XSLfast 4.0 - what's new

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 23/09/2009 09:37:00

The XSLfast 4 is big step - it contains hundreds of improvements everywhere.

Here is just reminder - what you might find useful.

1. Usability

We made giant changes to let you work with XSLfast 4 more productive.

predefined templates of the layouts like MS Word does
new and more easy to use grouping/filters: now XSLfast hints you most relevant XML nodes
new table wizard - you can create table and fill it with real data in few clicks
automatic support of slave tables - you don't need to count XPath expressions yourself
easy to use summaries for tables, including partial summaries, total summaries, etc
big set of XPath functions, including most useful from exslt.org now in menus
auto-XPath counting - now if you changed filtering or for-each clause, you don't need change inner Xpath leafs manually, it will be adjusted on the fly
many new elements - charts, chooses, and even completely new pivot tables
completely redesigned pop-up editors for every element
many new examples
many minor UI improvements: view filters, faster zooming, new look and feels, and more.
multiple documents at once (MDI)

2. Functions for experts

now FOP 0.95 also supported
advanced features available in latest FOP, XEP and XSLFormatter engines, including markers, n of N page numbering, bookmarks, rotation, and much more.
More robust operations with templates
close support of XSLT 2.0
now supports both Saxon6 and Saxon9
more accurate support for MS XSLT
new export feature - it now collects all necessary files nearby to XSL output
many new useful functions
advanced conversion from XSL code to usual XSLfast elements
rounded boxes
closer SVG support
choose element in UI
basic charts: pie and 2d/3d boxes
pivot tables in feel close to MS Excel
conditional styles directly in text editor

And much more.

3. Integration.

Now XSLfast has basic support of conversions of HTML and XSL-FO documents into layouts. Of course it does not convert everything - just most important contents like tables, texts and images. No JavaScript, no CSS3, no tricks.

XSLfast supports

- FOP 0.20.5
- FOP 0.95
- XEP 4.x
- XSLFormatter 4.x

It can produce XSL with embedded functions for

- Saxon6 (XSLT 1.1)
- Saxon9 (XSLT 2.0)
- Xalan
- MS XML/XSLT

XSLfast supports images directly

- JPEG/JPG
- PNG
- TIFF (JAI is needed)
- SVG
- More formats are available if JAI installed.

XSLfast supports the following elements:

- Text (multi-style, variables and conditions inside, date/tine, choose, internet links and more)
- XSL text
- Squares (including rounded boxes)
- Lists
- Tables
- Pivot tables
- Chooses
- Template calls
- Bar codes
- Images
- Specific text types: date/time, internet links, formatted numbers, and more
- Lines

All elements (except template calls) can be templates.

In previous versions, XSLfast supported only limited booklet form for multiple pages:

- one page sequence
- one master page
- one tail page
- regions for page sequence.

Now, XSLfast has ability to manage for unlimited set of page sequences with separate regions for every layout.

Earlier, XSLfast had no support of multiple layouts at once; now it works.

There are most interesting major changes in XSLfast 4.0.