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Posted to users@cocoon.apache.org by Mark Lundquist <ml...@wrinkledog.com> on 2004/02/05 08:18:53 UTC

WoodyTemplateTransformer vs. WoodyGenerator

OK, I am just learning Woody for the first time.  The wiki docs are 
most helpful.

Going through http://wiki.cocoondev.org/Wiki.jsp?page=WoodySample, I 
encountered the subject of Woody form templates.  The first thing I 
thought was that this approach seems kind of pull-y and not very 
Cocoon-like.  I have to enumerate each of the widgets individually in 
this template.  I thought "hmm, why isn't there XML for the form, for 
me to push through a stylesheet?"

Then I read in the WoodySample document: "As an alternative to the 
template approach, you could also use the WoodyGenerator, which will 
generate an XML representation of the whole form, and style that with a 
custom-written XLST."

Ah — just what I was looking for.

But then I read, "Using the Woody template transformer is much easier 
though."

Hmm, why would it be much easier?  It doesn't seem like it should be 
that much easier...

Then I ran across the WoodyIntro version 7 
(http://wiki.cocoondev.org/Wiki.jsp?page=WoodyIntro&version=7), which 
explains "The WoodyGenerator generates a complete XML representation of 
the form, which will then have to be styled by an XSLT. This XSLT will 
be specific for that form, but could import a library-XSLT that has 
templates for formatting individual widgets."

Well — doesn't the output of the template transformer need the same 
kind of styling, to translate elements in the 'wi' namespace to HTML?  
And would that not be done using woody-samples-styling.xsl?  And is 
that not the very "library-XLST etc." whereof it was spoken in the 
WoodyIntro v.7 doc?  In reference to the styling needed by the output 
of the template transformer, the WoodySample doc says: "This XSLT only 
has to handle individual widgets, and not the page as a whole, and is 
thus not specific for one form but can be reused across forms."  Well 
yes, but then the template was form-specific in the first place, and 
arguably it was more laborious to have to call out each widget than it 
would be to match them in using <xsl:apply-templates>, isn't it?

http://wiki.cocoondev.org/Wiki.jsp?page=WoodyTemplateTransformer has 
this to say: "If you prefer to do everything with XSLT, you have also 
the option of using the WoodyGenerator. In general we recommend to use 
the woody transformer though."  Why is the transformer approach 
recommended over the generator approach?  I don't get it.

Thanks for any illumination,
~ml


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Re: Problem with date format for a woody widget in xsp

Posted by Alex Kovacs <al...@fast.fujitsu.com.au>.

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the help, I will try it and let you know how it worked.

Rgds,
Alex

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tony Edwards" <te...@civica.com.au>
To: <us...@cocoon.apache.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 9:42 AM
Subject: Re: Problem with date format for a woody widget in xsp


> Hi Alex,
> I had a similar problem saving data back to a MySql database. The 
> database only recognises dates in yyyy-MM-dd format and the flowscript 
> was outputting dates like so:
> EEE, d MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss Z (the same as your issue).
> I fiddled with the <wd:convertor> settings but it didn't change the 
> resulting format being sent to the database.
> To solve the problem I downloaded a date formatting javascript library 
> from Matt Kruse (WWW: http://www.mattkruse.com/) called date.js (funny 
> that).
> It was then just a simple call to a formatting method and the record was 
> written without complaint.
> Another more xsp-centric solution is to include the following code in 
> your xsp page:
> <xsp:page> 
>  <xsp:structure>
>         <xsp:include>java.util.Date</xsp:include>
>         <xsp:include>java.util.Calendar</xsp:include>
>         <xsp:include>java.lang.Integer</xsp:include>
>         <xsp:include>java.util.GregorianCalendar</xsp:include>
>         <xsp:include>java.text.SimpleDateFormat</xsp:include>
>         <xsp:include>java.lang.String</xsp:include>
>     </xsp:structure>
> 
>     <xsp:logic>
>         <![CDATA[
>             public static String formatDate(Date value, String format) {
>                 SimpleDateFormat formatter;
>                 format = format.trim();
>                 if (format != null && !"".equals(format)) {
>                     formatter = new SimpleDateFormat(format);
>                 }
>                 else {
>                     formatter = new SimpleDateFormat();
>                 }
>                
>                 return formatter.format(value);
>             }
>     </xsp:logic>
> <content>             
>                 <para>Select 'Add' or 'View' from the options then 
> select the month and year for the notice:</para>
>                 <para>Today's date is <xsp:expr>formatDate(new Date(), 
> "dd-MMM-yyyy")</xsp:expr></para><br/>
>  </content> 
> </xsp:page>          
> Hope this helps,
> Regards,
> Tony
> 


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Re: Problem with date format for a woody widget in xsp

Posted by Tony Edwards <te...@civica.com.au>.

Hi Alex,
I had a similar problem saving data back to a MySql database. The 
database only recognises dates in yyyy-MM-dd format and the flowscript 
was outputting dates like so:
EEE, d MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss Z (the same as your issue).
I fiddled with the <wd:convertor> settings but it didn't change the 
resulting format being sent to the database.
To solve the problem I downloaded a date formatting javascript library 
from Matt Kruse (WWW: http://www.mattkruse.com/) called date.js (funny 
that).
It was then just a simple call to a formatting method and the record was 
written without complaint.
Another more xsp-centric solution is to include the following code in 
your xsp page:
<xsp:page> 
 <xsp:structure>
        <xsp:include>java.util.Date</xsp:include>
        <xsp:include>java.util.Calendar</xsp:include>
        <xsp:include>java.lang.Integer</xsp:include>
        <xsp:include>java.util.GregorianCalendar</xsp:include>
        <xsp:include>java.text.SimpleDateFormat</xsp:include>
        <xsp:include>java.lang.String</xsp:include>
    </xsp:structure>

    <xsp:logic>
        <![CDATA[
            public static String formatDate(Date value, String format) {
                SimpleDateFormat formatter;
                format = format.trim();
                if (format != null && !"".equals(format)) {
                    formatter = new SimpleDateFormat(format);
                }
                else {
                    formatter = new SimpleDateFormat();
                }
               
                return formatter.format(value);
            }
    </xsp:logic>
<content>             
                <para>Select 'Add' or 'View' from the options then 
select the month and year for the notice:</para>
                <para>Today's date is <xsp:expr>formatDate(new Date(), 
"dd-MMM-yyyy")</xsp:expr></para><br/>
 </content> 
</xsp:page>          
Hope this helps,
Regards,
Tony

Alex Kovacs wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I am using cocoon-2.1.3 with Woody. I have a situation where I am using
>xsp
>to display some data from a Woody form. The problem is when trying to
>display the value of a date widget and the date format is the default
>one
>instead of the one set in the widget definition. I have the following
>configuration (using xml binding):
>
>Widget definition:
>        ...
>        <wd:field id="start_date">
>            <wd:datatype base="date">
>                <wd:convertor type="formatting">
>                    <wd:patterns>
>                        <wd:pattern>dd/MM/yyyy</wd:pattern>
>                    </wd:patterns>
>                </wd:convertor>
>            </wd:datatype>
>            <wd:label>Start Date</wd:label>
>        </wd:field>
>        ...
>
>
>The confirm.xsp file:
>            ...
>            <xsp:logic>
>                //Fetching the form from the request attribute
>                Form form = (Form)request.getAttribute("theform");
>                Field start_date = (Field)form.getWidget("start_date");
>            </xsp:logic>
>            ...
>            <item>
>                   <xsp:expr>start_date.getValue()</xsp:expr>
>             </item>
>            ...
>
>And the output is in the form of: "Tue Feb 10 00:00:00 EST 2004",
>instead of
>"10/02/2004".
>
>Can anyone help?
>Rgds
>Alex
>
>
>
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>  
>


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Re: Problem with date format for a woody widget in xsp

Posted by Bruno Dumon <br...@outerthought.org>.

On Tue, 2004-02-10 at 09:03, Alex Kovacs wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am using cocoon-2.1.3 with Woody. I have a situation where I am using xsp
> to display some data from a Woody form. The problem is when trying to
> display the value of a date widget and the date format is the default one
> instead of the one set in the widget definition. I have the following
> configuration (using xml binding):
> 
> Widget definition:
>         ...
>         <wd:field id="start_date">
>             <wd:datatype base="date">
>                 <wd:convertor type="formatting">
>                     <wd:patterns>
>                         <wd:pattern>dd/MM/yyyy</wd:pattern>
>                     </wd:patterns>
>                 </wd:convertor>
>             </wd:datatype>
>             <wd:label>Start Date</wd:label>
>         </wd:field>
>         ...
> 
> 
> The confirm.xsp file:
>             ...
>             <xsp:logic>
>                 //Fetching the form from the request attribute
>                 Form form = (Form)request.getAttribute("theform");
>                 Field start_date = (Field)form.getWidget("start_date");
>             </xsp:logic>
>             ...
>             <item>
>                    <xsp:expr>start_date.getValue()</xsp:expr>
>              </item>
>             ...
> 
> And the output is in the form of: "Tue Feb 10 00:00:00 EST 2004", instead of
> "10/02/2004".
> 
> Can anyone help?

The start_date.getValue() call returns a Date object, so the date you're
seeing it the default Date.toString() behaviour of Java.

Unfortunately, AFAIK, there's currently no method on the Field widget to
retrieve its converted string value (it's only part of the generated
XML). Seems useful to me though, and would only be 3 lines of code.

-- 
Bruno Dumon                             http://outerthought.org/
Outerthought - Open Source, Java & XML Competence Support Center
bruno@outerthought.org                          bruno@apache.org


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Problem with date format for a woody widget in xsp

Posted by Alex Kovacs <al...@fast.fujitsu.com.au>.

Hi,

I am using cocoon-2.1.3 with Woody. I have a situation where I am using xsp
to display some data from a Woody form. The problem is when trying to
display the value of a date widget and the date format is the default one
instead of the one set in the widget definition. I have the following
configuration (using xml binding):

Widget definition:
        ...
        <wd:field id="start_date">
            <wd:datatype base="date">
                <wd:convertor type="formatting">
                    <wd:patterns>
                        <wd:pattern>dd/MM/yyyy</wd:pattern>
                    </wd:patterns>
                </wd:convertor>
            </wd:datatype>
            <wd:label>Start Date</wd:label>
        </wd:field>
        ...


The confirm.xsp file:
            ...
            <xsp:logic>
                //Fetching the form from the request attribute
                Form form = (Form)request.getAttribute("theform");
                Field start_date = (Field)form.getWidget("start_date");
            </xsp:logic>
            ...
            <item>
                   <xsp:expr>start_date.getValue()</xsp:expr>
             </item>
            ...

And the output is in the form of: "Tue Feb 10 00:00:00 EST 2004", instead of
"10/02/2004".

Can anyone help?
Rgds
Alex



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