Release notes for Xalan-C++ version 1.6

- Status
- Rebuilding Xalan-C++ and the sample applications
- Getting in touch
- History of software changes

| Status |

- Changes since Xalan-C++ version 1.5
- Bug reporting
- Version of Xerces-C++ to use
- To-do tasks for future Xalan-C++ releases

| Changes since Xalan-C++ version 1.5 |

Major updates since version 1.5 include:

- XalanC bugs fixed for this release.
- Directory "sane include" reorganization. A new sub-directory called 'xalanc' has been added to the src directory (for source distribution packages) and include directory (for binary distribution packages). New source files which include Xalan headers will need to be modified to include the 'xalanc' prefix in the header path.

  `#include <XPath/XObject.hpp>`

  will need to be changed to

  `#include <xalanc/XPath/XObject.hpp>`

  For Windows users, all project files have been modified to reflect this change. For UNIX users, please see Steps for doing a UNIX build for migration considerations.

| Bug reporting |

All known Xalan-C++ bugs are listed in Bugzilla (the Apache bug database). For a list of open bugs with links to each bug report, see XalanC open bugs. If you find a new bug, please enter a XalanC bug report in this database.

| Before you can enter your first bug report, you must submit your email address to Bugzilla and receive a password.

We strongly encourage you write patches for problems you find and submit them to xalan-dev@xml.apache.org. We review the patches we receive to make sure they do not break something else, and (assuming they do not) include them in our next release. In the interest of fixing bugs, adding enhancements, and addressing outstanding design issues, we sincerely want (and need!) your active participation in the ongoing development of Xalan.

| Version of Xerces-C++ to use |

Xalan-C++ version 1.6 has been tested with Xerces-C++ version 2.3.0.

| The Xalan-C++ version 1.6 download no longer includes the Xerces-C++ distribution for the specified platform. You should either download the matching Xerces-C++ distribution for your platform, or rebuild both Xerces-C++ and Xalan-C++ on your system.

For information about including the Xerces-C++ libraries on the path, see Setting up the system path.

Important You may experience unpredictable anomalies if your Xalan and Xerces builds are not in synch. If you download an update to Xalan, check the release notes to determine which version of Xerces you should use.

| To-do tasks for future Xalan-C++ releases |

- Add support for extension elements
- Fix any conformance bugs we or our users find
- Expand the XalanTransformer simplified API.

Watch the Xalan Development Mailing List for more information and for ideas about how you can get involved.

| Rebuilding Xalan-C++ |

- Rebuilding Xalan-C++
- Rebuilding sample applications

| Rebuilding Xalan-C++ |

- What you need from the distributions
- Steps for doing a Windows build
- Steps for doing a UNIX build

| What you need from the distributions |

To rebuild Xalan-C++, you need the Xalan-C++ source files, the Xerces-C++ header files, and for Windows the Xerces-C++ .lib file. If you want to rebuild with the ICU, you will need to download the ICU source package to build the ICU libraries.

The Xalan-C++ source tree is in the src subdirectory of the Xalan-C++ binary distributions. The Xerces-C++ header files are in the include/xercesc tree of the corresponding Xerces-C++ binary distributions. The Windows Xerces .lib file is in the lib directory of the Xerces-C++ Windows binary distribution.

| You can also download Xalan-C++ source distributions from Xalan-C downloads: Xalan-C_1_6-src.zip and Xalan-C_1_6-src.tar.gz. Xerces-C++ source distributions are available from Xerces-C downloads: xerces-c2_3_0-src.zip and xerces-c2_3_0-src.tar.gz.

Keep in mind that at any given point in time the Xalan-C++ and Xerces-C++ source trees in the Apache XML repository may not be consistent. When we release a version of Xalan-C++ we certify that it is compatible with a given version of Xerces-C++. To be safe, use the Xerces distributions that we certify as compatible. Reminder: Xalan-C++ version 1.6 is compatible with Xerces-C++ version 2.3.0.

For information on using the International Components for Unicode (ICU), see Using the ICU. Xalan-C++ version 1.6 has been tested with International Components for Unicode(ICU) 2.4 source files. You may be able to use newer ICU releases as they appear.

| Steps for doing a Windows build |

To build Xalan-C++ on Windows, you need Xerces-C++ and MS Visual C++ 6.0 installed with Service Pack 3 for Visual C++ and Visual Studio. You should also apply the bug fixes for the C++ standard library that shipped with Visual C++ 6.0. These fixes are available from the Dinkumware site: http://www.dinkumware.com/vc_fixes.html.

If you do not want to apply the Dinkumware patches, or you are using a different Service Pack, you must rebuild all of the Xerces and Xalan binaries.

Before you do the following, be sure you have provided Visual C++ the paths to the Xerces headers and libraries.

1. If you want to enable ICU support, install the ICU so the ICU root directory is at the same level as the xml-xerces directory (see Using the ICU).
2. Use Visual C++ to open the Xalan workspace from the xml-xalan\c\Projects\Win32\VC6.
3. Use Visual C++ to build the Xalan library (the "AllInOne" project) and executables of interest. If you want to enable ICU support for number formatting and sorting, do a clean build of the Xalan library using the AllInOneWithICU project before building any executables. ICU support for the testXSLT application requires uncommenting of the #define XALAN_USE_ICU statement in process.cpp. (See Enabling ICU support for the Xalan and/or TestXSLT executable).

| To recompile existing applications without changing your source code, be sure to modify your Project settings to pick up the Xalan headers in its new location. (see image below)

| Steps for doing a UNIX build |

1. The Xalan build files are written for GNU make, and will not work with other make utilities.
2. Set the XERCESCROOT environment variable to the path to the root of Xerces-C++.
3. Set the XALANCROOT environment variable to the path to the c directory in the root of the Xalan-C++ distribution. For example, if the distribution is located in "/home/xalan", you would set the XALANCROOT to "/home/xalan/xml-xalan/c".
4. (Optional) If you are including the ICUBridge, install the ICU, use the shell to define XALAN_USE_ICU and to set the ICUROOT environment variable to the path to the ICU root. For more information, see (see Using the ICU)
5. Change directory to xml-xalan/c/src/xalanc in the Xalan-C++ distribution. You can also build Xalan-C outside of the source tree, but you will need to adjust the path to the runConfigure script in the next step.
6. Run the runConfigure utility with the platform, C compiler, and C++ compiler flags as indicated below.
   Linux using GCC: `./runConfigure -p linux -c gcc -x c++`
   Linux using the Intel compiler: `./runConfigure -p linux -c icc -x icpc`
   AIX (32 bit): `./runConfigure -p aix -c xlc -x xlC`
   AIX (64-bit): `./runConfigure -p aix -c xlc -x xlC -b 64`
   HP-UX 11 (32 bit): `./runConfigure -p hp-11 -c cc -x aCC`
   HP-UX 11 (64 bit): `./runConfigure -p hp-11 -c cc -x aCC -b 64`
   Solaris (32 bit): `./runConfigure -p Solaris -c cc -x CC`
   Solaris (64 bit): `./runConfigure -p Solaris -c cc -x CC -b 64`
   To see the other runConfigure flags you may include, use the help flag:
   `./runConfigure -h`
7. Purge the previous build:
   `make clean`
8. Build the Xalan library and command-line executables:
   `make`
   or
   `make targ`
   where targ is omitted or is `all` (rebuild all), `lib` (the XSLT library), `Xalan` (the Xalan executable), or `testXSLT` (the testXSLT executable). ICUBridge is included in the build of Xalan and TestXSLT if XALAN_USE_ICU is defined. You can build the sample applications using the target `samples`.

| To recompile existing applications without changing your source code, be sure to modify the command line in your Makefile to pick up the Xalan headers from it's new location. e.g: if your xalan source location is in /home/xml-xalan,

`CC ... -I/home/xml-xalan/c/src -I/home/xml-xalan/c/src/xalanc mysrc.cpp`

| Rebuilding a Sample application |

In the Windows32 distribution, all of the sample applications can be built from the Xalan.dsw Visual C++ workspace. If you modify a sample and want to recompile it, you can recompile the .cpp file(s) and rebuild the executable.

The Makefile that come with the UNIX distributions include targets for rebuilding one or all of the sample applications (with the exception of the ThreadSafe sample, which in its current form only runs under Windows). To rebuild one or more sample applications, go to the xml-xalan/c/src/xalanc directory and run
`gmake Target`
where Target is `Samples` (all the samples), `ApacheModuleXSLT`, `CompileStylesheet`, `DocumentBuilder`, `ExternalFunctions`, `ParsedSourceWrappers`, `SerializedNodeSet`, `SimpleTransform`, `SimpleXPathAPI`, `SimpleXPathCAPI`, `StreamTransform`, `ThreadSafe` (Windows only), `TraceListen`, `TransformToXercesDOM`, `UseStylesheetParam`, `XPathWrapper`, `XalanTransform`, or `XalanTransformerCallback`.

| For information on building Apache Module, see ApacheModuleXSLT

| Getting in Touch |

| Your feedback is more than welcome. Offers of help are even more so! Perhaps you would like to contribute to the ongoing development, testing, or documentation of Xalan-C++. Please email your comments, questions, suggestions, bug reports, and offers to help to Xalan Development Mailing List.

| Cumulative history of software changes |

The following sections list the changes in each release since Xalan-C++ version 0.40.0.

| Changes for Xalan-C++ version 1.5 |

Major updates since version 1.4 include:

- XalanC bugs fixed for this release.
- For Windows, Xalan-C++ is now packaged as a single DLL. The project files to build separate DLLs are now deprecated and will not be maintained.
- Support for Xerces-C++ DOMNode classes.
- New sample TransformToXercesDOM that illustrates how to perform a transform resulting in a Xerces-C++ DOMDocument
- Usage of the Xerces-C++ C++ namespace and creation of Xalan-C++ namespace.

| Changes for Xalan-C++ version 1.4 |

Major updates since version 1.3 include:

- The Xalan-C++ distributions no longer include the Xerces-C++ headers and libraries. Accordingly, you must download the appropriate Xerces-C++ distribution (see Downloading what you need.
- 64-bit build for HP-11; untested 64-bit support for Solaris and AIX.
- New Linux platform and compiler: Redhat 7.2 with gcc 3.1.
- STLport is no longer required on any of our supported platforms.
- Alpha support for a number of EXSLT functions.
- ParsedSourceWrappers, a sample that illustrates how to perform transformations with input in the form of a pre-built XalanDOM or XalanSourceTree.

| Changes for Xalan-C++ version 1.3 |

Major updates since version 1.2 include:

- A new and simplified command-line utility: the Xalan executable
- New XPath samples exploiting the XPathEvaluator C API and illustrating serialization of an XPath result set: SimpleXPathCAPI and SerializeNodeSet
- A new wrapper class that lets you pass in a Xerces DOM as input for a transformation
- Bug fixes.
- Changed XPathException to XalanXPathException because of a clash with a new Xerces class of the same name.

| Changes for Xalan-C++ version 1.2 |

Major updates since version 1.1 include:

- Introduction of a library of extension functions
- Support for pre-parsed source documents and pre-compiled stylesheets in XalanTransformer and the C API.
- Support for stylesheet params in XalanTransformer and the C API
- Support for extension functions in XalanTransformer
- Performance enhancements

| Changes for Xalan-C++ version 1.1 |

In addition to adding to the list of platforms on which Xalan-C++ builds, our focus for this release has been on bug fixes, performance enhancements, and providing a simplified C++ and C API for performing standard transformations. Major updates since version 1.0 include:

- Added HP-UX 11 build.
- Added Solaris build.
- Greatly improved performance.
- Improved conformance to the XSLT specification.
- Simplified the C++ API and provided a C API for performing standard transformations with the XalanTransformer class and associated header files.
- Added sample illustrating use of XalanTransformer and the new C++ API: XalanTransform.
- Added sample illustrating use of XalanTransformer, the new C API, and how to run Xalan-C++ and perform transformations on an Apache Web server: ApacheModuleXSLT.
- Added the StreamTransform sample.
- Eliminated dependencies on non-public Xerces headers; accordingly can now build with the Xerces distribution.
- Fixed namespace mapping and inheritance problems.
- Fixed failure of <copy-of ...> to include CRLFs (if any) in the result.
- Fixed bug sorting in reverse document order based on position.
- Fixed <xsl:number> bug with use of letter-value="traditional" for "classical" Greek numbering.
- Fixed use of <xsl:fallback> within a top-level extension function.
- Fixed HTML output method bug. The <HEAD> element was not including a <META> tag with the encoding.
- Fixed bug using key() in match patterns to find descendants.
- Fixed bug using the id() function in complex match patterns.
- Fixed problem outputting multiple single-character CDATA sections.
- Fixed problem outputting whitespace characters.
- Fixed problem transforming from a stream on UNIX platforms.
- Fixed a bug with the document() function, which was generating a syntax error if called in the following manner: document(string,/).
- Fixed named templates bug accepting global parameter when called with a parameter of the same name that the named template does not recognize.

| Changes for Xalan-C++ version 1.0 |

Major updates since version 0.40.0 include:

- Full support for namespace handling
- Full implementation of the format-number() function and support for the decimal-format element
- Integration with the International Components for Unicode (ICU) for number formatting, sorting, and output encoding
- Support for the exclude-result-prefixes attribute
- Support for the output encoding attribute

| Changes for Xalan-C++ version 0.40.0 |

Major updates since version 0.30.0 include:

- Permitting OS file names (as well as URLs) as command-line arguments with TestXSLT
- Stricter compliance for HTML and XML output
- Improved handling of relative URI's
- Improved handling of Import and Include
- Better namespace handling (although there are still problems here)
- Support for Document() function
- Support for XPath predicates
- Better handling of parameters to stylesheet and templates
- Full implementation of axes ( with the exception of namespace:: )

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