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© 2003 Per Jessen, per@computer.org.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.

Timian styles

The visual presentation of a Timian formatted report is determined by 3 elements:

• the Timian stylesheet (XSLT)

<xsl:template match="timespan">
        <xsl:value-of select="tx:strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M',@from)" />
        </xsl:template>

        
        <xsl:template match="report">
                <xsl:param name="repdef" />        
                <xsl:param name="rindex" />

        <xsl:message>processing "<xsl:value-of select="@name" />"</xsl:message>

        <xsl:variable name="rep" select="@name" />
        <xsl:variable name="x1" select="concat('title-',@name)" />
        <h2 id="section{$rindex}">
        <xsl:call-template name="find_string"><xsl:with-param name="key" select="$x1" /></xsl:call-template>
        <xsl:text> </xsl:text><xsl:value-of select="$repdef/@tag" />
        </h2>

        <xsl:apply-templates select="reportspan" />

        <xsl:variable name="x3" select="concat('caption-',@name)" />
        <h3><xsl:value-of select="$catalogue/phrase[@key=$x3]" /></h3>

        <xsl:if test="$repdef/piechart/@show='yes'">
        <xsl:variable name="colset" select="$repdef/piechart/@scheme" />

The above is an example of what XSLT-code looks like (an excerpt from a Timian stylesheet). A Timian stylesheet is just another XML-document.

• the Timian specification (XML)

The above is an example of what the <settings> part of a Timian specification might look like.

• one or more CSS stylesheets

If you're reading this, chances are you have a pretty good understanding of what CSS stylesheets look like and can and cannot do.

the Timian stylesheet

The Timian stylesheet written in XSLT is where the bulk of the effort goes. The stylesheet specifies what to do with the XML data read, and what and how to produce output.

the Timian specification

Although the stylesheet could quite comfortably hold all the information necessary to produce the desired output, this would be very inflexible (otherwise known as "hard-coding" or "hard-wired"). Instead, certain parts are made optional/parameterisable such that the behaviour of the stylesheet can be easily controlled from an external document - the Timian specification document.
It is worth noting that the Timian specification is nothing but an XML document whose structure and information is defined by the Timian stylesheet; i.e. the Timian specification is unique to the stylesheet.

CSS Stylesheets

CSS stylesheets primarily affect the appearance of the produced output; CSS affects colours, fonts, margins etc. A Timian formatted report relies almost entirely on stylesheets to supply formatting information.

styles

The Timian style gallery

Last time this page was updated: Friday 9 May 2003 10:48