Content Editing Procedures

This section describes in detail the core procedures used to create and edit the components of an SPS template. The procedures are listed below and described in detail in the sub-sections of this section. These mechanisms are used to design any kind of template: main, global, or named.

•	Inserting XML Content as Text. XML data can be inserted in the design by dragging the relevant nodes (element, attribute, type, or CDATA) into the design and creating them as (contents) or (rest-of-contents).

•	Grouping. Processing can be defined for a group of elements that are selected with an XPath expression.

•	Sorting. A set of XML elements can be sorted on multiple sort-keys.

•	Using Data-Entry Devices. XML data can be input by the Authentic View user via data-entry devices such as input fields and combo boxes. This provides a layer of user help as well as of input constraints. Individual nodes in the XML document can be created as data-entry devices.

•	Creating Lists. Static lists, where the list structure is entered in the SPS design, and dynamic lists, where an XML document sub-structure is created as a list, provide powerful data-ordering capabilities.

•	Working with Tables. Tables can be inserted by (i) the SPS designer, directly in the SPS design (static tables) or using XML document sub-structures, and (ii) the Authentic View user.

•	Using Graphics: Graphics can be inserted in the SPS design using a variety of methods to determine the target URI (static, dynamic, a combination of both, and unparsed entity URIs).

•	Bookmarks and Hyperlinks. Bookmarks mark key points in the output document, which can then be targeted by hyperlinks. Hyperlinks can also link to external resources using a variety of methods to determine the target URI (static, dynamic, a combination of both, and unparsed entity URIs).

•	Auto-Calculations. Auto-Calculations are a powerful XPath-based mechanism to manipulate data and (i) present the manipulated data in the output as well as (ii) update nodes in the XML document with the result of the Auto-Calculation.

•	Conditions. Processing of templates and the content of templates can be conditional upon data structures or values in the XML, or upon the result of an XPath expression.

•	Table of Contents (TOC). Tables of Contents can be constructed at various locations in the document output, for all output formats.

•	Auto-Numbering. Repeating nodes in the document can be numbered automatically and the numbers formatted.

•	Text References. Text in the document can be marked for referencing and then referenced from elsewhere in the document.

•	The Change-To Feature. This feature enables a different node to be selected as the match for a template and allows a node to be changed to another content type.

High-Level Procedures, for a description of higher-level procedures, such as working with databases and command line file-generation.