XML Calabash: an XProc implementation

There doesn't seem to be any source code at http://svn.xmlcalabash.com/

It was there, you just couldn't see it :-) I've fixed that now.

Thanks for your work on this.

I'm going to play with it a bit this week.

The fact that you keep on adding dependancies on foreign proprietary software shows how XML has failed. Obviously step #1 of xproc support work should be to have open-source implementations of all the XML Standards needed for xproc itself available. I like the idea of xproc; I hate the idea of having to throw out hundreds, if not in sum thousands of dollars for licenses just to run the full xproc vocabulary. E.g. I have the perfect usage scenario for xproc. validate query validate transform split upload etc. Seems to start off with xproc seriously, I first gotta implement the pack of xml standards. Wake up W3C! Where are YOUR prototypes?!

Martin,

The only standard steps in Calabash that require any proprietary software are p:validate-with-xml-schema and p:xsl-formatter.

In each case, it's simply a matter of expediency on my part. I will certainly support Xerces for schema validation eventually, and probably FOP for XSL formatting.

All of the other dependencies are on open source packages of one flavor or another.

Norman,

...you mean "so long as you don't try to use the two year old XPath2 / XSLT2 standards" which again forces you to have DTDs available which again .. or you go down the money route. That's what I'm talking about. Anyways, I'd like to seriously test this but with saxon as a requirement I'll probably have to hack some first. Let's see what my employer says..

Martin,

There's nothing commercial about the Saxon support except for the p:validate-with-xml-schema step, which I've already explained is a question of implementation convenience, not any sort of refusal to implement an entirely free suite of steps.

Regarding XPath2 / XSLT2: do either of these requires DTDs or any other form of validation? I thought you just don't get a lot of the schema-aware goodness if you don't have validation. There are, however, lots of other reasons why these versions are a big step forward from the old ones.

By the way, is there an open-source schema-aware XSLT2 processor available? I'm fully aware of the Saxon-B/SA split.

Ed,

You don't need DTDs or XML Schemas to use XPath 2.0 or XSLT 2.0. You can use DTDs, of course, and you can use XML Schema if you have a schema-aware processor. I'm not aware of any open-source, schema-aware XSLT 2.0 processors.

Personally, I stick with RELAX NG validation and don't care about schema-awareness at the XSLT level (beyond simple types that are available in a basic processor).

I appreciate the nature of this Calabash project and the W3C work. It is on a valuable track.

We've been working on a much narrower development project on a homebrew basis, but it does reflect the qualities of creating a modularized pipeline of XSLT transforms. It uses an ASP script controlling things together with MSXML objects and methods (on a Windows server obviously). It's oriented to simply grabbing static XML/HTML inputs, running a specified series of transforms, then displaying the result in a browser as XHTML, forms, slightly animated at that point by embedded Javascript (nothing fancy at all, no frills).

Our framework simply leverages naming the inputs and XSLTs on the URL http call, e.g. http://xtp.boeing.com/xtp.asp?xml=http://server/folder/foo.xml&xsl=GetHTML,Transform1,Transform2,ShowTable

Thank you Norman!

What about auto-discovery of configuration.xml-like files on the classpath, akin to JAR service lookup?

This would mean that extension steps can be supported by Calabash just by dropping a JAR with the implementation and extra configuration file onto Calabash's classpath.

Such extra configuration files should probably be able to override the built-in <implementation> declarations, in order to, for instance, implement <p:xsl-formatter> with FOP.

Can you tell me how to use p:xsl-formatter step. I am getting some errors when I use this step.

I am running calabash with the following options. -isource=out1.fo xpl\test-pdf.xpl

xep is added in the classpath.

Below is the error message:

Error : file:/C:/Sesi/personal/xml/xproc/calabash-0.9.14/calabash-0.9.14/xpl/test-pdf.xpl:2: Output port 'result' on anonymous step declare-step at file:/C:/Sesi/personal/xml/xproc/calabash-0.9.14/ca labash-0.9.14/xpl/test-pdf.xpl:2 unbound Error : Pipeline failed: err:XE0001: Output port 'result' on anonymous step declare-step at file:/C :/Sesi/personal/xml/xproc/calabash-0.9.14/calabash-0.9.14/xpl/test-pdf.xpl:2 unbound Unknown error

Hi!

I am not amused.

Why not clearly state everywhere that calabash is PHONING HOME messages to you everytime I use calabash?

Why not state everywhere that you log my IP at each use of calabash?

Why not clearly state how to turn this off?

I'm sorry you didn't find the documentation page where this is clearly explained:

http://xmlcalabash.com/docs/phonehome.html

It's a link straight off the documentation page and includes instructions for how to opt out.

In retrospect, it could be made more clear and I will attempt to do so. (You didn't leave any sort of contact information with your comment or I would have apologized more personally for any inconvenience.)