XSLfast 4.0 - Static images

I feel there is some room left for some improvements on the image component. I've had some fights trying to insert static images that are either referenced by a relative path, or by an http:// address. And so far I haven't won

If I leave the field "image base path" as blank, and enter a relative path in the image/Image node field, I get an NullPointerException when rendering to FOP. The relative path is neccessary, as the real rendering is done outside XSLfast using only the stylesheet.

I also haven't had any luck entering a reference to an image on the internet (which also could by my intranet). It's either NullPointerException, no image displayed or XSLfast trying to fix my path by prepending "../../../" to my "Image"Image node" field

.

My workarounds has previously been done by inserting som XSL-code, but it sounds like an easy fix in the XSLfast interface

I also noticed that XSLfast 4.0 seems to accept images dragged from Google Chrome, but nothing happens when I drop the image on the XSLfast page.

Kind regards,
Michael Reiche

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 23/09/2009 12:02:14

Thank you informing us about this fight.

Hopefully, XSLfast have support of relative static images, and you can use it in several ways.

But to let it run, you need to understand what is "relative path" in this case. For FOP, relative path is counted against either system id (XSLfast does not adds it into XSL style sheet) or against current folder. While XSLfast runs, "current" folder is <XSLfast installation>/bin folder, but not folder with XSL. Unfortunately, this is FOP limitation so only File/Export menu generates XSL files without relation to this folder.

So, once you know this fact, you can use paths as you need:

a) place new image from tool bar.
b) At inspector window (left-bottom corner) switch it to static.
c) By click on image (or by inspector again) you'll see file choose dialog for images.
d) Select image you need.
e) In inspector, you'll see absolute paths. You can ignore this - while XSLfast generates XSL it automatically converts absolute paths to relative.
f) If you need other relative path - just clck on path and in edit field correct path as you need.

For static images, usually you don't need base paths; base paths are added mainly to dynamic images.

But you can use base path here and specify only image name if you prefer this. For static image, real path is counted as two pieces: base path and path to image itself. If base path is empty, XSLfast uses only image path.

Concerning Google Chrome, we're sorry but XSLfast accepts drag and drop only from XSLfast. I've added JIRA issue: http://jira.jcatalog.com/browse/XSL-1536 so in next version we'll see if we can improve this behavior.

Note: Since XSLfast 4.0.1, you can use http://... links to images in XSLfast, and drop images at work area from browser or file explorer.

Where can one download 4.0.1 from? i too require the ability to insert an http:// image.

I downloaded XSLFast from this site a couple of days ago and i can not for the life of me work out how to put an internet image in.

We're sorry, but http:// images are supprted since XSLfast 4.0.1 only.