Re: [xsl] Converting XML into ODT document to print as paper

Subject: Re: [xsl] Converting XML into ODT document to print as paper
From: "Andre Cusson akhu01@xxxxxxxxx" <xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2020 14:39:53 -0000
When you follow the XML -> XSLT -> HTML + CSS/JS path, you can still print
to PDF
There is potentially some manual work required, but it is a quick and easy
fix if the volume is "reasonable".
Other paths may be more appropriate in most cases.


Le ven. 25 sept. 2020 C  07:32, Manuel Souto Pico terminolator@xxxxxxxxx <
xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> a C)crit :

> Thank you so much everyone for all the suggestions. They help a lot, I
> have what I needed.
>
> In the end it seems my initial idea (ODT output) is not the best approach
> at all.
>
> Some clarification: I don't need the final document to be modified. I said
> ODT/OOXML because I assumed it's easier to convert to that than to PDF. And
> ideally there should be no hand intervention other than for printing, so a
> final-final result out of the pipeline.
>
> So it seems these are my options:
> * XML -> XSLT -> FODT -> PDF
> * XML -> XSLT -> HTML + CSS/JS ( and print directly, I suppose)
> * XML -> XSL-FO -> PDF
> * XML -> XSLT -> LaTeX -> PDF
>
> Some good pointers to things worth exploring:
> * https://www.pagedjs.org and aged-media CSS (new to me)
> * XSL-FO (I had heard about it before)
>
> Also very interesting (but more specific and perhaps more advanced for my
> meager CSS skills):
> * https://vivliostyle.org/
> * https://github.com/flyingsaucerproject/flyingsaucer
>
> >> Open/Libre Office also has a single-file XML format that you can use
> for this purpose.
>
> I saw that LO's Writer can save as a FODT (F stands for "flat xml"), I
> guess this is what you Willem and Wendell meant (thanks for that!). I
> easily created a quick and dirty template in XSL to produce a FODT which
> looks quite good, so that's the trick as PoC. Probably it shouldn't be too
> difficult to convert to PDF without having to open the file in LO, but
> that's fine.
>
> >> LaTeX
>
> I know some LaTeX and I used it to craft my thesis and my cv (
> http://msoutopico.es/cv). It would have never crossed my mind that it
> could be used for this, but it doesn't seem a bad idea at all! Good tip,
> thanks Peter! (And great sample, you nail it).
>
> Thank you again. Have a great weekend.
> Cheers, Manuel
>
>
>
>
> Peter Flynn peter@xxxxxxxxxxx <xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> escreveu no dia quinta, 24/09/2020 C (s) 17:25:
>
>> On 24/09/2020 08:57, Manuel Souto Pico terminolator@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>> > I would need to convert XML to something that has a fixed page layout
>> > ready to print, like ODT/OOXML or PDF.
>>
>> Do you want other people to be able to edit the result? ODT/OOXML are
>> designed to be editable; PDF is not.
>>
>> > I know OOXML is complex, but since the final document needs to be
>> > printed and keep the same layout, probably HTML output is not good for
>> > this (I guess!).
>>
>> A good web designer can probably create a layout that looks the same and
>> honours the paged-media CSS, but I don't think there are any guarantees.
>>
>> > What I need at the moment is just a quick and dirty proof of concept
>> > to show that this conversion is feasible and not too difficult, to
>> > show it to decision makers (I'm not a XSLT developer myself).
>>
>> XSLT will certainly be involved IMNSHO. My personal preference would be
>> XML > LaTeX > PDF but not everyone knows LaTeX.
>>
>> > My first thought was to unzip the ODT model I have, look at the
>> > content.xml inside and then try to transform my XML into that same
>> > structure (as suggested here:
>> >
>>
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38298174/directly-convert-a-single-xml-fi
le-to-docx).
>>
>>
>> That is indeed possible. Just complicated.
>>
>> > However, probably that's the hard way...
>>
>> You spotted it :-)
>>
>> > I'm doing some research, any tips or pointers or advice or
>> > recommendation or examples here would be highly appreciated. Is there
>> > any best practice to do this? or a ready-made solution?
>>
>> I did a quick test just now and the results are at
>> http://xml.silmaril.ie/software
>>
>> Peter
>>
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