Introduction to XSL-FO
XSL-FO IS ABOUT FORMATTING XML DATA for Output.
What you shop already know Know
Before You Study XSL-FO You Should Have A Basic Undering of XML and XML Namespaces.
If You Want To Study Thase Subjects First, please read out our xml tutorial.
What is xsl-fo?
XSL-FO IS A LANGUAGE FORMATTING XML DATA XSL-FO Stands for Extensible Stylesheet Language Formatting Objects XSL-FO IS A W3C Recommendation XSL-FO Is Now Formally Named XSL
XSL-fo is about formatting
.
XSL-fo is formally named XSL
Why this confusion? Is xsl-fo and xsl the Same Thing?
YES IT IS, But We Will Give You An Explanation:
Styling is both about transforming and formatting information. When the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) made their first XSL Working Draft, it contained the language syntax for both transforming and formatting XML documents.
Later the xsl working group at w3c split the Original Draft INTO SEPARATE Recommendations:
XSLT, A Language for Transforming Information XSL or XSL-FO, A LANGUAGE FORMATTINGTION INFORMATION XPATH, A LANGUAGE for DEFINING Parts of An XML Document
The Rest of this Tutorial Is About Formatting Information: XSL-FO Also Called XSL.
You can read more about xslt in our xlt tutorial.
You can read more about xpath in yur xpath tutorial.
XSL-FO IS A Web STANDARD
XSL-FO BECAME A W3C Recommendation 15. October 2001. Formally Named XSL.
To read more about the xsl Activities At W3c Please Read Our W3C Tutorial.
XSL-FO Documents
XSL-FO Documents Are XML Files with Output Information.
XSL-FO Documents
XSL-FO documents are XML files with output information. They contain information about the output layout and output contents.XSL-FO documents are stored in files with a * .fo or a * .fob extension. It is also quite normal to see XSL -Fo Documents Stored with The * .xml Extension, Because this makes themed.
XSL-FO Document Structure
XSL-FO Documents Have A Structure Like this:
Structure Explained
XSL-FO Documents Are XML Documents, And Must Always Start with an XML Declaration:
The
The
Each
One or more
Note: The master-reference "A4" Does Not Actually Describe a predefined page format. It is just a name. You can use any name like "mypage", "mytemplate", etc.
XSL-FO AREAS
XSL-FO Uses Rectangular Boxes (Areas) To Display Output.
XSL-FO AREAS
The xsl formatting model defines a Number of Rectangular Areas (Boxes) To Display Output.
All Output (Text, Pictures, or wherever) Will Be Formatted Into these Boxes and the displayed or printed to a target media.
We Well Take a Closer Look at The Following Areas:
Pages Regions Block Areas Line Areas Inline Areas
XSL-FO PAGES
XSL-FO OUTPUT IS FORMATTED INTO PAGES. Printed Output Will Normally Go Into Many Separate Pages. Browser Output Will OFTEN Go INTO One Long Page.
XSL-FO PAGES Contain Regions.
XSL-FO Regions
Each XSL-FO Page Contains a Number of Regions:
Region-body (The Body of the Page) Region-at (The Footer of the Page) Region-start (The Left Sidebar) Region-End (The Right Sidebar)
XSL-FO Regions Contain Block is.
XSL-FO Block Areas
XSL-FO BLOCK AREAS Define Small Block Elements (The ons That Normal Starts with a new line) Like Paragraphs, Tables and Lists.
XSL-FO BLOCK AREAS CAN Contain Other Block Areas, But Most Offen The Contain Line Areas.
XSL-FO LINE AREAS
XSL-FO LINE AREAS Define Text Lines Inside block.
XSL-FO LINE AREAS Contain Inline.
XSL-FO INLINE AREASXSL-FO INLINE AREAS Define Text Inside Lines (Bullets, Single Character, Graphics, And More).
XSL-FO OUTPUT
XSL-FO Defines Output Inside
XSL-FO PAGE, FLOW, AND BLOCK
"Blocks" of content "flows" INTO "Pages" and the to the output media.
XSL-FO OUTPUT IS NORMALLY NESTED INSISIDE
XSL-FO EXAMPLE
IT IS TIME to Look At A Real XSL-FO EXAMPLE:
The Output from this Code Would Be Something Like this:
Hello W3Schools
XSL-FO FLOW
XSL-FO PAGES ARE FILLED with DATA from
XSL-FO Page SEQUENCES
XSL-FO Uses
Each Output Page Refers to a page master which defines the layout.
Each Output Page Has A
Each Output Page Is Printed (or Displayed) in Sequence.
XSL-FO FLOW
XSL-FO PAGES ARE FILLED WITH Content from the
WHEN The page is full, The Same Page Master Will Be Used over (AND over) Again Until All The text isprinted.
WHERE TO FLOW?
The
The value of the flow-name attribute defines where the content of the
The Legal Values Are:
XSL-Region-Body (INTO THE REGON-BODY) XSL-Region-Afore (INTO THE REGON AFTER) XSL-Region-Start (INTO THE RION-START) XSL- Region-End (INTO THE REGON-END)
XSL-FO PAGES
XSL-FO Uses Page Templates Called "Page Masters" to Define The Layout of Pages.
XSL-FO Page Templates
XSL-FO Uses Page Templates Called "Page Masters" To Define The Layout of Pages. Each Template Must Have a Unique Name:
In The Example Above, Three
The First Template is Called "Intro". It could be used as a template for Introduction Pages.
The Second and Third Templates Are Called "Left" and "right". They could be used as templates for even and odd points
XSL-FO Uses The Following Attributes To Define The Size of A Page:
Page-width defines the width of a page Page-height defines the height of a page
XSL-FO Page Margins
XSL-FO Uses The Following Attributes To Define The Margins of A Page:
Margin-top defines the top margin-bottom defines the Bottom Margin Margin-Right Defines The Right Margin Margin Defines All Four Margins
XSL-FO Page Regions
XSL-FO Uses The Following Elements to Define The Regions of A Page:
region-body defines the body region region-before defines the top region (header) region-after defines the bottom region (footer) region-start defines the left region (left sidebar) region-end defines the right region (right sidebar)
Note that the region-before, region-after, region-start, and region-end is a part of the body region. To avoid text in the body region to overwrite text in these regions, the body region must have margins at least the SIZE OF SESE.
Margin Top Margin LEFT
Region BEFOREGIONSTART Region Body Region endRegionAfuterMarginright Margin Bottom
XSL-FO EXAMPLE
This is an extract from an xsl-fo document:
Page-width = "297mm" Page-height = "210mm" Margin-top = "1cm" margin-bottom = "1cm" Margin-left = "1cm" margin-right = "1cm"> The Code Above Defines A "Simple Page Master Template" with the name "a4". The Width of the page is 297 Millimeters and The Height IS 210 Millimeters. THE TOP, BOTTOM, LEFT, AND RIGHT Margins of The Page Are All 1 Centimeter. The Body Has A 3 Centimeter Margin (On All Side). The Before, After, Start, And End Regions (of The Body) Are All 2 Centimeters. The Width of the Body In The Example Above Can Be Calculated by Subtracting The Left And Right Margins and The Region-Body Margins from The Width of The PageTself: 297mm - (2 x 1cm) - (2 x 3cm) = 297mm - 20mm - 60mm = 217mm. Note That The Regions (Region-Start and Region-End) Are Not a Part of The Calculation. AS Described Earlier, These Regions Are Parts of the Body. XSL-FO Blocks XSL-FO OUTPUT GoES INTO Blocks. XSL-FO PAGES, FLOW, AND BLOCK "Blocks" of content "flow" INTO "Pages" of the output media. XSL-FO OUTPUT IS NORMALLY NESTED INSISIDE Block Area Attributes Blocks Are SEQUENCES OF OUTPUT in Rectangular Boxes: Border-width = "1mm"> This Block of Output Will Have A One Millimeter Border Around IT. Since Block Areas Are Rectangular Boxes, They Share Many Common Area Properties: Space Before and Space After Margin Border PaddingSpace Before margin Border Padding Content SpaceAfter ............... .. The margin is the empty area on the outside of the block. The Border Is The Rectangle Drawn Around The External Edge of The Area. It Can Have DiffERENT WIDTHS ON All Four Side. It can Also Be Filled With Different Colors and Background Images. The Padding is The area between the border and the content area. The Content Area Contains The Actual Content Like Text, Pictures, Graphics, or Whatever. Block margin Margin Margin-Top Margin-bottom Margin-Left Margin-Right Block border Border Style Attributes: Border-style border-based-style border-start-style border-endle border-top-style (Same as border-before) border-bottom-style (Same as border -After) border-left -style (Same as border-start) border-right-style (Same as border-end) Border Color Attributes: Border-color border-before-color border-instry-color border-start-color border-end-color border-top-color (Same as border-before) border-bottom-color (Same as border -Arth) Border-Left -COLOR (Same as Border-Start) Border-Right-Color (Same as Border-End) Border Width Attributes: Border-width Border-Width Border-start-width Border-end-width border-top-width (Same as border-before) border-bottom-width Border-left -width (Same as border-start) border-right-width (Same as border-end) Block Padding padding padding-before padding-after padding-start padding-end padding-top (same as padding-before) padding-bottom (same as padding-after) padding-left (same as padding-start) padding-right (same as padding -end) Block Background Background-color background-image background-repeat background-attachment (scroll or fixed) Block Styling Attributes Blocks Are SEQUENCES OF OUTPUT THAT CAN BE STYLED Individally: Font-size = "12pt" Font-family = "Sans-Serif"> This Block of Output Will BE Written In A 12pt Sans-Serif Font. Font Attributes: Font-Family Font-Weight Font-Style Font-Size Font-Variant Text Attributes: text-align text-align-last text-indent start-indent end-indent wrap-option (defines word wrap) break-before (defines page breaks) break-after (defines page breaks) reference-orientation (defines text rotation in 90 "increments) EXAMPLE Font-size = "14pt" font-family = "verdana" font-color = "red" Space-before = "5mm" Space -After = "5mm"> W3Schools Text-indent = "5mm" Font-family = "verdana" font-size = "12pt" Space-before = "5mm" Space -After = "5mm"> AT W3Schools you will find all the web-building tutorials you Need, from Basic HTML and XHTML to Advanced XML, XSL, MultiMedia And WAP. RESULT: W3Schools At W3Schools you will find all the web-building tutorials you need, from Basic HTML and XHTML to Advanced XML, XSL, MultiMedia and WAP. WHEN You Look at The Example Above, you can see it. Normally XSL-FO Document Do Not Combine Formatting Information and Content Like We Have Done Here. . L. You Will Learn More About How To Combine XSL-Fo with xslt Templates in a Later Chapter in this Tutorial. XSL-FO LISTS XSL-FO Uses List Blocks to Define Lists. XSL-FO List Blocks There Are Four XSL-FO Objects Used to Create Lists: FO: List-Block (Contains the whole list) fo: List-item (contains Each Item in the list) fo: list-item-label (Contains the label for the list-item - type " Number, Character, ETC.) FO: List-item-body (contains the content / body of the list-item - typical one or more An XSL-FO LIST EXAMPLE: The Output from this Code Would Be: * Volvo * Saab XSL-FO TABLES XSL-FO Uses The XSL-FO TABLES The xsl-fo Table Model Is Not Very Different from The HTML Table Model. There Are Nine XSL-FO Objects Used to Create Tables: FO: TABLE-Column Fo: Table-Header Fo: Table-Footer Fo: Table-Cell XSL-FO Uses The The Output from this Code Would Something Like this: Carpricevolvo $ 50000SAAB $ 48000 XSL-fo and xslt XSL-fo and xslt can help each other. REMEMBER THIS EXAMPLE? Font-size = "14pt" font-family = "verdana" font-color = "red" Space-before = "5mm" Space -After = "5mm"> W3Schools Text-indent = "5mm" Font-family = "verdana" font-size = "12pt" Space-before = "5mm" Space -After = "5mm"> AT W3Schools you will find all the web-building tutorials you Need, from Basic HTML and XHTML to Advanced XML, XSL, MultiMedia And WAP. RESULT: W3Schools At W3Schools you will find all the web-building tutorials you need, from Basic HTML and XHTML to Advanced XML, XSL, MultiMedia and WAP. The Example Above Is from The Chapter About Xsl-fo Blocks. With a little help from xslt Remove the xsl-fo information from the document: W3Schools AT W3Schools you will find all the web-building tutorials you Need, from Basic HTML and XHTML to Advanced XML, XSL, MultiMedia And WAP. Add an Xslt Transformation: Font-size = "14pt" font-family = "verdana" font-color = "red" Space-before = "5mm" Space -After = "5mm"> Text-indent = "5mm" Font-family = "verdana" font-size = "12pt" Space-before = "5mm" Space -After = "5mm"> And The Result Will Be The Same: W3Schools At W3Schools you will find all the web-building tutorials you need, from Basic HTML and XHTML to Advanced XML, XSL, MultiMedia and WAP. XSL-FO Software XSL-FO Needs Formatting Software to Produce Output. XSL-FO Processors An XSL-FO Processor is a Software Program for Formatting XSL Documents for Output. Most XSL-FO Processors Can Output PDF Document, And Quality Print As Well AS HTML AND Other Formats. Here is a list of the most mark xsl-fo processors: XSL Formatter XSL Formatter is a Software to Format XML Documents for Production-Quality Printing and Output to PDF. Antenna House has been providing version V2 of the same product since January, 2002 in the global market, and XSL Formatter was rated as one of the best quality product at the XML 2002, XML 2003 conferences held in Europe. Building on over 4 years of experience developing XSL-FO software, Antenna House has completely written from scratch an entirely new Formatter that offers significant enhancements and provides a solid foundation on which to continue to move forward. Visit Antenna House Xinc Beta Release XINC IS An Xsl-Fo Processor by Lunasil Ltd. Xinc is designed to be fast, multithreaded and memory efficient. A Swing based XSL-FO viewer allows you to view and print XSL-FO files as well as generate PDF files with the click of a button. Xinc can be used as a server component via its Java API. Xinc can also be used in a Microsoft server environment by using its COM interface. New features include hyphenation, basic-link, PDF output, memory / speed optimizations and a simple COM interface. Visit Lunasil Ltd Scriptura Inventive Designers Scriptura IS A Cross-Platform Document Design and Generation Solution Based on Xslt and XSL-FO. Scriptura has a WYSIWYG design tool and engine The XSL-FO formatter used in the engine is no longer based on Apache FOP, but is written from scratch by Inventive Designers The new features in this release are:.. Support for bulleted and numbered lists, 'Break-Before' and 'Break -After' Properties, Extended Bar Code Options and Improved Number and currency formatting. a free trial version is available for Download.Visit Inventive Designers
