Hi Ken,

Firstly thanks so much for taking the time out to reply to my issue.

>>Fine .... but I'm guessing this process does not mandate
the "proper" use of element start and end tags (nesting, completion,
etc.).

We would be looking at implementing a framework that would
produce "proper" end and start tags. Here is a list of what we are
currently looking at:
MSHTML: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa753630.aspx (part
of IE)
TinyMCE: http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/
FCKeditor: http://www.fckeditor.net/
OpenWYSIWYG: http://www.openwebware.com/products/openwysiwyg/

>>Do you have the opportunity in the process to run "tidy"? This is
an open tool that converts tag soup into XML, which is then suitable
for XSLT:

Not unless we can run it in a web application server.

>>The painful alternative is to use XSLT 2.0 (which isn't painful),
read in the HTML fragments as a text string, and to do your own
string analysis in a piecemeal fashion to reconstruct the structure
from the mess of tag soup from the user. Not at all pleasant, but
doable.

This seems to be where all my R&D is pointing me too.

So basically if we can guarantee the use of valid html tags we should
be able to do the conversion between html tags and xml (xsl:fo?)
tags? And if so, where would be my starting point in completing this?

Again with many thanks,

-george



--- In XSL-FO@yahoogroups.com, "G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@...> wrote:
>
> At 2007-10-15 11:09 +0000, astragh wrote:
> >Hi to the forum,
> >
> >We currently use xsl fo for styling our xml.
> >Our application takes user submitted content and adds it to our
> >database where we then extract this content and transform it into
an
> >xml tree. This is then forwarded to our .xsl file and then produces
> >the PDF.
>
> Sounds good so far!
>
> >We would like to allow our application to accept html tags using a
> >wysiwyg module above the textarea where the client can then format
> >their descriptions with various tags i.e. <b>, <i>, <ul> etc.
>
> Fine .... but I'm guessing this process does not mandate
the "proper"
> use of element start and end tags (nesting, completion, etc.).
>
> >This works ok when the user is forwarded to the next JSP page all
> >formatting is saved to the database and displayed correctly,
further
> >calls to display this page gets the information from the database
and
> >again displays all information.
>
> Right ... because HTML browsers are forgiving of discrepancies that
> would otherwise be considered errors in a well-formedness check.
Any
> mess entered by the users is acceptable to the end processing in
the
> browser client.
>
> >The problem is when we request this
> >view in the PDF format XSL can't handle the html tags. Is there a
way
> >that I can make the request to the database during, after or before
> >we process our XML tree and swap out the html tags with xsl? And
> >would this work?
>
> Do you have the opportunity in the process to run "tidy"? This is
an
> open tool that converts tag soup into XML, which is then suitable
for XSLT:
>
> http://tidy.sourceforge.net/
>
> The only input to XSLT is well-formed XML and this would give it to
> you. HTML of any SGML flavour (messy or not messy) is
> unacceptable. XHTML is acceptable, but then you wouldn't be having
> any problems because it would be well-formed.
>
> The painful alternative is to use XSLT 2.0 (which isn't painful),
> read in the HTML fragments as a text string, and to do your own
> string analysis in a piecemeal fashion to reconstruct the structure
> from the mess of tag soup from the user. Not at all pleasant, but
doable.
>
> >Sorry if this is a little brief I have just inherited the project
and
> >only starting to make some ground on the understanding. And I am a
> >total newbie to this :(
>
> Have fun!
>
> . . . . . . . . . . Ken
>
> --
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> G. Ken Holman mailto:gkholman@...
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