Building informational webs with PyStyler

Abstract

PyStyler is a tool for the construction and maintenance of HTML-based informational webs. It automates the insertion of navigational links and allows for the enforcement of a consistent style and insertion of stereotyped design features.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to PyStyler

2. Overview of the web creation process

3. Web page style

3.1. Avoiding navigational shock
3.2. Default “Next” and “Previous” links
3.3. Default “Up” and “See also” links

4. Building your directory structure

5. The plan.xml file

5.1. What is a topic?
5.2. What is a page identifier (page-id)?
5.3. Overall structure of the plan.xml file: The plan.rnc schema
5.4. The path-map element
5.5. The page element: Your outline

6. The template file

6.1. template.rnc: The template file schema: prologue
6.2. The author template element
6.3. The body template element
6.4. The nextTitle template element
6.5. The nextURL template element
6.6. The prevTitle template element
6.7. The prevURL template element
6.8. The seeAlso template element
6.9. The title template element
6.10. The updated template element
6.11. The upTitle template element
6.12. The upURL template element
6.13. Conditional expansion: ifTarget
6.14. The option template element
6.15. The ifOption template element
6.16. The ifNoOption template element

1. Introduction to PyStyler

The PyStyler program can help you build and maintain your World Wide Web pages when you start having more than a few dozen of them. In particular, PyStyler automates these common chores of web maintenance:

You can enforce a uniform page style, such as standard title styles and page credits, without having to add these features by hand to each page.
The work required to maintain navigational features (such as next-page and previous-page links) is greatly reduced.
If you decide to change the directory structure you use to store your pages, it is less work to find and fix all the references to pages that have moved.