How to convert XML data to a linked collection of PSML documents
| Skills required | XML, XSLT |
|---|---|
| Time required (minutes) | 30 |
| Intended audience | Developer |
| Difficulty | Medium |
| Category | Document |
Objective
PSML documents are often linked together using cross-references (XRefs). This tutorial will demonstrate how use XSLT to convert two XML files generated by Wikipedia to PSML documents linked together with XRefs. After conversion, the PSML can be uploaded to PageSeeder for checking.
Prerequisites
To complete this tutorial requires:
- Software to read and write zip files (e.g. 7-Zip or on Windows right-click “Extract all/Send to Compressed”).
- Access with a contributor role (at least) to the tutorial group.
The necessary files for this tutorial are on Github .
Run the XSLT code
The easiest way to do this is to follow the instructions in How to run XSLT from Eclipse, but if the Eclipse IDE is not available, follow How to run XSLT from the command line. When doing this, use the following:
xrefs- the name of the data folder.wikipediafilms.xml– the input XML film data.films-bios.xsl– the XSLT code.wikipediabios.xml– the input XML bio data. This must be in the same folder as the XSLT code.
This process will create files in the output folder using the following naming pattern:
bios/bio-[n].psml films/film-[n].psml
or
bios/bio-1.psml bios/bio-2.psml bios/bio-3.psml etc.... films/film-1.psml films/film-2.psml films/film-3.psml etc....
Before continuing, open some sample files in a text editor to check the content. Also, to understand the XSLT conversion code or PSML markup, review wikipediafilms.xml, wikipediabios.xml and films-bios.xsl.
Include images
Adding images to the collection requires storing the image files in a paths relative to the text. For example, the following:
xrefs\bios\images xrefs\films\images
Copy the film images from Github to these folder.
Package and upload the PSML
The final step requires moving the data from a local file system into PageSeeder. Do this via the following steps:
'Zip' the films and bios folders into a single zip archive.
Upload the archive to the PageSeeder group
Don’t forget to Unzip!
After unzipping the archive, simply continue through the upload.