xml:aid table to HTML

[[Jongware]]

I'm a bit stumped about this request on an Adobe forum. Apparently, exporting a
table from their flagship InDesign to XML produces the following output for a
table (only first 2 rows listed; after that it's more of the same):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
< Table xmlns:aid="http://ns.adobe.com/AdobeInDesign/4.0/" aid:table="table"
aid:trows="7" aid:tcols="3">
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="2">
<CellHeading>Situacao do Beneficiario</CellHeading>
</Cell>
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="98.93438079914081">
<CellHeading>Taxas de Bonificacao</CellHeading>
</Cell>

Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="78.09186111410146">
<CellBodyCenter>
<CharBold>Idade</CharBold>
</CellBodyCenter>
</Cell>
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="78.09186111410146">
<CellBodyCenter>
<CharBold>Carreira Contributiva (em anos)</CharBold>
</CellBodyCenter>
</Cell>
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="98.93438079914081">
<CellBodyCenter>
<CharBold>Mensal</CharBold>
</CellBodyCenter>
</Cell>

-- and the request of the OP is, how to convert this to HTML. Sounds easy? Not 4
me. The first row features a colspan (aid:ccols="2"); without this, I could --
and would -- cheat, but this colspan messes up the <Cell> count. You see the
problem. Thou Shalt Not Loop or Count in XSLT As There Are No Variables! Anyone
else see a solution?

[Jongware]

 

[Joe Kesselman]

Thou Shalt Not Loop or Count in XSLT As There Are No Variables!

General observation: you can often use position(), or last() applied to
an expression that counts the preceeding instances, as a replacement for
a loop counter. Try those first -- preferably position(), since it will
be more efficient.

See examples in the XSLT FAQ. Research left as an exercise for the student.


(If all else fails, it is possible to use recursion in place of looping
-- but that really should be a last resort.)

 

[Pavel Lepin]

I'm a bit stumped about this request on an Adobe forum.

Perhaps you should've sent the OP here instead of serving as
a middleman.

Apparently, exporting a table from their flagship InDesign
to XML produces the following output for a table (only
first 2 rows listed; after that it's more of the same):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
< Table xmlns:aid="http://ns.adobe.com/AdobeInDesign/4.0/"

Not well-formed.

aid:table="table" aid:trows="7" aid:tcols="3">
[...]

Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"

Not well-formed.

aid:ccolwidth="78.09186111410146">
[...]

-- and the request of the OP is, how to convert this to
HTML. Sounds easy? Not 4 me. The first row features a
colspan (aid:ccols="2"); without this, I could -- and
would -- cheat, but this colspan messes up the <Cell>
count. You see the problem.

With just colspans--not really. With rowspans--sort of.

Thou Shalt Not Loop or Count in XSLT As There Are No
Variables!

There are variables in XSLT. Looping and counting does not
present any insurmountable problems either.

Anyone else see a solution?

Engaging my gray matter yielded the following in about ten
minutes:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:aid="http://ns.adobe.com/AdobeInDesign/4.0/">
<xslutput method="html"/>
<xsl:key name="row" match="Cell"
use=
"
concat
(
generate-id(..),'|',
floor
(
sum(preceding-sibling::Cell/@aid:ccols) div
../@aid:tcols
)
)
"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:element name="html">
<xsl:element name="head">
<xsl:element name="title"/>
</xsl:element>
<xsl:element name="body">
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:element>
</xsl:element>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="Table">
<xsl:element name="table">
<xsl:call-template name="rows">
<xsl:with-param name="start" select="0"/>
<xsl:with-param name="end" select="@aid:trows"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:element>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="rows">
<xslaram name="start"/>
<xslaram name="end"/>
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="$start = $end">
<xsl:element name="tr">
<xsl:apply-templates
select=
"
key('row',concat(generate-id(),'|',$start))
"/>
</xsl:element>
</xsl:when>
<xsltherwise>
<xsl:variable name="mid"
select="$start + floor(($end - $start) div 2)"/>
<xsl:call-template name="rows">
<xsl:with-param name="start" select="$start"/>
<xsl:with-param name="end" select="$mid"/>
</xsl:call-template>
<xsl:call-template name="rows">
<xsl:with-param name="start" select="$mid + 1"/>
<xsl:with-param name="end" select="$end"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsltherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="Cell[CellHeading]">
<xsl:element name="th">
<xsl:apply-templates select="@aid:ccols"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="CellHeading/text()"/>
</xsl:element>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="Cell">
<xsl:element name="td">
<xsl:apply-templates select="@aid:ccols"/>
<xsl:apply-templates
select=".//text()[normalize-space() != '']"/>
</xsl:element>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="@aid:ccols[. = 1]"/>
<xsl:template match="@aid:ccols">
<xsl:attribute name="colspan">
<xsl:value-of select="."/>
</xsl:attribute>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Dealing with rowspans is left as an exercise for the reader.
Sending polite hate-mail to Adobe asking them to remove
their neck-mounted brain casings from their own rear-end
orifices is advised as well.

 

[[Jongware]]

General observation: you can often use position(), or last() applied to an
expression that counts the preceeding instances, as a replacement for a
loop counter. Try those first -- preferably position(), since it will be
more efficient.

That would have been my cheat if all to-be rows had the same number of
cells. A short synopsis of the (quite unreadable) XML:
(header)
<table col='3' row='5'>
(first row)
<cell span='2'><cell span='1'>
(the rest)
<cell span='1'><cell span='1'> <cell span='1'>

-- which has to be output in HTML form, grouping cells per row. The first
row only has 2 cells, as their 'spans' added equals the number of columns,
while the other rows have 3 cells each.

(If all else fails, it is possible to use recursion in place of looping --
but that really should be a last resort.)

The last resort is (always) cheating, and write a custom XSL for this case.
And another one for different numbers of rows and columns. And yet another
if the spans are in other places...
I tried recursion (sort of), propagating a 'current column' semi-variable
through the Cell template, but that was a very bad idea (as in I couldn't
insert row starts and ends).

[Jw]

 

[[Jongware]]

Perhaps you should've sent the OP here instead of serving as
a middleman.

I'll mention this ng ;-)

Engaging my gray matter yielded the following in about ten
minutes:

[brilliant, working solution snipped]

Oof. Just 10 mins?? It'll take me a bit longer than that to understand it.

Dealing with rowspans is left as an exercise for the reader.
Sending polite hate-mail to Adobe asking them to remove
their neck-mounted brain casings from their own rear-end
orifices is advised as well.

Fully agree with that.

[Jw]

 

[minlaca]

Thank you Jongware, and
Pavel Lepin!

This is a great solution but now I get an XML with some tables and the
tables has rowspan and colspan too. Can you help me for the transform?
Or the method like as the previous method?

<Table xmlns:aid="http://ns.adobe.com/AdobeInDesign/4.0/"
aid:table="table" aid:trows="7" aid:tcols="3">
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="3">
<CellHeading>Situação do Beneficiário/Taxas de Bonificação</
CellHeading>
</Cell>
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="78.09186111410146">
<CellBodyCenter>
<CharBold>Idade</CharBold>
</CellBodyCenter>
</Cell>
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="103.98750365826466">
<CellBodyCenter>
<CharBold>Carreira Contributiva (em anos)</CharBold>
</CellBodyCenter>
</Cell>
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="72.78873825497762">
<CellBodyCenter>
<CharBold>Mensal</CharBold>
</CellBodyCenter>
</Cell>
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="78.09186111410146">
<CellBodyCenter>&lt; 65</CellBodyCenter>
</Cell>
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="103.98750365826466">
<CellBodyCenter>Condições de Acesso à Pensão sem
Penalização</CellBodyCenter>
</Cell>
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="72.78873825497762">
<CellBodyCenter>0,65%</CellBodyCenter>
</Cell>
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="78.09186111410146"></Cell>
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="3" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="103.98750365826466">
<CellBodyCenter>15 a 24 </CellBodyCenter>
<CellBodyCenter>25 a 34 </CellBodyCenter>
<CellBodyCenter>35 a 39</CellBodyCenter>
</Cell>
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="72.78873825497762">
<CellBodyCenter>0.33%</CellBodyCenter>
</Cell>
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="78.09186111410146">
<CellBodyCenter>&gt; 65</CellBodyCenter>
</Cell>
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="72.78873825497762">
<CellBodyCenter>0.65%</CellBodyCenter>
</Cell>
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="78.09186111410146"></Cell>
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="72.78873825497762">
<CellBodyCenter>1.0%</CellBodyCenter>
</Cell>
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="78.09186111410146">
<CellBodyCenter>&gt; 65</CellBodyCenter>
</Cell>
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="103.98750365826466">
<CellBodyCenter>&gt; 40</CellBodyCenter>
</Cell>
<Cell aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1"
aid:ccolwidth="72.78873825497762">
<CellBodyCenter>0.5%</CellBodyCenter>
</Cell>
</Table>

Thank you!

 

[Pavel Lepin]

<[email protected]>:

[colspan/rowspan with no row delimition horrors]

This is a great solution but now I get an XML with some
tables and the tables has rowspan and colspan too. Can you
help me for the transform? Or the method like as the
previous method?

I'm afraid I fail to see an easy, general XSLT1 solution.
XSLT2 would make things much easier, but it would still be
a good bit of work even then. The problem is that with
rowspans, unlike with colspans, the elements should be
processed out of order to determine the resulting
positions. Your best option would be either using a
general-purpose language w/ DOM or SAX parser to transform
the document into something more manageable, or just
hacking it in XSLT until something gives (be warned: in my
estimation this is going to be *quite* exhausting... and
the end result is going to be ugly). Hiring an expert might
be an option as well if you can afford that.

For that matter, there's a number of XSLT experts on the
group, so one of them might come up with a simple, general
solution I failed to notice.