) + HTML template ==> HTML document

This may be some kind of style-sheet.

### code and output

code:

      require "amrita/template"
      require "rexml/document"
      include Amrita

      doc = REXML::Document.new <<END
      <booklist>
        <book isbn="0596002149">
           <title>Ruby In A Nutshell</title>
           <author>Yukihiro Matsumoto</author>
           <author>David L. Reynolds</author>
        </book>
        <book isbn="0201710897">
           <title>Programming Ruby</title>
           <author>David Thomas</author>
           <author>Andrew Hunt</author>
        </book>
        <book isbn="0672320835">
           <title>The Ruby Way</title>
           <author>Hal Fulton</author>
        </book>
      </booklist>
      END

      table = doc.elements.to_a("booklist/book").collect do |book|
        {
          :title=>book.elements['title'],
          :authors=>book.elements.to_a('author').collect do |a|
            { :name=>a }
          end,
          #:isbn=>book.attributes['isbn']
          :isbn=>e(:a, :href=>"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/#{book.attributes['isbn']}") {
            book.attributes['isbn']
          }
        }
      end

      data = { :table1=>table }

      html_tmpl = TemplateText.new <<END
      <table border="1">
        <tr><th>title</th><th>author</th><th>ISBN</th></tr>
        <tr id=table1>
          <td id="title">
          <td><span id="authors"><span id="name"></span><br></span>
          <td id="isbn">
        </tr>
      </table>
      END

      html_tmpl.prettyprint = true
      html_tmpl.set_hint(HtmlCompiler::AnyData.new)
      html_tmpl.expand(STDOUT, data)

output:

       <table border="1">
         <tr>
         <th>title</th>
         <th>author</th>
         <th>ISBN</th>
         </tr>
         <tr>
         <td>Ruby In A Nutshell</td>
         <td>Yukihiro Matsumoto<br>David L. Reynolds
         <br>
         </td>
         <td><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596002149">0596002149</a></td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
         <td>Programming Ruby</td>
         <td>David Thomas<br>Andrew Hunt
         <br>
         </td>
         <td><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201710897">0201710897</a></td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
         <td>The Ruby Way</td>
         <td>Hal Fulton<br>
         </td>
         <td><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0672320835">0672320835</a></td>
         </tr>
       </table>

### description

       table = doc.elements.to_a("booklist/book").collect do |book|
         {
           :xxx=>.....
         }
       end

This code generate an Array of Hash on `<book>` element. `<book>` element is a REXML::Element data. So you can get any node or attribute you need by REXML's API.

           :title=>book.elements['title'],

`book.elements['title']` is the first `<title>` element of `<book>` element.

           :authors=>book.elements.to_a('author').collect do |a|
             { :name=>a }
           end,

In this sample, a book has one title but can have many authors. So authors shuold be treated as an Array with `to_a`, generate Array of Hash by Ruby's standard method `collect`.

           :isbn=>e(:a, :href=>"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/#{book.attributes['isbn']}") {
             book.attributes['isbn']
           }

I want to insert a direct link to amazon. e(...) { ... } generate a <tt><a><tt>tag like

        <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596002149">0596002149</a>

and insert it into template.

This idea was extended for document processing in sample/tour/xml3.rb and reached to amx. See docs/Tour2 for detaile.

## convert a Ruby object to a XML entry

When you map a ruby object to XML entry, some members are mapped to attribute and others are to sub elements.

This sample shows how to do it by generate `ls -l` information as an XML.

### code and output

code:

       amrita can use an existing class for model data.
       To show this ability, this sample uses Ruby's system class
       File::Stat.

      require "amrita/template"
      include Amrita

      class File
        class Stat
          include Amrita::ExpandByMember

          def entry(name)
            a(:name=>name, :type=>ftype) { self }
          end

          def size_or_nil
            size if ftype == "file"
          end

          def mode_str
            ret = "-rwxrwxrwx"
            /(.*)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)$/ =~ sprintf("%b",mode)
            $~[2..10].each_with_index do |b,n|
              ret[n+1] = "-" if b != "1"
            end
            ret[0] = "d" if $~[1] == "100000"
            ret
          end

          def unix_inf
            a(:dev=>dev, :uid=>uid, :gid=>gid) { self }
          end
        end
      end

      tmpl = TemplateText.new <<END
        <file id="filelist">
           <size id="size_or_nil" />
           <mode id="mode_str" />
           <times>
             <ctime id="mtime" />
             <mtime id="mtime" />
             <atime id="atime" />
           </times>
           <unix_inf id="unix_inf">
              <inode id="ino" />
           </unix_inf>
        </file>
      END

      dir = ARGV.shift || '*'

      filelist = Dir[dir].collect do |f|
        File::stat(f).entry(f)
      end

      data = { :filelist=>filelist }
      tmpl.xml = true
      tmpl.expand(STDOUT, data)

output:

      <file name="CVS" type="directory">
         <mode>drwxr-xr-x</mode>
         <times>
           <ctime>Tue Sep 03 11:07:10 JST 2002</ctime>
           <mtime>Tue Sep 03 11:07:10 JST 2002</mtime>
           <atime>Thu Sep 05 07:30:39 JST 2002</atime>
         </times>
         <unix_inf uid="1000" gid="1000" dev="770">
            <inode>652250</inode>
         </unix_inf>
      </file>
      <file name="precompile.rb" type="file">
         <size>2596</size>
         <mode>-rw-r--r--</mode>
         <times>
           <ctime>Mon Aug 26 09:12:11 JST 2002</ctime>
           <mtime>Mon Aug 26 09:12:11 JST 2002</mtime>
           <atime>Thu Sep 05 09:26:48 JST 2002</atime>
         </times>
         <unix_inf uid="1000" gid="1000" dev="770">
            <inode>310411</inode>
         </unix_inf>
      </file>
      <file name="amstest.ams" type="file">
      .....

### description

        def entry(name)
          a(:name=>name, :type=>ftype) { self }
        end

This method generate an AttrArray that put some value of self to XML attribute and make sub-elements with itself.

        def size_or_nil
          size if ftype == "file"
        end

If the file is not a normal file, this method returns nil and The `<size>` element will be deleted

## X

### code and output

code:

output:

### description