Creating Tables
Creating Tables
Some of the most useful constructs you can format with XSL-FO are tables. A table in XSL-FO is much like one in HTML: a rectangular grid of rows and columns of cells . You can use nine formatting elements to create tables:
-
<fo:table-and-caption>
-
<fo:table>
-
<fo:table-column>
-
<fo:table-caption>
-
<fo:table-header>
-
<fo:table-footer>
-
<fo:table-body>
-
<fo:table-row>
-
<fo:table- cell >
Creating tables in XSL-FO is similar to creating tables in HTML. You create an <fo:table> element to enclose the entire table, then format each column with an <fo:table-column> element. Next, create an <fo:table-body> element to specify the tables body. The <fo:table-body> element encloses all the <fo:table-row> elements, each of which creates a row in the table. Each <fo:table-row> element encloses the actual <fo:table-cell> elements that hold the tables cell-by-cell data.
The following example shows how this works. This XSLT stylesheet transforms planets.xml into an XSL-FO document that formats the planetary data in an XSL-FO-based table:
Listing 11.4 tables.xsl
<?xml version="1.0"?> <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format" version="1.0"> <xsl:template match="PLANETS"> <fo:root xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format"> <fo:layout-master-set> <fo:simple-page-master master-name="page" page-height="400mm" page-width="300mm" margin-top="10mm" margin-bottom="10mm" margin-left="20mm" margin-right="20mm"> <fo:region-body margin-top="0mm" margin-bottom="10mm" margin-left="0mm" margin-right="0mm"/> <fo:region-after extent="10mm"/> </fo:simple-page-master> </fo:layout-master-set> <fo:page-sequence master-name="page"> <fo:flow flow-name="xsl-region-body"> <fo:table> <fo:table-column column-width="30mm"/> <fo:table-column column-width="30mm"/> <fo:table-column column-width="30mm"/> <fo:table-column column-width="30mm"/> <fo:table-column column-width="30mm"/> <fo:table-column column-width="30mm"/> <fo:table-body> <fo:table-row> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt" font-weight="bold"> Name </fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt" font-weight="bold"> Mass </fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt" font-weight="bold"> Day </fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt" font-weight="bold"> Radius </fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt" font-weight="bold"> Density </fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt" font-weight="bold"> Distance </fo:block> </fo:table-cell> </fo:table-row> <xsl:apply-templates/> </fo:table-body> </fo:table> </fo:flow> </fo:page-sequence> </fo:root> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="PLANET"> <fo:table-row> <xsl:apply-templates/> </fo:table-row> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="NAME"> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt"> <xsl:value-of select='.'/> </fo:block> </fo:table-cell> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="MASS"> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt"> <xsl:value-of select='.'/> </fo:block> </fo:table-cell> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="DAY"> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt"> <xsl:value-of select='.'/> </fo:block> </fo:table-cell> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="RADIUS"> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt"> <xsl:value-of select='.'/> </fo:block> </fo:table-cell> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="DENSITY"> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt"> <xsl:value-of select='.'/> </fo:block> </fo:table-cell> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="DISTANCE"> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt"> <xsl:value-of select='.'/> </fo:block> </fo:table-cell> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet>
Heres the result after you transform to an XSL-FO document, tables.fo:
Listing 11.5 tables.fo
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <fo:root xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format"> <fo:layout-master-set> <fo:simple-page-master margin-right="20mm" margin-left="20mm" margin-bottom="10mm" margin-top="10mm" page-width="300mm" page-height="400mm" master-name="page"> <fo:region-body margin-right="0mm" margin-left="0mm" margin-bottom="10mm" margin-top="0mm"/> <fo:region-after extent="10mm"/> </fo:simple-page-master> </fo:layout-master-set> <fo:page-sequence master-name="page"> <fo:flow flow-name="xsl-region-body":> <fo:table> <fo:table-column column-width="30mm"/> <fo:table-column column-width="30mm"/> <fo:table-column column-width="30mm"/> <fo:table-column column-width="30mm"/> <fo:table-column column-width="30mm"/> <fo:table-column column-width="30mm"/> <fo:table-body> <fo:table-row> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-weight="bold" font-size="18pt"> Name </fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-weight="bold" font-size="18pt"> Mass </fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-weight="bold" font-size="18pt"> Day </fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-weight="bold" font-size="18pt"> Radius </fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-weight="bold" font-size="18pt"> Density </fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-weight="bold" font-size="18pt"> Distance </fo:block> </fo:table-cell> </fo:table-row> <fo:table-row> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt">Mercury</fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt">.0553</fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt">58.65</fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt">1516</fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt">.983</fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt">43.4</fo:block> </fo:table-cell> </fo:table-row> <fo:table-row> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt">Venus</fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt">.815</fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt">116.75</fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt">3716</fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt">.943</fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt">66.8</fo:block> </fo:table-cell> </fo:table-row> <fo:table-row> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt">Earth</fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt">1</fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt">1</fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt">2107</fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt">1</fo:block> </fo:table-cell> <fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt">128.4</fo:block> </fo:table-cell> </fo:table-row> </fo:table-body> </fo:table> </fo:flow> </fo:page-sequence> </fo:root>
After running this document, tables.fo, through fop and creating tables.pdf, you can see the result in Figure 11.2. Thats what an XSL-FO table looks like, although there are plenty of other optionsyou can set the background color cell by cell with the background-color property, for example. By default no border appears in these tables, but Ive added one 0.5 mm thick with the border-width property. Note also that to set the font size of the text in each cell, Im using a block inside each table cell:
Figure 11.2. An XSL-FO formatted table in Adobe Acrobat.
<fo:table-cell border-width="0.5mm"> <fo:block font-size="18pt">Earth</fo:block> </fo:table-cell>
Ill take a look at the various elements you use to create tables now, starting with the big one, <fo:table> .
