Re: [xsl] XSL-FO - Headers

Subject: Re: [xsl] XSL-FO - Headers
From: JBryant@xxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 17:18:23 -0500
Hi, Craig,

> 1. Is it normal practise to have more than one
> <fo:layout-master-set>?

Yessir. I generally have 4 (front two pages, contents, body, and index). 
If I have to do a separate back page (I often don't bother as I target 
electronic rather than print publication) or a facing-page layout, it goes 
up from there. (Not that I can claim to be normal, but at least you are 
not alone. ;-)

> 2. The following is my <fo:layout-master-set> to
> be used for all the inside pages of which would
> all need the same header. I've tried the following
> to create a continuous header with no success.
>
> Does anybodody have a solution?

I can think of a couple possibilities:

First, the extent may be smaller than the block that is supposed to fill 
it. As came up on the fop-user lists last week, if FOP can't display all 
of something, it tends to display none of it. So, expand that extent and 
see. Also, examining the fo file (which you can get FOP to produce for 
you) may be revealing as well.

Second, I have found that I have to put the main flow after the static 
flows (indicating that FOP has certain expectations about what must be 
present). Since you have no main flow, FOP may be "waiting for the other 
shoe to drop" before trying to draw the static regions. So try adding your 
main flow in there (I suppose you already have) and see what you get. 
Again, reading the FO code that FOP produces may be very revealing.

FOP definitely has some odd quirks (but so does just about everything 
else).

By the way, the arrangement you have here produces a footer rather than a 
header. If you want a header, specify region-name and extent attributes on 
fo:region-before.

One last note - the names of the regions don't matter, so long as they 
match from region to flow. You could just as easily use "Oscar-Madison" as 
"xsl-region-after". The FOP samples have names that try to be helpful but 
that sometimes lead people to think they have to use those names. (Forgive 
me if you know this - I mention it because I've seen it cause confusion.)

HTH

Jay Bryant
Bryant Communication Services
(presently consulting at Synergistic Solution Technologies)

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