1	Customizing HIP: A Beginner’s Guide to Editing XSLT Stylesheets
2	Scope Introduction to customizing the HIP user interface by way of the XSLT Stylesheets XSLT = Extensible Stylesheet Language for Transformations Tag-based programming language Transforms XML documents into something else (in this case, HTML)
3	XSLT Sample <xsl:template name="footer"> <center> <table> <xsl:attribute name="class"> <xsl:value-of select="$css_table_background"/> </xsl:attribute> <xsl:attribute name="valign">bottom</xsl:attribute> <xsl:attribute name="width">100%</xsl:attribute> <xsl:if test="not(boolean(/searchresponse/sendingemail))"> <tr> <td> <xsl:attribute name="nowrap">true</xsl:attribute> <xsl:attribute name="align">center</xsl:attribute> <a> <xsl:attribute name="class"> <xsl:value-of select="$css_global_anchor"/> </xsl:attribute> <xsl:attribute name="href">http://www.hclib.org/</xsl:attribute> <xsl:text>home</xsl:text> </a>
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5	Customizing at Hennepin County Library HIP 2.03.01 (production) and 2.1 (development) running on Windows 2000 Dynix ILS HCL is a single library with 27 branches Each branch has a HIP profile, but they are essentially identical Decision-making aspects of customization are centralized Experience with HTML and ColdFusion ColdFusion is a web application platform that uses templates and a tag-based programming language
6	Customizing at Hennepin County Library Resources available for customization effort Development server Extra ILS licenses Staff with experience in web application development Started with cosmetic changes Reduction of white space Removal of extraneous information Color conformity with the library’s web pages
7	Customizing at Hennepin County Library Breakthrough moment: realizing there are two parts to every HIP page: Functional elements links, input boxes, submit buttons, JavaScript Display elements As long as the functional elements are left intact, you can do as you like with the display elements First major customization: toolbar2.xsl
8	Header example (toolbar2.xsl)
9	Benefits of Customizing Shape the catalog to better meet the specific needs of your library Developers need to create a single product that libraries of any type can use Override Dynix’s development decisions especially with regard to layout Generates interest in the catalog from staff and the public Sense of ownership when a suggestion is incorporated Satisfying
10	Risks of Customizing Not supported, help from Dynix is billable If you’re careful, the risk is small Upgrades/patches are more work and take longer Potentially a lot more work and a lot longer Not too bad if a good upgrade plan is developed 2.0 to 2.01 40 hours 2.02 to 2.03, 2.03 to 2.03.01 1 hour 2.03.01 to 2.1 4 hours A major change in system architecture could have serious consequences A close call: Dynix patches required for 2.0x upgrades were backward compatible
11	Prerequisites to Customizing A solid working knowledge of HTML Primarily working backwards from the final product HTML tables HIP uses tables extensively as the framework for each page Table cells and rows are used to display variable sets of information Tabs in the tabset Items in the item display Subject headings in the sidebar Basic understanding of how Cascading Stylesheets (CSS) work
12	Prerequisites to Customizing Access and rights to the XSLT stylesheets Development HIP Separate installation of HIP for development purposes Develop, test and tweak customizations without bothering users of the production system Very easy to copy pre-tested stylesheets to the production HIP Additional ILS licenses Dynix: uses at least one Dynix/UniVerse/Unix license Horizon: ?? On a separate server Desktop PC with 1GB of RAM (or less?) On the production server Runs on different ports or a different IP address than production HIP, more complex setup Resource issues?
13	Managing Upgrades with Customized Stylesheets During upgrades, stylesheets may be replaced with new versions Customizations are NOT retained Before the upgrade, make sure you have backup copies of all the stylesheets that have been customized along with the original versions After the upgrade, compare the new version of the stylesheet to the old original uncustomized version. Date/time modified Size
14	Managing Upgrades with Customized Stylesheets If there are no differences between the old original version and the new version, your customized version needs no changes If there are differences between the old and new stylesheets, find out the nature of the changes Side by side comparison If the changes are relatively minor, incorporate them into your old customized stylesheet If the change is relatively major compared to your customizations, incorporate your customizations into the new version of the stylesheet Upgrade documentation has been pretty good about listing the stylesheets that will be replaced during the upgrade
15	The XSL Processor Stylesheets are organized into six functional areas of HIP Each of the functional areas has a root stylesheet searchresponse.xsl – search, view results, login patronpersonalresposne.xsl – my account placerequest.xsl – hold placement mylistresponse.xsl – my list, manage lists sendbooklist.xsl – send a booklist via email sessioninfo.xsl – ???
16	The XSL Processor Root stylesheets are associated with their supporting stylesheets through two configuration files Located up one level from the stylesheets in the main “XSLProcessor” folder xsltransformer.xml xsltransformer.cfg
17	Snippet from xsltransformer.xml ... <Root> <Name>./xsl/placerequest.xsl</Name> <Includes> <Include type="error">error.xsl</Include> <Include type="toolbar">toolbar2.xsl</Include> <Include type="requestoptions">placerequestoptions.xsl</Include> <Include type="footer">generalfooter.xsl</Include> <Include type="timer">expiretimer.xsl</Include> <Include type="bookings">bookings.xsl</Include> <Include type="image">image.xsl</Include> <Include type="features">onoff.xsl</Include> <Include type="attributes">other.xsl</Include> <Include type="string">string.xsl</Include> </Includes> </Root> ...
18	XSLT Editing Tips and Tricks Be sure to make a backup copy of a file before you edit Be comfortable with your backup plan Use a plain text editor or an editor designed for XSLT MS Word or Word Pad might save the file in a non-ASCII format If possible, break up the customization into small edits that can be tested individually along the way XSL Processor must be stopped and restarted for changes to take affect Horizon Application Server (JBoss) does not need to be restarted
19	XSLT Editing Tips and Tricks Newly edited stylesheets won’t be tested until they’re called by HIP Example: changes to placerequest.xsl won’t be tested until a hold is placed Run the XSL Processor as an application rather than as a service when you are testing an edited stylesheet More complete error messages Fast and easy to stop and start
20	XSLT Editing Tips and Tricks HIP stylesheets contain both XSL and HTML tags XSL tags are labeled as such: <xsl:attribute> </xsl:attribute> <xsl:if> </xsl:if> HTML tags look like bare HTML tags attributes are applied with the <xsl:attribute> tag
21	XSLT Editing Tips and Tricks The following XSLT: <img> <xsl:attribute name=“src”>/images/go.gif</xsl:attribute> <xsl:attribute name=“border”>0</xsl:attribute> </img> Generates this HTML: <img src=“/images/go.gif” border=“0”>
22	XSLT Editing Tips and Tricks XSL Processor is picky when it comes to tags: Tags are case sensitive Bad: <TD> … </td> Good: <td> … </td> End tags are required Bad: <br> Good: <br></br> Empty tags can use the end marker to close: Good: <p/> <xsl:value-of select=“text”/>
23	XSLT Editing Tips and Tricks Comment tags Add comments to the stylesheet using standard HTML comment tags <!-- pf added series title --> Use comment tags to deactivate Dynix code <!-- pf commented out unnecessary stuff <xsl:if test="boolean(normalize-space(explanation))"> <a> <xsl:attribute name="class"> <xsl:value-of select="$css_normal_black_font1"/> </xsl:attribute> <xsl:value-of select="explanation"/> </a> </xsl:if> --> NOTE: A comment used to deactivate code cannot include any comment tags
24	XSLT Editing Tips and Tricks Following the XSL trail from the HTML source to the corresponding spot in the stylesheets can be tricky Never a direct route Root and support stylesheets Variables Templates Cascading Style Sheets Flow control tags
25	XSLT Editing Tips and Tricks Root and support stylesheets The XSL responsible for the HTML on any given page comes from multiple stylesheets Find out which root file by adding “&GetXML=true” to the end of the URL Case sensitive Remove “#focus” from the end of the URL Example: http://catalog.hclib.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?profile=rd#focus http://catalog.hclib.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?profile=rd&GetXML=true
26	XSLT Editing Tips and Tricks Variables HTML to be customized Send suggestions to <a class="normalBlackFont1" href="mailto:d.nackos@epixtech.com"> d.nackos@epixtech.com </a> Assigned to a variable <xsl:variable name="emailsuggestions"> d.nackos@epixtech.com </xsl:variable>
27	XSLT Editing Tips and Tricks Variables Variable called by the code to be customized <!-- pf c-o dynix code Send suggestions to <a> <xsl:attribute name="class"> <xsl:value-of select="$css_normal_black_font1"/> </xsl:attribute> <xsl:attribute name="href"> mailto:<xsl:value-of select="$emailsuggestions"/> </xsl:attribute> <xsl:value-of select="$emailsuggestions"/> </a> -->
28	XSLT Editing Tips and Tricks Templates Allows XSLT code to be packaged and reused Define a template <xsl:template name="footer"> <center> ... </center> </xsl:template> Call up a template ... <xsl:call-template name="footer"/> </form> </body> </html>
29	XSLT Editing Tips and Tricks Another template example <!-- put the current session ID in to the URL --> <xsl:template name="addSessionToURL"> <xsl:choose> <!-- if sending an email get new session --> <xsl:when test="/searchresponse/sendingemail = $true"> <xsl:text>session=new</xsl:text> </xsl:when> <!-- if not sending an email preserve session ID --> <xsl:otherwise> <xsl:text>session=</xsl:text> <xsl:value-of select="/searchresponse/session"/> </xsl:otherwise> </xsl:choose> </xsl:template> Output of <xsl:call-template name=“addSessionToURL”/> As part of an email: session=new All other situations: session=106W6250V8X87.3594
30	XSLT Editing Tips and Tricks Cascading stylesheets In HIP, defines the style elements for fonts and buttons Colors Size Text decoration: bold, underline, etc. Assigned in the XSLT by the ‘class’ attribute <a> <xsl:attribute name="class"> <xsl:value-of select="$css_normal_black_font1"/> </xsl:attribute> <b><xsl:value-of select="$full_bib_call_num"/></b> </a>
31	XSLT Editing Tips and Tricks Flow control tags <xsl:for-each ... > </xsl:for-each> Repeat the code within the tag for each item in the dataset <xsl:for-each select="//blockdata/block"> <xsl:call-template name="blocktable"/> </xsl:for-each> <xsl:if ... > </xsl:if> Only use the code within the tag if the condition is true <xsl:if test="boolean(//itemsout)"> ... </xsl:if>
32	XSLT Editing Tips and Tricks Flow control tags (continued) <xsl:choose> <xsl:when … > </xsl:when> <xsl:otherwise> </xsl:otherwise> </xsl:choose> Choose which code to use from multiple alternatives <xsl:choose> <xsl:when test="//profile = ‘elibrary’"> call your local library </xsl:when> <xsl:otherwise> ask for assistance at the info desk </xsl:otherwise> </xsl:choose>
33	Editors Stylesheet Editor XMLSpy Xselerator FrontPage 2003 Text Editor Notepad UltraEdit Find/Replace across multiple files Line number indicator, ”Go to line” utility Compare files
34	Other Resources XSLT, Doug Tidwell iPac User Interface Customization Guide, from the Dynix support website http://customer.dynix.com/archive/pdf/?support/ipac/docu/202/iPacCustom.pdf iPac Listserv and archive http://lists.tblc.org/mailman/listinfo/ipac/ iPac Zone, compiled by James Day http://www.scpl.lib.fl.us/ipaczone/ Contributions from HIP administrators/customizers Google
35	Customizing HIP:A Beginner’s Guide to Editing XSLT Stylesheets