The XML components do not use replacement variables to retrieve and display data. Instead they use URL parameters to request data that is streamed in an XML document and displayed with an XSL stylesheet.
The streamed document (the XML source document) is divided into two sections:
lsel
parameter) contain metadata of the current level of a site
hierarchy (such as the current node with DocList) or metadata relative to the
function that generated the document (such as query information with Xhitlist).sel parameter) are metadata that describe the contents of the node (like child nodes with DocList) or the results of the function that generated the document (like a list of hit documents with Xhitlist).sel (Select String) ParameterThe following URL calls the DocList component
and requests title and name properties for each item in the
current node using the sel parameter:
http://localhost/nxt/gateway.dll?f=doclist$doclist_sel=title;name
This URL returns the following XML source document (the
bolded tags are the properties requested by sel):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
- <list-section>
<function>doclist</function>
<user-name>matt</user-name>
<select>title;name</select>
<view-begin-index>1</view-begin-index>
<view-end-index>15</view-end-index>
<view-is-begin>yes</view-is-begin>
<view-is-end>yes</view-is-end>
- <item>
<title>Miscellaneous Data</title>
<name>misc</name>
</item>
- <item>
<title>Tax Information and Forms</title>
<name>taxinfo</name>
</item>
- <item>
<title>Accounting</title>
<name>acct</name>
</item>
</list-section>
lsel (List Section Select String) ParameterThe list-section element returns properties relevant
to either the function or the current node. These properties are called with
the lsel parameter. For example, the following URL calls the DocList
component and requests hidden and type properties for the current
node using the lsel parameter:
http://localhost/matt/gateway.dll/taxinfo?f=doclist$doclist_lsel=hidden;type$doclist_sel=path;title
This URL returns the following XML source document (the
bolded tags are the properties requested by lsel):
<?xml version="1.0"?> <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="/matt/gateway.dll/taxinfo?f=stylesheets$fn=contents.xsl$3.0"?> <list-section> <function>doclist</function> <user-name>matt</user-name> <select>path;title</select> <hidden>no</hidden> <type>folder</type> <parent-path></parent-path> <item> </item>
</list-section>
Instead of displaying as XML data in the browser, an XSL
stylesheet associated with the document renders the XML source document. The
URL that requests the XML source document also defines what XML stylesheet to
use with the xsl parameter. The following URL instructs the NXT server
to apply a stylesheet named contents.xsl to the XML source document:
http://localhost/matt/gateway.dll?f=doclist$doclist_lsel=hidden;type;$doclist_sel=path;title$doclist_xsl=contents.xsl
URL parameters for XML components are always prefixed by the component's name. For example, the xsl parameter, which determines the stylesheet to apply, would be used in a URL in the
following way:
href="http://localhost/nxt/gateway.dll?f=doclist&doclist_xsl=navbar.xsl"
In this example, the function is called with f=doclist and the stylesheet to apply is
called by doclist_xsl=navbar.xsl. Each URL parameter must be preceded by functionName_ syntax. The practice of prefixing the component name in this way prevents parameter name collision when the same parameter is called by different components. More than one XML component may not be called in the same URL.
The following URL parameters are common to all XML components, except where noted.
| Name | Possible Values | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| f |
doclist | docprop | userinfo | statistics | xhitlist |
Function to execute |
| fss | yes | no | Flag to force server-side transformation of the resulting XML document regardless of the browser capabilities. Requires the xsl parameter. |
| md | name=value (,name=value)* | Metadata to include in the XML. This allows you to create your own tags and pass values for them to the document. |
| sel | select string | Select string that determines which properties are written out in the item element. Required on all requests, but stored in the property bag if not present on the URL. |
| sf | function name | Sub-function to execute while streaming out XML. A replacement parameter for this function is inserted at the beginning of the XML document (after the document's root element). |
| vpc | curr | first | last | next | prev | find |
Viewport movement command that moves the viewport to the
section specified. The default value is curr,
but the component will also try first. It is highly recommended that vpc=first
be set any time the content is going to change (new query, new path, etc.) Not used with DocProp component. first — Create the first viewport in the list last — Create the last viewport in the list next — Create the next viewport in the list prev — Create the previous viewport in the list |
| vps | integer | Viewport size - number of items per viewport. Not used with DocProp. |
| xsl | style sheet file name | Style sheet to use when transforming the resulting XML document for display. If the XML document is to be returned to the client, an xml-stylesheet processing instruction is added referencing the given style sheet. If this parameter is empty, the raw XML is returned. |
| xsld | style sheet file name | Default style sheet. This style sheet is only used if a value for xsl has never been set. This can make it easier to handle uninitialized states without overriding an existing xsl value. |
All XML components (except where noted) return the following common metadata in the XML file, which can then be accessed and used in the XSL. These are not used with the Statistics component.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| function | The component "function" name that generated the request (the 'f' parameter). |
| select | The select string passed in as a parameter. |
| user-name | The name of the current user according to the active access control module. This will be "system" if no access control is active. |
| view-begin-index | One-based index of the first item in the viewport. Only present if an item count is available. Not used with DocProps or Update. |
| view-end-index | One-based index of the last item in the viewport. Only present if an item count is available. Not used with DocProps or Update. |
| view-is-begin | yes or no if the current viewport is the beginning of the list. Not used with DocProps or Update. |
| view-is-end | yes or no if the current viewport is the end of the list. Not used with DocProps or Update. |
There are no replacement variables for any of the XML components.
Each node and object in the site has properties, including the site node. They are accessed using the sel or lsel parameters in the URL.
| Name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| children-present | 32-bit int | Flag indicating if all of this node's children are present. |
| concept | string | Concept string for this node's document. |
| content-type | string | The content-type of the document associated with the node, such as text/html. |
| content-version | string | The version of the document associated with the node. |
| document | binary | Gets the document associated with the node. |
| field:<name> | string | The text specified by the field name in the document. |
| field-contents:<name> | binary | The data specified by the field name in the document. This returns not only the value of the field, but all its HTML markup, if any. |
| has-children | 32-bit integer | Flag indicating if the node has children. |
| has-redirect-path | 32-bit integer | Flag indicating that a redirect path exists for this node. |
| has-sub-children | 32-bit integer | Flag indicating if the node has any sub-document children. |
| has-visible-children | 32-bit integer | Flag indicating if the node has any visible children. |
| hidden | 32-bit integer | Flag indicating if this node is hidden. |
| highlight-data | binary | URL hash for PDF hit highlighting. |
| home-path | string | The name path to the infobase containing this node. |
| home-title | string | The title of the infobase containing this node. |
| id | string | The ID of the document. This must be included when adding a document. Read-only. |
| indexed | 32-bit integer | Flag indicating if this node's document is indexed. |
| last-modified | date-time | Indicates the last time the node was modified. |
| metadata | Elements or strings | Metadata assigned to the node will be delivered in the hierarchy in which it exists. This might or might not be in Dublin Core format. |
| name | string | The name of the node. |
| path | string | The name path of the node. |
| present | 32-bit-integer | Flag indicating if this node is present. |
| redirect-path | string | The name-path of the node this node should redirect to. |
| site-title | string | The title of the site or link containing this node. |
| sub-path | string | The name path of the sub-document node. |
| sub-title-path | string | The title path of the sub-document node. |
| title | string | The title of the node. |
| title-path | string | The title path of the node. |
| type | string | Type of node, infobase, folder, or document. An infobase type is the same as an NXT 4 content collection or LivePublish document collection. |
| Name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| highlight-style | string | Style codes for hit-highlighting in CSS format. |
| language | string | Language for the view. Use with the lsel parameter. |
Components can have more than one active instance so you can use more than one set of a component's parameters independently. This is useful in cases where you want to be able to recall a hitlist for a search done in one search form, but need to be able to perform another query in a different search form without overriding the first.
A good application of this is in the default NXT 4 web site
where a user can search for anything in the content collections. However, a
user can also manage content and search for all the documents they own. So that
these two searches, which use the same Xhitlist component, don't override each
other, the former is called by f=xhitlist while the latter is called
with f=uxhitlist. By naming these two differently, they can be set and
retrieved independently of each other.
The two functions in this example have different names but
they call the same Xhitlist component. These separate names are registered in Executive.ini
under the Components section. Manually enter name/value pairs to
register the function name and its corresponding DLL. After saving the file,
you must stop and restart the NXT 4 server for the changes to take effect.
The following example shows the Components section of Executive.ini
where multiple instances of File.dll, Navigate.dll,
XhitList.dll, DocList.dll, and DocProp.dll are registered:
[COMPONENTS] ID=ID.dll Images=File.dll Templates=File.dll StyleSheets=File.dll Document=Document.dll Contents=Contents.dll NextDoc=Navigate.dll PrevDoc=Navigate.dll JContents=JContents.dll LocalMedia=LocalMedia.dll UserInfo=UserInfo.dll Reference=Reference.dll SearchForms=SearchForms.dll Element=Element.dll CNA=RemoteContent.dll HighlightData=HighlightData.dll Build=Build.dll Update=Update.dll XHitList=XHitList.dll UXHitList=XHitList.dll Statistics=Statistics.dll DocList=DocList.dll UDocList=DocList.dll Admin=Admin.dll DocProp=DocProp.dll UDocProp=DocProp.dll HitList=QueryLink.dll
Copyright © 2006-2023, Rocket Software, Inc. All rights reserved.