Hi,
nice work :). The spec does not say how the pretty printing should
work so if no one has any objections to the way you have done it then I
suggest we commit it and see what users say. I know many people ask for
this functionality.
Gareth
On Thu, 21 Nov 2002, Kevin King wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I should probably first issue the disclaimer that as of a few days ago I
> did not know any details about XML, nor had even heard of Xerces. I have
> however been able to very quickly integrate Xerces-C++ into my application
> and get some basic XML functionality working using the DOM API.
>
> I obtained unexpected results when setting FormatPrettyPrint to serialize a
> document that was created from scratch within my application. Quick
> examination of the DomWriter implementation and searching through the
> archives of the xerces-c-dev list confirmed that there was no user error
> and it was functioning as designed. So this evening I modified DomWriter
> to format its output "Pretty".
>
> The fact that I was able to get basic XML working within my application,
> and even add some functionality in a matter of a couple days is a testament
> to everyone that has worked on this project - I was very impressed at how
> easy it was to write code based from the provided samples and even edit the
> source. Everything is very well organized and documented.
>
> My implementation of PrettyPrint seems to work with some random XML files I
> was able to find. But I will not begin to suggest it is a complete or
> working solution since my knowledge of XML is minimal.
>
> I came up with a few rules, added to DOMWriterImpl::processNode() which
> seem to do the trick when PrettyPrint is enabled:
>
> 1) All text nodes that contain ONLY whitespace are ignored
>
> 2) Each tag begins on a new line, indented a variable amount based
> on its level. A level is defined as how many generations removed from the
> root element it is.
>
> 3) Closing tags for Element nodes are printed on the same line as
> the opening if no newlines have been output as the result of any
> children. Otherwise closing tags are printed on a newline indented the
> same level as the opening tag.
>
> 4) An empty newline is printed just before the tag for each child
> of the root node.
>
>
> Currently I have the amount of indenting to be hard coded to two blank
> spaces per level. This should be user configurable in a final implementation.
>
> Now my concern is that rule #1 may not fly. I do not know enough about XML
> to know if that will incorrectly ignore some valid data. From all the XML
> samples I could find, the only time that a text node contained only
> whitespace was when it was in between an element's close tag and the next
> element's open tag, thus providing a readable format. I decided that it is
> best to ignore all existing formatting when FormatPrettyPrint is enabled
> as any attempt to combine the two would be too complex and create an
> unpredictable output.
>
> Rules 2, 3, and 4 are just my own preference in what I think looks good,
> and they were very easy to implement.
>
> I do not know if anyone was working on this but the following thread seemed
> to indicate it was not, as the only more recent discussions were people
> indicating that FormatPrettyPrint produced unexpected results.
> http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=xerces-c-dev&m=102760381301304&w=2
>
>
> I would like to hear any comments on the above. And would also not mind
> receiving some sample XML to run through DomWriter to see if it handles it
> with FormatPrettyPrint on. I am more than willing to share any of these
> changes, and add to them any oversights that I had.
>
> -Kevin King
>
>
> Sample output using the "personal.xml" file provided in the samples. I
> removed 3 of the users for a briefer sample:
> "domprint.exe -wfpp=on personal.xml"
>
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" standalone="no" ?>
> <!DOCTYPE personnel>
> <!-- @version: -->
>
>
> <personnel>
> <person id="Big.Boss">
> <name>
> <family>Mr Boss</family>
> <given>Big</given>
> </name>
> <email>[EMAIL PROTECTED]</email>
> <link subordinates="one.worker two.worker"/>
> </person>
>
> <person id="one.worker">
> <name>
> <family>Worker</family>
> <given>One</given>
> </name>
> <email>[EMAIL PROTECTED]</email>
> <link manager="Big.Boss"/>
> </person>
>
> <person id="two.worker">
> <name>
> <family>Worker</family>
> <given>Two</given>
> </name>
> <email>[EMAIL PROTECTED]</email>
> <link manager="Big.Boss"/>
> </person>
>
> </personnel>
>
>
>
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--
Gareth Reakes, Head of Product Development
DecisionSoft Ltd. http://www.decisionsoft.com
Office: +44 (0) 1865 203192
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