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RE: Critique/comments sought: XML/XSLT website documentation project

2003-09-18 16:29:32
Hi, 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-xsl-list(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com 
[mailto:owner-xsl-
list(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com] On Behalf Of Dan Sumption
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 3:27 PM
To: xsl-list(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com

I changed the template/@name & call-template to a
template/@match & apply-template. I couldn't get rid of the
for-each and strictly use apply-templates because it would
not change the child's angle. I don't know why
apply-templates doesn't work in place of for-each???

Yeah, I realised that part was a little messy :) I changed the logic of
what I was doing several times while doing it, and ended up with things
that way pretty much because it worked rather than because it was in the
least bit graceful. I'd be interested to see what your version looks
like (translation: it sounds simpler to look at your version than to
work out the template matching and structure myself) - you can mail me
off-list with a copy if that's OK.

(just sent the XSL to Dan privately). I did not change much. The main
difference is that I got rid of the key and just apply-template'd my way
through. The way you have it is fine, perhaps even faster??



Since we have folder and page nodes I multiplied the cx and
cy variables for folders by 4 to give more room for larger
sites. In doing so, I still get overlaps. Perhaps you have
plans for collision detection? :)

Haha, actually one of the biggest things that put me off starting this
was that I had no idea how to detect/prevent collisions (but that's also
one of the biggest reasons I hate Visio - it's got a lot better in
recent versions, but I still seem to end up spending more time tidying
up lines than I do entering any kind of useful data). I was actually
really surprised when I realised that the abstract-seeming code I'd
entered managed to do a pretty good job of laying things out - mainly
because of the way the angles are handled, and the fact that line length
decreases the further you go from the "hub". But beyond that, I don't
really know where I'd start.

You've got me. Maybe one of the math geeks on the list finds this
interesting enough to check it out.


Another feature might be to add interactivity where you can
click on a node to expand/collapse it (and center the node
clicked in the viewport).

That's something I'd certainly considered, as well as adding drag
functionality so that you can reposition nodes yourself. But it took
enough for me to get to grips with the basic SVG - I want to take a deep
breath before I start tackling scripting and DOM stuff as well.


I will probably do it in the near future and send you have the results if
you like.


In the meantime, something else very simple which I'd meant to include
but forgot was the ability to set a start page - for a very large site
you could just do this several times, and so map the site in a series of
smaller diagrams rather than one big messy one.

This is one of the main reasons I am interested in it. Currently, we
transform the site.xsd instance into a tree and use buttons (javascript) to
allow the user to rearrange the site architecture:
http://www.livestoryboard.com/Products/Screen_shots.html (second image)

best,
Rob



Dan


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