[docbook-apps] Annotation System: Modifying creation of links

[Joachim Ziegler <ziegler at mpi-sb dot mpg dot de>]

Hello list,

The following may seem a strange question at first:

Whenever the XSLT-stylesheets (for chunked HTML output) produce an 
HTML-anchor like

<a href="foo">...</a>

where 'foo' references some (position in some) generated chunk, I'd like 
to prefix 'foo' with a certain string, e.g. 'Deliverer.cgi".

Is this easy to achieve or would I have to modify 500.000 lines in the 
XSLT-stylesheets?


Background of this question:

I want to write a protoype for a DocBook annotation system. This system 
should allow readers to write online comments for, say, every <para> and 
<programlisting> that immediately after being written appear in the 
online version so that everybody can read them and comment further on or 
ask some questions or...

One way this could be done is via a CGI script that delivers *all* HTML 
chunk pages and inserts the comments on-the-fly. The 
comments/annotations themselves should be stored in a separate place.

The creation of the necessary anchor points in the HTML files for the 
annotations to be filled in later can easily be achieved by extending 
the usual XSL-templates for <para> and <programlisting>.


The problem is that for this to work, all links have to call the CGI 
script or one would leave the system!

If this is not possible or just too complicated, there is still the 
possibility that the CGI script inserts an annotation right into the 
correct HTML chunk file as soon as it arrives, but this leaves the 
reader with no possibilities of interaction, e.g., opening and closing 
annotation sections for online view, switching the whole mechanism on 
and off and so on.

A much better approach is to collect all annotations in a seperate place 
(e.g., a database) and to fill them in on-thy-fly in the way the reader 
wants it.

I am glad for any further ideas,

Joachim



--
Joachim Ziegler                       Stuhlsatzenhausweg 85
Max-Planck-Institut für Informatik    66123 Saarbrücken
Email: ziegler@mpi-sb.mpg.de          Germany


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