XML Skins- a development diary

This discussion thread is my attempt to collect all useful XML Skin information for sharing with this community. I am in the beginning phases of trying to develop XML "Skins" for an instance of LiveLink that we are using as a corporate intranet. Here I will document my learnings, progress, failures, etc...and share as much info as possible with other developers who are in the same boat as I (struggling to satisfy our user population by making the LiveLink UI more intuitive/attractive).I am hoping that this discussion thread will become an open resource for other developers, and that you will also contribute to this thread & add to our collective knowledge about XML Skins.Thanks-Greg BruinsHarmonic Incgreg.bruins@harmonicinc.com

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John_Shoun

We have done some experimentation with XSL, but don't have any significant production sites yet.We did decide that all XSL transforms should be server side (Netscape clients can't transform and IE clients don't do it correctly all the time).Building a complete web page from XSL can be very tedious. We found that having a library of templates that can be applied makes it much easier (this is something we learned from Professional Services). Using a template library it is easier to add items like icons and URLs to the web page from the source XML.We have re-designed the INFO page using XSL and we have also created a rudamentary "outline view" that works on any container. For example, it allows you to get a complete outline of a folder.

Greg_Bruins_(gbruins_(Delete)_2309756)

Although an XML Export provides metadata about the 's in Livelink (an is a document, project, folder, workflow map or other item that someone added to LiveLink.....users & groups are NOT 's), it does not give you the functions that would be valid actions for that particular node (the functions that appear in the 'Functions' menu). Apparently, however, the LiveLink Professional Services group has built customized modules for other customers with the following functionality:"&ancestry": A parameter that crawls up the ID's ancestry until it reached its volume. This means you can get navigational functionality without having to perform a scope=sub from the volume"&sibling":A parameter that outputs the siblings of the exported node as well as the node itself"&scope=n":An add-on to the scope parameter allowing you to specify how many levels you wish to export (This will be standard in v9.1...according to the XML Skins manual)"&actions":A parameter that outputs all of the valid actions for a node (the functions that would appear in the functions menu)"&createobjects":A parameter that returns all the types of nodes that can be added to the current node (i think this would be the same as the "Add New Items" dropdown menu)I have a call in to my sales rep to get more info about these "modules". Stay tuned.-Greg

Greg_Bruins_(gbruins_(Delete)_2309756)

Good news. Apparently there are some more XMLExport parameters currently in developoment that will greatly enhance Skin design/development. Here's what I know so far:---------------------"&requestcontext"When the ?request context? parameter is provided, the following extra XML tage are exported:Contains information on the client platform, server platform, URL and permissions of the current user on the exported top node. Contains the Xlate for the ?Functions? string. Contains the Xlated column names and the color of the header and rows---------------------"&header"The ?&header? parameter exports all information needed for the page header and footer in the tag ---------------------"&newsticker"The ?&newsticker? parameter exports all of the information for the news ticker. Every news item that is normally shown in the LiveLink news ticker is exported. (The expired news items are not exported)---------------------"&locationpath"The ?&locationpath? parameter exports all the ancestors of the exported node.---------------------"&dashboardmenu"The ?&dashboardmenu? parameter exports the complete dashboard menu. The menu elements are exported in a hierarchical way as they are displayed in the menu bar (i.e ?Personal? menu: Workspace, Assignments, Discussions?)---------------------"&additemmenu"The ?&additemmenu? parameter exports the content of the ?Add New Item? menu. Only items are exported that the user is allowed to create, based on his permissions.---------------------"&searchbar"The ?&searchbar? parameter exports all of the information needed to create the searchbar. Newly created slices are also exported.---------------------"&dateinfo"The ?&dateinfo? parameter exports all information about dates. The tag contains the server date and time in different formats. Also the date input and display formats as defined by the LiveLink administrator are exported.---------------------In addition, a ?customview.xml? file can be added to the folder (just like a ?customview.html? file). The contents of the ?customview.xml? file are also exported with the ?&requestcontect? parameter.For more info, watch the attached "viewlet"-Greg

John_Shoun

We have had some involvement with the export extensions. They are vey useful and are key to providing a complete re-skin of the Livelink interface. It can still be a lot of work.We have wondered if another direction would be useful as well. All lot of our users are concerned about how the content (folder and documents) are presented as not as much about the perimeter areas (header and footer). It would be interesting if an XSL stylesheet could be applied to the contents and presented inline with the regular Livelink page. You could then have something like a CUSTOMVIEW.HTML (maybe call it CUSTOMVIEW.XSL) that gives you live content instead of the static information in a regular customview.The value of this would depend on how much of the Livelink interface you want to change.

Chris_MacAndrew_(milgrouser1_-_(deleted))

It's taken me ages to find this, and it looks like exactly what we need.Can anyone tell me the current status of this development? It doesn't appear to be available in 9.1 but has it been included in more recent versions? We're using 9.1 at the moment but will be upgrading to 9.5 in a month or so.Thanks

Hans_Stoop_(hstoop_(Delete)_1579932)

Message from Hans Stoop <hstoop@opentext.com> via eLink

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">eLink

These extensions are part of Appearance XML.

Hans

From: eLink Discussion: Development Discussion [mailto:development@elinkkc.opentext.com]
Sent: donderdag 10 maart 2005 13:54
To: eLink Recipient
Subject: It's taken me ages to find this, and it looks like exactly what we need.

It's taken me ages to find this, and it looks like exactly what we need. Posted by MILGROUser1 (MacAndrew, Chris) on 03/10/2005 07:52 AM
In reply to: more XMLExport parameters in development Posted by gbruins (Bruins, Greg) on 01/30/2002 08:12 PM

It's taken me ages to find this, and it looks like exactly what we need.

Can anyone tell me the current status of this development? It doesn't appear to be available in 9.1 but has it been included in more recent versions?

We're using 9.1 at the moment but will be upgrading to 9.5 in a month or so.

Thanks