How It Works

How It Works: XML in Action

Technology was created with the intention of providing an adequate native formatting for every output media that may be used to view it -- from cellular phones to high-quality printers -- without manually recreating several versions of the same content. Today, the XML set of standards provides a powerful means to achieve this goal.

Basic ingredients used in preparing our solution are:

XML, an emerging industry standard, provides an excellent means for separating contents from specific presentation features;
XSL Transformations/XPath, a new language for manipulating XML documents, serves as a flexible and powerful tool for managing the contents and ascribing formatting styles;
WML, a specialized XML-based markup language, has been used as an output format for wireless devices (cellular phones, PDA, etc);
XSL Formatting Objects, a description language for high-quality visual presentation semantics, has been used to prepare printable versions of the pages;
XEP by RenderX has been used to convert XSL FO (XSLFO) descriptions to PDF, thus bridging the new standard to preexisting basis of high-quality printing.

The interaction between various components is shown at the diagram. Only few transitions are now active; all others are still in the TODO list .

Here you can find a document illustrating XEP's role in the formatting transitions on the diagram - a schematic representation of the chessgame viewer sample.

The XML representation of the content is processed by several independent XSL stylesheets that generate various presentation formats: HTML, XSL FO, and -- soon -- WML. XSL FO (XSLFO) is further converted to PDF. There are two stylesheets for XSL FO (XSLFO): one places each page into a separate document (aligned with the HTML site structure); the other packs the whole site into one booklet.

News

August 25, 2010
VDPMill 3.3 released

This release brings job queuing
application with an XML-RPC
interface, VDPMill Control Panel
as a console to configure and
run VDPMill components, a user-
friendly GUI application to create
VDPMill job tickets, a new plugin
for page numbering with several
criteria. Error handling improve-
ments are made for document
processing.

More news...

June 3, 2010
VDPMill 3.2 released

This release includes XML
job ticket support as the main
format for GUI application
project files, customized post-
processing (OMR, Transpromo)
support for separated/joined
output. The API samples and
documentation have been
updated.

More news...

May 4, 2010
VisualXSL 2.3.1 released

This is a recommended bugfix
release that includes several
issues resolved, including
JavaScript for radiobuttons and
action buttons in PDF forms,
further improvements over
Undo operations, and several
display problems.

More news...

May 1, 2010
VDPMill 3.1 released

This release includes OMR
and Transpromo support
and common plugin interface.
Improved XEPOUT documents
processing and control panel.

More news...

April 16, 2010
VisualXSL 2.3 released

Improved fillable PDF Forms
and JavaScript blocks,
support for different output
formats, improved Paragraph
editor and Address blocks,
new samples and workflows
in User Reference, and more.

More news...

April 2, 2010
RenderX at 2010 AIIM/On Demand

Visit us in Booth #1709
and #1543 at the
Pennsylvania Convention
Center, Philadelphia, PA,
April 20-22, 2010.

More news...

April 1, 2010
XEP 4.18 released

Additional support for
document-level Javascript
in PDF, bookmarks in XPS,
multimedia objects in PDF
support additional player
controls.

More news...

March 31, 2010
VDPMill 3.0 released

This is fully redesigned VDPMill
with document processing
recovery, simultaneous joined/
separated output files generation,
and new powerful control panel
options.

More news...

January 15, 2010
VisualXSL 2.2 released

Major improvements over
Table Builder, Improved visual
appearance and navigation in
Design layout, new examples,
and improved layout
of the User’s Guide.

More news...

December 4, 2009
XEP 4.17 released

Adds support for multi-media
objects like Flash and MPEG,
enhanced PDF Forms through
support of Javascript libraries
and hooks for fields, adds XPS
as a new output format.

More news...

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How It Works