XSL Formatting Objects

1
XSL Formatting Objects

• David Cornforth
• School of ITEE
• University of NSW _at_ ADFA
• Based on slides by Bob McKay, and Chapters 4 to 7
  of the W3C XSL Standard, Version 1.0
• http//www.w3.org/TR/xsl

2
What is/are Formatting Objects?

• XSL formatting objects is a namespace (fo) and
  document specification for describing page
  formats and contents
• XSL-FO transforms XML to the FO vocabulary
• But browsers cant display FO yet
• To be useful, a translator from the fo namespace
  to a page layout language is also required (PDF,
  RTF, PS or whatever)
• XSL-FO supports features that cannot be described
  by HTML, such as R-L, top-bottom text etc.
• Its possible to write an XML doc that can be
  formatted as a printer doc or as a web page

3
XSL Formatting Process
4
Formatting Object Internationalisation

• XSL formatting objects are carefully designed to
  be culturally neutral
• The direction of lines can be left to right,
  right to left, or vertical
• Similarly, the direction of lineation can be
  vertical or horizontal
• This makes for fairly cumbersome explanation in
  these notes, the Western directions will be
  assumed for simplicity of explanation

5
The XSL Area Model

• Intended to cover both fixed-area structures
  (printed pages) and flexible area structures
  (scrolling windows)
• The formatter generates a tree of nested
  rectangular areas, the area tree
• Each area has
• An outer region
• The border rectangle
• An inner region
• The content rectangle
• Optionally an intermediate area
• The padding rectangle

6
FO areas

• There are 4 types of area
• Regions
• Highest level container
• Block areas
• Paragraph, list item uses relative placement
• Line areas
• Line of text formatted depending on context
• Inline areas
• Single character, reference

7
XSL-FO Example part 1

• lt?xml version"1.0" ?gt
• ltxslstylesheet version"1.0" xmlnsxsl"http//ww
  w.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
• 
  xmlnsfo"http//www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format"gt
  
• ltxsloutput indent"yes" /gt
• ltxsltemplate match"/"gt
• ltforoot xmlnsfo"http//www.w3.org/1999/XSL/
  Format"gt
• ltfolayout-master-setgt
• ltfosimple-page-master master-name"A4"gt
• ltforegion-body /gt
• lt/fosimple-page-mastergt
• lt/folayout-master-setgt
• ltfopage-sequence master-reference"A4"gt
• ltfoflow flow-name"xsl-region-body"gt
• ltxslapply-templates select"//CD" /gt
• lt/foflowgt
• lt/fopage-sequencegt
• lt/forootgt
• lt/xsltemplategt

8
XSL-FO example part 2

• ltxsltemplate match"CD"gt
• ltfoblock font-family"Times"
  font-size"18pt" color"red" font-weight"bold"gt
• Title ltxslvalue-of select"TITLE" /gt
• lt/foblockgt
• ltfoblock font-family"Times"
  font-size"12pt" color"green"gt
• Artist ltxslvalue-of select"ARTIST" /gt
• lt/foblockgt
• ltfoblock font-family"Times"
  font-size"12pt" color"green"gt
• Contents
• lt/foblockgt
• ltxslfor-each select"//TRACK"gt
• ltfoblock font-family"Times"
  font-size"12pt" color"black"gt
• ltxslvalue-of select"text()" /gt
• lt/foblockgt
• lt/xslfor-eachgt
• lt/xsltemplategt
• lt/xslstylesheetgt

9
XSL-FO example result
10
Page layout

• The root element is foroot, and contains
• one folayout-master-set
• one or more fopage-sequence
• The first is a template for the page format, and
  contains a fosimple-page-master, which defines
  margins Attributes
• master-name
• page-height, page-width
• margin-bottom, margin-left, margin-right,
  margin-top
• writing-mode (e.g. left to right)
• reference-orientation

11
folayout-master-set

• Inside the fosimple-page-master element, you
  define extra elements for the regions that will
  appear on your page
• ltforegion-body
• ltforegion-before
• ltforegion-after
• ltforegion-start
• ltforegion-end
• You must include ltforegion-body or nothing will
  be displayed!
• You can have more than one master page, for
  example, right and left handed pages

12
fopage-sequence

• There are one or more fopage-sequence elements
• Each page has an associated page master, named
  using the master-reference attribute
• Each page-sequence element contains three types
  of child element
• fotitle does not appear on output
• fostatic-content text to appear on every page
• foflow data to appear sequentially
• Last 2 must have a flow-name attribute that
  matches one on the layout-master-set

13
Specifying page size

• ltfolayout-master-setgt
• ltfosimple-page-master master-name"A4"
• page-height"29.7cm" page-width"21cm"
• margin-top"2cm" margin-bottom"2cm"
• margin-left"2cm" margin-right"2cm"gt
• ltforegion-body /gt
• lt/fosimple-page-mastergt
• lt/folayout-master-setgt

14
XSL-FO example result
15
foflow (Harold p.523)

• Main content, can be
• foblock
• foblock-container
• fotable-and-caption
• fotable
• folist-block
• It is common for the foflow element to contain
  only ltxslapply-templates//ROOT /gt or similar.

16
Static content

• For things that should appear on every page
  (header, footer)
• ltforegion-body margin-top"1cm" /gt
• ltforegion-after extent"1cm" /gt
• ltfostatic-content flow-name"xsl-region-after"gt
• ltfoblockgt
• Author David Cornforth, page
• ltfopage-number /gt
• lt/foblockgt
• lt/fostatic-contentgt

17
Table formatting (p.535, 551)

• ltfotable table-layout"fixed"gt
• ltfotable-column column-width"10cm" /gt
• ltfotable-column column-width"6.5cm" /gt
• ltfotable-bodygt
• ltfotable-rowgt
• ltfotable-cellgt
• ltfoblock font-size"10pt"
  text-align"justify"gt
• ltxslvalue-of select"description"
  /gt
• lt/foblockgt
• lt/fotable-cellgt
• ltfotable-cellgt
• ltxslcall-template name"info" /gt
• lt/fotable-cellgt
• lt/fotable-rowgt
• lt/fotable-bodygt
• lt/fotablegt

18
Non-XMLGraphics (p.539)

• ltfoexternal-graphic src"MilesDavis.jpg" /gt

19

• XML graphic objects use (p.541)
• ltfoinstream-foreign-objectgt
• ltsvg xmlnshttp//www.w3.org/2000/svg
• width30mm height20mmgt
• ltpolygon stylefillFFCCCC
  points0,62 36,0 72,62 /gt
• lt/svggt
• lt/foinstream-foreign-objectgt

20
Lists (Harold p. 547)

• ltfolist-blockgt contains either ltfolist-itemgt
  elements or
• ltfolist-item-labelgt plus ltfolist-item-bodygt
• Example
• ltfolist-blockgt
• ltxslfor-each select"//TRACK"gt
• ltfolist-itemgt
• ltfolist-item-labelgt
• ltfoblock font-family"Times"
  font-size"10pt"gt
• ltxslvalue-of select"position()"
  /gt
• lt/foblockgt
• lt/folist-item-labelgt
• ltfolist-item-bodygt
• ltfoblock text-indent"1cm"
  font-family"Times" font-size"10pt"gt
• ltxslvalue-of select"text()" /gt
• lt/foblockgt
• lt/folist-item-bodygt
• lt/folist-itemgt
• lt/xslfor-eachgt
• lt/folist-blockgt

21
Inlines (Harold p.556)

• What happens if you want to change text
  properties but not start a new block?
• Use ltfoinline
• ltfoblockgt
• Try XSL stylesheets sometime theyre
• ltfoinline font-styleitalicgtreallylt/foinline
  gtcool.
• lt/foblockgt

22
Formatting paragraph break

• Break properties
• Keep-with-next
• Keep-with-previous
• Keep-together
• Break-before
• Break-after
• Example
• ltfoblock keep-with-nextalwaysgt
• some content
• lt/foblockgt

23
Formatting properties indent

• Four attributes
• start-indent
• end-indent
• text-indent (only the first line)
• last-line-end-indent
• Example
• ltfoblock start-indent"1cm"gt
• ltfoblock text-indent-1cm start-indent"1cm"gt

24
Character properties

• ltfoblock color"blue"gt
• ltfoblock font-family"Times"gt
• ltfoblock font-size"18pt"gt
• ltfoblock font-stretchcondensedgt expanded
• ltfoblock font-styleitalicgt
• ltfoblock font-variantsmall-capsgt
• ltfoblock font-weight"bold"gt 200
  lighter

25
Text properties

• ltfoblock text-transformcapitalizegt
  uppercase
• ltfoblock text-shadowFFFF66gt
• ltfoblock text-decorationunderlinegt
• ltfoblock letter-spacing2pxgt
• ltfoblock word-spacing0.5cmgt
• ltfoblock line-height24ptgt
• ltfoblock text-aligncentergt justify
• ltfoblock text-align-lastcentergt

26
Area properties

• ltfoblock background-colortransparentgt
• ltfoblock background-imageSimpsons.jpggt
• ltfoblock border-colorredgt
• ltfoblock border-width0.1mmgt
• ltfoblock border-stylesolidgt
• ltfoblock padding-before1cmgt
• ltfoblock padding1cmgt
• ltfoblock margin-top5mmgt
• ltfoblock margin5mmgt

27
More area properties

• ltfoblock space-before5mmgt
• ltfoblock start-indent5mmgt
• ltfoblock height3cmgt
• ltfoblock overflowhiddengt
• ltfoblock reference-orientation90gt

28
Summary

• Most XCL formatting objects generate rectangular
  areas
• Pages contain regions
• Regions contain blocks
• Blocks contain blocks and lines
• Lines contain inlines
• Inlines contain inlines and character areas.

29
More summary

• The root element is foroot and contains
• folayout-master-set
• fopage-sequence
• The folayout-master-set contains
• fosimple-page-master elements that define the
  layout on a type of page, divided into before,
  after, start, end, body
• The fopage-sequence contains
• fotitle
• fostatic-content
• foflow

30
Questions?