Visual debugger for stylesheets

• US 20040117769A1
• Filed: 06/10/2003
• Published: 06/17/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lauzon, David Martin, Lau, Christina P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,890,931 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/125
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming

Abstract

A visual Debugger for stylesheets assists a user of stylesheets debug the stylesheets by: allowing the user to set breakpoints on the stylesheet; running to, and stopping at, the breakpoints; single stepping through each template rule as the rule is fired (both forward and backward); evaluating the template rule on the fly; showing the relationship between each template rule and the source document that provides the data; supporting stylesheets that call external programs written in Java or JavaScript; supporting stylesheets that include or import other stylesheets; supporting XML documents that use the “?xml-stylesheet” processing instruction to include stylesheets; supporting multiple debug sessions; and allowing the user to edit the stylesheet or source document and then allowing the debugger to be relaunched.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium containing computer-executable instructions which, when performed by a processor in a computer system, cause said computer system to:

provide a display of a source document and a stylesheet to be applied to said source document;

instruct a stylesheet processor to launch application of said stylesheet to said source document;

receive a plurality of events from said stylesheet processor, where said plurality of events relate to said application, by said stylesheet processor, of said stylesheet to said source document; and

update said display based on said plurality of events.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein said stylesheet is an eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) stylesheet.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 2 wherein said stylesheet processor is an eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) stylesheet processor.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 3 wherein said XSLT stylesheet processor is the Xalan processor.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein said source document is formatted in the eXtensible Markup Language.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein said computer-executable instructions further cause said computer system to perform a simulation of application of said stylesheet to said source document.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 6 wherein said display allows a user to set a breakpoint on said stylesheet and said computer-executable instructions further cause said computer system to stop said simulation of application of said stylesheet to said source document.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 6 wherein, where a given one of said plurality of events indicates a firing of a template rule, said computer-executable instructions further cause said computer system to single step through said simulation as said simulation relates to said template rule.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein, where said event indicates a firing of a template rule, said computer-executable instructions further cause said computer system to evaluate said template rule.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein said stylesheet calls an external program and said computer-executable instructions further cause said computer system to create a separate virtual machine to run said external program.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10 wherein said external program is written in Java.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 10 wherein said external program is written in JavaScript.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein said stylesheet is a first stylesheet, said first stylesheet imports a second stylesheet and said computer-executable instructions further cause said computer system to open a supplementary debugging session.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein said stylesheet is a first stylesheet and said source document includes an instruction referencing a second stylesheet and said computer-executable instructions further cause said computer system to processes said instruction and locate said second stylesheet.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein said display includes a view showing currently active debug sessions.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein said display includes a user interface related to an editor for said stylesheet and a user interface related to an editor for said source document.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein said computer-executable instructions further cause said computer system to:

receive an indication that changes have been made to said stylesheet resulting in an edited stylesheet; and

instruct said stylesheet processor to apply said edited stylesheet to said source document.

18. A stylesheet debugging system comprising:

a display monitor adapted to provide a display of a source document and a stylesheet to be applied to said source document;

a processor adapted to;

instruct a stylesheet processor to launch application of said stylesheet to said source document;

receive a plurality of events from said stylesheet processor, where said plurality of events relate to said application of said stylesheet to said source document; and

update said display based on said plurality of events.

19. A method of providing support for stylesheet debugging, said method comprising:

providing a user interface including a display, said user interface adapted to receive an indication of a source document and a stylesheet to be applied to said source document;

instructing a stylesheet processor to launch application of said stylesheet to said source document;

receiving a plurality of events from said stylesheet processor, where said plurality of events relate to said application of said stylesheet to said source document; and

updating said display based on said plurality of events.

20. A computer readable medium containing computer-executable instructions which, when performed by a processor in a computer system, cause said computer system to:

provide a user interface including a display, said user interface adapted to receive an indication of a source document and a stylesheet to be applied to said source document;

instruct a stylesheet processor to launch application of said stylesheet to said source document;

receive a plurality of events from said stylesheet processor, where said plurality of events relate to said application of said stylesheet to said source document; and

update said display based on said plurality of events.