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Re: xsl can't get graphic to load from xml file

2005-04-07 13:28:15
Ok, I don't think that I mentioned that I am new to
this xml and xsl thing.  So basically what you are
saying is that I cannot have a dynaminc path (one read
in from the xsl sheet) and place it in the url?  My
absolute path is already in the xml.  There is no
generation what-so-ever. So can this xml data be read
into local xsl:variable and then used in the url?  


I am using apache.xml.fop to generate my pdf off of my
xsl.


--- Eliot Kimber <ekimber(_at_)innodata-isogen(_dot_)com> wrote:
There is no simple single solution to this problem
because it depends 
entirely on the relative locations of the FO
instance (if you are 
generating an instance) and the graphic *at the time
you render them*, 
not at the time you generate the FO.

Therefore, for different processing environments, it
might be most 
appropriate to generate an absolute path and in
others you have to 
generate a relative path relative to some
pre-defined location.

In addition, doing path processing is generally
easier in a language 
like Java than in XSLT (although you can do it in
XSLT, of course). For 
example, we have utility Java libraries that do
things like compare two 
paths and return the shortest relative path. We then
expose these 
through Saxon extension functions so that in the
XSLT we can easily 
generate relative paths to graphics given some base
path (normally 
passed in as a parameter to the XSLT process).

For one customer we have to provide an
FO-generation-time option of 
whether graphic paths are relative or absolute
because different users 
of the code have different business rules.

Finally, remember that relative paths will be
relative to the location 
of the FO instance, not the original XML document
(unless you set the 
xml:base attribute in the FO instance to be the
location of the orignal 
XML document), which can be a problem, especially if
you generate the FO 
instance and then move it somewhere else before
rendering it.

This is all presuming that your graphics are not
managed in some 
URL-accessible content store that would allow you to
specify 
location-independent absolute URIs. In essence, all
the W3C 
specifications assume that this is the case, even
though for most users 
it is never the case.

Cheers,

Eliot
-- 
W. Eliot Kimber
Professional Services
Innodata Isogen
9390 Research Blvd, #410
Austin, TX 78759
(512) 372-8155

ekimber(_at_)innodata-isogen(_dot_)com
www.innodata-isogen.com



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