Mail to the author
xavier at ultra-fluide.com

Passer au
Français

XSLT Semantic markup

• Introducing Semark.xsl
• Author & license
• Download
• Using Semark.xsl
• Functionalities
• Compatibility & operating
• Online try

Semantic markup using XSL transformation

If you're in a hurry you can go directly to the online demonstration. We recommend that you read the functionalities page for complete information.
Please note that the use of this tool requires basic understanding of the web and its related technologies.

We propose 3 examples showing the application of semark.xsl XSLT transformation:

• online demonstration,
• basic implementation on a client's computer
• implementation on a web server

Online demonstration

you can test this XSLT transformation with your browser on our web site. The source document for markup and the lexicon are set, hence not modifiable. The demonstration page provides the links to visualise the source document and the lexicon. You will also find a form to specify the optional parameters managed by the tool. The submission of this form starts up the XSL transformation and produces the source document following markup.
For more information about the tool and its options, consult the paragraph about functionalities.

Prerequisites :

Must have a browser capable of handling CSS style. The default markup (acronym/title) is visually highlighted by the application of a CSS style.

Implementation on a client's computer

This is the simplest (but not the most useful) use of the semark.xsl transformation. Once you have downloaded the pack and decompressed it in a chosen directory, you just need to open the xhtml-page.xml file with a web browser. Xhtml-page.xml is the source document for markup. This file automatically brings up the semark.xsl "style sheet" which after reading the lexicon.html file applies the markup according to the default options.

The browser then presents the document following markup. To examine the document prior to markup there are 3 solutions:

• renaming xhtml-page.xml with a .html extension (in general browsers will no longer apply the XSLT transformation)
• reading the code for xhtml-page.xml using a text editor
• inserting a comment in the second line of xhtml-page.xml in order to remove the request for XSLT transformation

This use of semark.xsl does not allow for modification of the operating options except modifying semark.xsl directly.

Prerequisites :

Must have a web browser equipped with a XSLT processor. You can use Firefox which is our favorite. IE6 is also suitable, but its XSLT processor is downright slow.

Implementation on a web server

This use requires the skills of a webmaster.
You will need to copy some files onto a web server to set up the demonstration. To do this, define a directory within the branches of a website installed on a server to which you have access. Edit the semark.php file to adapt the variable $the_local_path to the directory you have chosen (by default this directory is contents/semark). Copy the semark.xsl, xhtml-page.xml, lexicon.html and semark.php files into the chosen directory. Use a web browser to gain access to semark.php based on the directory you have chosen (for example: http://www.mywebsite.net/contents/semark/semark.php if www.mywebsite.net is the name of your website, and contents/semark is the installed directory).

Semark.php will apply the semark.xsl transformation to the source document xhtml-page.xml conforming to the lexicon lexicon.html. In this case you can modify the $PARAM variables under the semark.php "transformation parameters" heading in order to apply the different options.

Prerequisite :

Must have a web server equipped with PHP set up with the --with-dom-xslt option.