Software Engineering Research Project Description

Updated on 09/23/2002

Contact Info

Felipe M Lopez, felipe@blsc.com, http://www.oocities.org/fellipl

Project Type

• SE MS Project (SE690 & SE696), supervised by (in progress)

Project Title

XSL Builder

Abstract

XSL files are a good option to transform data from an XML format into some text output including plain text and html. The purpose of this project is to develop an application with a user interface that provides tools to construct XML, XSL, schemes, and 'output' text files. In this context, an output text file refers to the resulting file from transforming an XML file using and XSLT including html, plain text, etc. A typical use of this application would be to first aid users construct an XML file or allow users to provide one. Then on-command the application would build a scheme file based on the XML file. Using these XML and schema files, the user would be provided with tools to construct an output file. By keeping track of user changes to the output file, the application would build an XSL file and that would be the final result of the application.

Upon completion the project will be made open source.

Desirable benefits of using this application will include the following:

1. Jump start building projects using XML and XSL technology – One of the most time consuming tasks while working with XML is creating scheme and XSL files. This application will give users a first draft of a scheme and an XSL file from a given XML file.
2. Provide debugging tools for XML and XSL files – During the development process it gets very difficult to fix problems and update changes as a project grows. Debugging tools will make it easier to find and fix errors that carry around from an XML file, to a scheme, and to an XSL file. It’s desirable to include an ‘Edit and continue’ feature to speed up the development while making changes.
3. Aid organizing projects – The application will be able to maintain lists of related files to use with multiple projects.
4. Providing a general solution for capturing user changes to output files (html pages). There have been attempts to provide technologies that allow updating source XML documents from an output file including XML Data Source Object (XML DSO) for Internet Explorer 5.0 and above. The suggested solution is to include an attribute that specifies the position of editable elements using xPath. The application would build and include in this attribute with elements that the user specifies.

Current Status

I have evaluated various applications that provide similar tools including XML-Spy (commertial application), xPath Visualizer, and some open source utilities. From these applications, XML-Spy is the one that provides the most tools and flexibility, but the tools it provides to create output and XSL files have a lot of room for imprevement.

I also developed a utility in VB that allows editing XML and XSL files and displays the output on-demand.

Plan and Target Dates – Very tentative!

• Phase 1: Defining requirements and specifications.
• Milestone 1: Write software requirements and specifications document.
• Milestone 2: Develop rapid prototype that includes the following features:
• Ability to view multiple XML, Scheme, and XSL files maintaining a list of open files. Sept. 25.
• First level error handling – This refers to displaying the first error found while opening an XML or XSL file. Sept. 28.
• Ability to perform and display transformations on-command from given XML and XSL files.
• Milestone 3: Submit and wait for advisor evaluation. Meanwhile revise SRS and start writing software development and design document. Oct. 2.
• Phase 2: Defining software development and design document
• Milestone 4: Complete writing SDD Oct. 6.
• Milestone 5: Re-factoring prototype to comply with SRS and SDD. Oct. 10.
• Milestone 6: Develop and integrate a tool to create a schema from a given XML file and submit for evaluation. Oct. 17.
• Ready for second class presentation
• Phase 3: Developing viewer
• Milestone 7: Develop and integrate a viewer control that provides the ability to create an output file from a given XML and schema. Submit for evaluation. Oct. 31.
• Milestone 8: Revise documentation and re-factoring current development. Submit and wait for evaluation. Nov. 6.
• Phase 4: Adding extra features
• Milestone 9: Work on an ‘Edit and continue’ feature. This will go hand-on-hand with the ability to debug XML and XSL files. Nov. 12.
• Milestone 10: Adding a feature that allows users to define editable elements. This will provide the means to handle user changes. Nov. 18.
• Phase 5: Revising work
• Milestone 11: This includes updating documentation, more re-factoring of current code, and completing unfinished features. date?
• Ready for final presentation
• Completion: End of quarter

Project Description

September 22, 2002

Documents

• Software Requirements & Specification - First Draft

References

1. TBD