msi information using xml, xslt, & cvs kakapo meeting august 28, 2003
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MSI Information using XML, XSLT, & CVS
Kakapo MeetingAugust 28, 2003
Example XML database file: http://web.mit.edu/pismere/msilist/
msilist.xml Stores all the info about managed MSIs. Contents:
<people>: names of people, teams, groups, with URLs and contact info
<places>: info about clusters <msis>: info about our managed MSIs
<msis> contents: <msi>
<product-name>• <vendor>• <title>• <version>
<category> <file-url> <support-url> <msi-info>
<config-info> <bug-info> <license-info> <packaged-by> <provided-by> <last-updated>
• <year>• <month>• <day>
An <msi> entry <msi>
<product-name>• <vendor>Adobe</vendor>• <title>Acrobat Reader</title>• <version>6.0</version>
</product-name> <category>General
Productivity</category> <file-url>
file://win.mit.edu/dfs/msi/acst/adobe_reader_60/adobe_reader_mit_60.msi</file-url>
<support-url> http://www.adobe.com/support/products/acrreader.html</support-url>
<msi-info>Extracted MSI after setup process from vendor installer using InstallShield AdminStudio. Provided MSI and MST did not work in our environment.</msi-info>
<license-info>free version</license-info>
<packaged-by>Chad Dupuis</packaged-by>
<provided-by>Academic Computing</provided-by>
<last-updated>• <year>2003</year>-• <month>07</month>-• <day>10</day>
</last-updated> </msi>
Example XSL template file XSL template files
convert the database into desired output style are themselves in XML format
Our example: http://web.mit.edu/pismere/msilist/acst/
msisupport.xsl Desired output style:
• tree of HTML files • patterned after Academic Computing msi page
http://web.mit.edu/acs/windows/msisupport.html• Used HTML Tidy to turn the HTML into viable XML
Msisupport.xsl contents <xsl:stylesheet>
<xsl:output method=“html”> (output file is html) <xsl:template match=“/”> (start at top of xml file)
• <html>,<head>,<body>… (create main page)• <xsl:for-each select=“…”> (select <msi>s)• <xsl:sort select=“…”> (group, sort)• <xsl:value-of select=“…”> (display info)• <xsl:call-template name=“create-info-page”>
(make output documents for each msi) <xsl:template name=“expand-people-name”> <xsl:template name=“create-info-page”>
• <html>,<head>,<body>… (create new html tree)• <xsl:value-of select=“pismere:outputDocument…”> (save to
separate file)
Invoking XSLT processor http://web.mit.edu/pismere/msilist/acst/ge
nerate-html.cmd Runs “msxsl ..\msilist.xml msisupport.xsl -o
msisupport.html” In English:
• Use the MSXSL processor• Use “msilist.xml” as the input file• Use “msisupport.xsl” as the template file• Create “msisupport.html” as the main output file
Results
Creates http://web.mit.edu/pismere/msilist/acst/
msisupport.html and the
http://web.mit.edu/pismere/msilist/acst/msiinfo/ directory, containing:
• adobe_acrobat_reader_50_idafg0o_MSI_README.html• adobe_acrobat_reader_60_idand0o_MSI_README.html• esri_arcinfo_workstation_83_idame0o_MSI_README.html• microsoft_visio_2002_idaah0o_MSI_README.html
Using CVS Created/edited files on some computer Checked into CVS
“msilist” module in “pismere-test” repository on cvs.mit.edu server
Deployed via pismere locker in AFS Directory hierarchy directly checked out from
same module• http://web.mit.edu/pismere/msilist/CVS
Redeploying after changes: A simple “cvs update” in pismere locker
Pros and Cons: XML PROs
Free Extremely general, so any structure for database can
be achieved Understood by a large and increasing number of
browsers/applications Can use simple text editor to change, or more xml-
aware applications. CONs
Generality means we make the rules… and we have to enforce them
Isn’t quite widespread enough to be easily accessible to laypeople
Pros and Cons: XSLT PROs
Free General enough to get just about any
look-and-feel Is also an XML document,
so same tools can be used to edit CONs
Difficult to learn, tedious to write• But: easy enough to parrot and include;
hopefully the tough parts only need to be done once Still at version 1.0, so not perfected yet
• Multiple output documents not natively supported,so it forces a choice of a particular processor toimplement (my choice: MSXSL)
Pros and Cons: CVS PROs
Free Deployment via AFS Revision control
• Some file conflict resolution Recovering older versions
CONs Usually a command-line client Learning curve Some gotchas
• filename capitalization,• binary/text tags, etc…