what is the best way to write xslt -fo out of xsl+xml

Question

hi i have complex xslt that formats xml to html now i need to be able to create xsl fo out of it what is the best way to do it ?

Answer 1

Here is some ineresting article for you http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/x-xslfo2app/

Also you can try next library (I dont't remember, probably it can creat fo files from xslt+xml): http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/nfop.aspx

Answer 2

I had a similar requirement, and I did some research, but didn't find a reliable XHTML to FO transformer. There may be one, but there comes a point in some web searches when you have to give up and roll your own.

Instead I took the XML to HTML transformer I had already written and changed it to output FO.

This is a much simpler proposition that a full blown XHTML to FO transformer.

Whilst your details will differ, most structures in HTML have analogues in FO, so you can normally decide what FO construct to use in replacing HTML in your transform fairly easily.

I did this incrementally. If you start with the transform producing the outline of an FO document, and most of your XML being ignored in the transform, you can then build up the output in a measured fashion.