Complex regions and content division

[JohnVirgo]

Hi All,

I've been working on a fairly complicated requirement for a few days now but I'm beginning to think that XSL-FO may not be right for what we are trying to achieve.

We have an A4 paper form that we are trying to format in such a way that, the top section is either less than or exactly half of the page and the bottom section uses the remaining available space. I.e. The bottom section is always aligned with the bottom of the top section.

Here was our first problem were I basically required a 'dynamic' region size based on the formatted content, so we fell into the trap of requiring feedback from the code applying the XSL-FO. I have read now that this is not supported. So we had to find our own way of feeding back etc. any better suggestions would be appreciated.

Secondly, and more complicated, is that if the content of the top section exceeds the region it is required to use all of the available space on page two; not just the region defined for it's content. I know this sounds crazy (I don't write the requirements) and I'd consider this impossible to span content across nodes further up the hierarchy of the FO; but never mind.

I would be grateful for any comments and suggestions on this subject.

Thanks, John Virgo

[Dave Pawson-2]

On 13/12/2007, JohnVirgo <john.virgo@...> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> I've been working on a fairly complicated requirement for a few days now but
> I'm beginning to think that XSL-FO may not be right for what we are trying
> to achieve.


Bottom line, xsl-fo cannot layout content dependent on what has already
been laid out.
For that you  need a two pass process (some processors
output an intermediate step) or another alternative.

regards DaveP

>
> We have an A4 paper form that we are trying to format in such a way that,
> the top section is either less than or exactly half of the page and the
> bottom section uses the remaining available space. I.e. The bottom section
> is always aligned with the bottom of the top section.
>
> Here was our first problem were I basically required a 'dynamic' region size
> based on the formatted content, so we fell into the trap of requiring
> feedback from the code applying the XSL-FO. I have read now that this is not
> supported. So we had to find our own way of feeding back etc. any better
> suggestions would be appreciated.
>
> Secondly, and more complicated, is that if the content of the top section
> exceeds the region it is required to use all of the available space on page
> two; not just the region defined for it's content. I know this sounds crazy
> (I don't write the requirements) and I'd consider this impossible to span
> content across nodes further up the hierarchy of the FO; but never mind.
>
> I would be grateful for any comments and suggestions on this subject.
>
> Thanks, John Virgo
> --
> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Complex-regions-and-content-division-tp14316663p14316663.html
> Sent from the w3.org - www-xsl-fo mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
>
>
>

--
Dave Pawson
XSLT XSL-FO FAQ.
http://www.dpawson.co.uk

[JohnVirgo]

I thought as much myself. For the time being we will be implementing a manual step for an operator to validate the format, then if needed choose a better template. In the future we will attempt to build a system to automatically determine the best template.

Thank you for the response, it's always good to hear someone back me up. :)

John Virgo

Dave Pawson-2 wrote:

On 13/12/2007, JohnVirgo <[e-mail]> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> I've been working on a fairly complicated requirement for a few days now but
> I'm beginning to think that XSL-FO may not be right for what we are trying
> to achieve.


Bottom line, xsl-fo cannot layout content dependent on what has already
been laid out.
For that you  need a two pass process (some processors
output an intermediate step) or another alternative.

regards DaveP




>
> We have an A4 paper form that we are trying to format in such a way that,
> the top section is either less than or exactly half of the page and the
> bottom section uses the remaining available space. I.e. The bottom section
> is always aligned with the bottom of the top section.
>
> Here was our first problem were I basically required a 'dynamic' region size
> based on the formatted content, so we fell into the trap of requiring
> feedback from the code applying the XSL-FO. I have read now that this is not
> supported. So we had to find our own way of feeding back etc. any better
> suggestions would be appreciated.
>
> Secondly, and more complicated, is that if the content of the top section
> exceeds the region it is required to use all of the available space on page
> two; not just the region defined for it's content. I know this sounds crazy
> (I don't write the requirements) and I'd consider this impossible to span
> content across nodes further up the hierarchy of the FO; but never mind.
>
> I would be grateful for any comments and suggestions on this subject.
>
> Thanks, John Virgo
> --
> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Complex-regions-and-content-division-tp14316663p14316663.html
> Sent from the w3.org - www-xsl-fo mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
>
>
>


--
Dave Pawson
XSLT XSL-FO FAQ.
http://www.dpawson.co.uk