DOM example: Web presentation

Given the existence of the previously discussed Python addr.py module, the HTML presentation is written by a Python script named addr-web.

Here are the command line options to this script:

    addr-web [-u] infile.xml

Design considerations for this script:

• Each <entry> element in the input file should be rendered multiple locations---one for each <person> or <org> element. To achieve this, we define a virtual class Block that represents an arbitrary output block. Subclasses are OrgBlock for an organization, PersonBlock for a person, and XRefBlock for a cross-reference.
• The __cmp__() methods in these objects order the entries into the desired output order. So, the main program goes through the Entry objects, builds a list of Block objects from them, and sorts the list.
• Once we have a sorted list of output blocks, we use the .xhtml() methods of each block to generate its content. The blocks will appear inside a large single table so we can place the phone numbers in a narrow column on the left and the rest of the stuff in a wide column on the right.
• We use the gen_xml.py module to build the HTML output. (source for gen_xml.py)

Heavy use is made of Cascading Style Sheets to give the Web rendering an attractive styling. Here is a list of the principle rules in the address.css stylesheet:

span.intro-date	The date/time stamp in the introductory paragraph.
span.phone	A phone number.
span.index-term	The string used to alphabetize this block. For a person, e.g., this will be 'Last[, First][ "Nick"]'.
span.org	An <org> element other than the index-term.
span.contact	The <contact> element in an <org>, if any.
span.person	A <person> element other than the index-term.
span.loc	A location (mail or street).
span.dir	The content from a <directions> element.
span.notes	The <notes> content if any.

Last updated: 2002/11/07 00:48:41 UT
URL: http://www.nmt.edu/tcc/help/xml/addr-web.html