Metamorphosis:

1
Metamorphosis

• WORD to Website
• Paul Kobulnicky
• Shelly Zhu
• Maag Library

2
The Problem

• We live and work in a digital world so we need a
  way to easily produce standardized digital
  products of professional quality.
• We want our staff to focus on intellectual
  content, not on document or web formatting.
• It is hard to help people when everyone does
  their own thing.

3
The reality

• We expect staff will attempt to format their own
  documents
• Staff skills with digital formatting range
  greatly.
• Most staff skills are idiosyncratic.
• Using a skilled intermediary does not scale.
• Teaching formatting skills is overhead.
• Coordinating independent actions to get a
  consistent product takes valuable time and energy

4
What we want

• Standardized documents for ease of use
• Professional but painless formatting
• Branded products
• Multiple variations of formats, e.g., pfd, html,
  etc.
• Up-to-date content
• Ease of editing content
• Staff doing what they were primarily hired to do.

5
FORMATTING?

• Creating content with html for web display
• Creating documents of print / publishing quality
  (MS Publisher, Adobe Suite, etc.)
• Creating versions in .pfd format for remote
  access and display
• Creating versions in XML for preservation.

6
Barriers to success

• Concerns over formatting work keep many
• from getting down to work
• from focusing on the more important content
• Too much independence
• Hard to help
• Figure out others mistakes
• Too much work
• Inconsistent products
• MS-OFFICE is the default application for
  intellectual creativity

7
A few words on MS-OFFICE

• Comments also apply to most other OFFICE
  productivity applications
• Proprietary formats resist modification to open
  standards
• Hard to build custom templates
• Software versions change frequently
• But nearly everyone uses it -(

8
The Solution

• Standardize those products that can be
  standardized - create a generalized schema
• Content parameters
• Format parameters
• Create a template using the schema - one size
  fits all
• Better yet, copy an existing template
• Use the template (just add content)
• Transform the completed template according to the
  schema into desired formatted products.

9
The template

• Goal marked-up schema (marked-up?)
• Schema equates to fields and formatting
• Mark-up is added commands lthtmlgt lt/htmlgt
• MS WORD document format (.doc) is problematic to
  use
• Use Marked-up text file (.txt)
• Easy to mark-up the template
• Easy to fill in the template
• Use any ole text editor
• Easy to convert to other formats

10
YSUs Process

• Work with standardized documents - for this
  example subject guides
• Build subject_guide.doc template (create
  standard?)
• Subject specialists use template (create new or
  edit old) to add specific content
• Completed template is equivalent to XML
• XML converted to html and .pdf via Cocoon server
• Details from Shelly Zhu

11
Why Subject Guide?

• Standardized webpage layout and information
  content format
• Constantly updated
• The subject specialists (subject guide owners)
  may not have exceptional webpage design skills

12
Work flow(Metamorphosis)

• 1. A MS-word template is given to subject
  specialists to fill in the subject information
• 2. A transition definition is created to go from
  the template to the webpage (XSLT markup)
• 3. A tool is applied to connect the template to
  the transition definition yielding the output
  (Cocoon application)
• 4. Result webpage

13
1. Template MS-word template ? XML template
14
XML Template Content

• What the template XML file looks like
• ltxmlgt
• ltsubject_titlegt YOUR TITLElt/subject_titlegt
• ltlibrarian_namegt YOUR NAME lt/librarian_namegt
• ltsubject_contentgt YOUR SUBJECT CONTENT
  lt/subject_contentgt
• .....
• lt/xmlgt

15
MS-Word Template

• MS-Word template example A thanks letter for the
  reference letter_template.doc
• Subject guide template a MS-word template with
  the subject guide XML template file content
  Subjectguides_template.doc

16
Put Template to work cont.

• Schema designed for the information content
• Subject specialists open the template (or
  previous version) with their favorite editor
  MS-WORD
• Then fill in the information to each block in
  the template. (DONE)
• Open file with a text editor and save as an .xml
  file

17
2. Transform fileXSLT(EXtensible Stylesheet
Language Transformations)
18
XSLT interpret XML file

• The XSLT file interprets how to display the
  source file (XML) into a webpage
• ltxsl if (find subject_title)
• then DO SOMETHING SPECIFIC WITH IT /gt
• ltxsl if (find information_content)
• then JUST RE-PRODUCE IT/gt

19
3. The tool Cocoon server Apply XLST to XML
20
Cocoonconnect XML to XSLT

• sitemap
• XML Resource file
• Web page
• XSLT Transform file
• Cocoon Server

21
Cocoonconnect XML to XSLT cont.

• How Cocoon does the job? -- Sitemap
• in sitemap file
• ltsitemapgt
• ltmap match pattern.html/gt
• ltmapgenerate.xml/gt
• ltmaptransform srcsubjectguide2web.xslt/gt
• lt/sitemapgt

22
How Cocoon works

• A sitemap file initiates a specific action
  sequence
• These actions use the XSLT file to carry out the
  translations (eg.XML to HTML)
• Cocoon carries out this sequence on a specified
  .XML file when requestedphysics_guide.xml --gt
  physics_guide.html

23
4. Result webpage Subject Guide webpage
created by this process
24
Process

• 2. XSLT transform
• 1.Resource file 4.Webpage
• (XML) (Subject guide)
• 3. Cocoon Server

25
Result Subject Guide

• Subject specialists only need to work with the
  MS-word template
• No webmaster needed for individual subject guides
• Only one XML template and XSLT file are needed
  for all subject guides
• XML template and XSLT file can be shared between
  institutions

26
Share

• Share XML template same schema and field names
• Share XSLT files match the schema and field
  name, then translate in same way (Small editing
  for branding)
• Sharing can happen using YSU's XSLT file in your
  Sitemap file.

27
Share cont.

• In your sitemap
• ltsitemapgt
• ltmap match pattern.html/gt
• ltmapgenerate.xml/gt
• ltmaptransform src http//www.maag.ysu.edu/myx
  slt_folder/subjectguide2web.xslt/gt
• lt/sitemapgt

28
Desired skillsNo Desired skills for template
users.Some skills for Server Administrator

• Basic XML knowledge
• XSLT (not easy)
• Cocoon server (basic is easy)

29
Contact

• Paul Kobulnicky pjkobulnicky_at_ysu.edu
• Shelly Xiaoli Zhu xzhu_at_ysu.edu
• Questions? Comments?
• Thank you!