Trying out flow() in pdf-css

[Glimmerino]

I'm currently trying out the pdf-css plugin wit the free version of prince xml. I can't however get the flow function to work. I want to put certain map metadata in the page header but I want to style the data differently. I think the right way to approach it is to use the flow () thing. But I can't get this to work. My code currently looks like:

*[class ~= "map/map"][title] {
flow: static(maptitle);

}

@page :right{
@top-right {
content: flow(maptitle);
}
@bottom-right {
/**/
}
@bottom-left {
/**/
}
}

The map title does, however, not show.

Best regards
Kristian Wennberg

[Dan]

Hello,

By using "flow", you effectively remove the element from the normal flow and you are moving it into a static part of the page. See:
http://www.princexml.com/doc/8.1/proper ... ince-flow/
http://www.princexml.com/doc/8.1/page-headers-footers/

So you are moving the entire bookmap into the top of the page (*[class ~= "map/map"][title] matches possibly the entire map), which is not ok.

I recommend generating a new XML element that contains the title that can be moved to the page header. In the stylesheet:

frameworks/dita/DITA-OT/plugins/com.oxygenxml.pdf.css/post-process.xsl

You should modify the template that generates the <oxy:front-page> element and generate another element before it, let's name it <oxy:title-to-move-to-headers>. This contains the book title text:

Code: Select all

   <!--

		

        Create a title page

        

	-->

    <xsl:template match="*[contains(@class, ' map/map ')]">

        <xsl:copy>

            <xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>

            

	<!-- INSERT THIS -->

            <oxy:title-to-move-to-headers>

                    <xsl:choose>

                        <xsl:when test="@title">

                            <xsl:value-of select="@title"/>

                        </xsl:when>

                        <xsl:otherwise>

                            <xsl:apply-templates

                                select="opentopic:map/*[contains(@class, ' topic/title ')]"/>

                        </xsl:otherwise>

                    </xsl:choose>

            </oxy:title-to-move-to-headers> 

	<!-- END INSERT -->

            

            <oxy:front-page>

                <oxy:front-page-title>

                    <xsl:choose>

Then modify the CSS:
frameworks\dita\css\print\p-page-titles-and-numbers.css to have this content:

Code: Select all

@media print {



  title-to-move-to-headers {

    flow: static(th);	

  }



 @page :left {

        @top-left {

            content:flow(th);                    

        }

  }



 @page :right{

        @top-right {

            content:flow(th);                    

        }

  }

}

Please note that there are similar files in the DITA-OT installations, but these are used only when running the DITA-OT transformations from the command line, not from oXygen.
frameworks\dita\DITA-OT\plugins\com.oxygenxml.pdf.css\css\print\p-page-titles-and-numbers.css
frameworks\dita\DITA-OT2x\plugins\com.oxygenxml.pdf.css\css\print\p-page-titles-and-numbers.css

As a general rule, when testing CSS extensions, try with very small documents, not necessarily related to DITA.


Cheers,
Dan

[Glimmerino]

Thank you Dan for making things clearer. There are however two issues that I still struggle with.

The code you suggested adds a blank first page. How do I get rid of it without loosing the "title to move to headers variable"?

Even though the flow-thing now works it does not solve my core problem and that is that I want to style content differently in the same @page region. For example my company header consist of two line of text: "Company Classification" and directly beneath this line is the actual classification (could be RESTRICTED/CLASSIFIED/OPEN). These two text lines shall have different font size. Thats the reason for the individual formatting.

I guess "Company Classification " could be defined as an xsl-variable with static content. And then flowed just like the earlier example. However, it looks like its not possible to flow different elements to the same page-region.

Regards
Kristian

[Dan]

Hello Kristian,

1. For the first problem, move the <oxy:title-to-move-to-headers> inside <oxy:front-page-title>.

Code: Select all

 <xsl:template match="*[contains(@class, ' map/map ')]">

        <xsl:copy>

            <xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>

            <oxy:front-page>

                <oxy:front-page-title>

                    <xsl:choose>

                        <xsl:when test="@title">

                            <xsl:value-of select="@title"/>

                        </xsl:when>

                        <xsl:otherwise>

                            <xsl:apply-templates

                                select="opentopic:map/*[contains(@class, ' topic/title ')]"/>

                        </xsl:otherwise>

                    </xsl:choose>

                <oxy:title-to-move-to-headers>

                    <xsl:choose>

                        <xsl:when test="@title">

                            <xsl:value-of select="@title"/>

                        </xsl:when>

                        <xsl:otherwise>

                            <xsl:apply-templates

                                select="opentopic:map/*[contains(@class, ' topic/title ')]"/>

                        </xsl:otherwise>

                    </xsl:choose>

	            </oxy:title-to-move-to-headers> 

                    

                </oxy:front-page-title>

            </oxy:front-page>

..............

2. For the second problem, regarding styling differently parts of the header, why don't you generate from XSLT a more complex content for the <oxy:title-to-move-to-headers>, and then style each of the elements individually from CSS?


Cheers,
Dan