GSoC 2009 Enhancement of Text Filter by jainbasil: Difference between revisions

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::Location : Kerala, India
::Location : Kerala, India
::Timezone : GMT + 5:30
::Timezone : GMT + 5:30
::Blog    : [jainbasil.wordpress.com]http://jainbasil.wordpress.com
::Blog    : [http://jainbasil.wordpress.com]jainbasil.wordpress.com

Revision as of 05:30, 28 March 2009

Aim Of This Project

This project aims at the enhancement of the Text Filter in scribus so that it can import/export InDesign Exchange Files, InDesign Snippets,XTags,plain XML etc, to create a new dialog widget that can handle the global preferences for import/export of these XML based tags. It will also implement a new UI for the Text Filter to make it more consistent and flexible with other Scribus dialogs.

Objectives

Xtags is a Text Filter based on Xpress Tags language which is used for import/export of text files. Xtags converts these textfiles into fully formatted layouts based on the special formatting codes embedded in the text file.IDML (InDesign Markup Language) and IDX are also XML representation of an Adobe InDesign document or components.These documents are capable of fully describing the Adobe InDesign documents. All these are the emerging popular formats in the world of Desktop Publishing, and thus arises the necessity of implementing import/export of these formats in Scribus. This project aims at achieving the following :
1. Implement an efficient algorithm for import/export of Xtags, IDML/IDX, plain XML
2. Implement a Qt UI dialog to represent the global preferences for importing and exporting these document formats. This UI may be implemented as a child of Document Properties accessible from File Menu.
3. Implement a UI for import/export of Xtags and IDML/IDX. This will be accessible via the menu item GetText in Scribus.
4. Redesign the a new UI for the Text Filter to make it more consistent and flexible with other Scribus dialogs.

CHALLENGES

The major challenges that will be faced during the implementation of this project are
  • Implementing an efficient algorithm for parsing the formats will be a challenging work, since IDX is less documented and there are no other ready made efficient algorithms available in FLOSS for handling these files.
  • Parsing Tags with multiple parameters will be another challenging work ( Xtags have a heavy implementation of Tags with multiple parameters; for eg. The rule above tag : <*ra(thickness, style,color,shade, from left, from right, offset) > )
More discussion with the community is needed to decide upon the above said challenges

ROAD MAP

Following is the detailed road map of implementing the project. Estimated Time requirement is shown for each.
  • Upto May 23, 2009 : Understand XML File Handling in Qt ( using QtXML classes),Proper analysis of Scribus class hierarchy and functions, Discussions on community regarding the above said challenges and to get proper solutions.
  • Task 1 : (Time required : 3 week ) : Implementation of the parsing algorithm for Import/Export
  • Task 2,3 : (Time required : 2 week ) : Implementation UI for setting Global Preferences of import/export and implementation of UI for import/ export of Xtags, IDML/IDX. New design for UI will be implemented after submissions of proposed UI in the community and making necessary changes into it considering the community review.The time limit shown include all these processes( submissions and reviews)
  • Task 4 : (Time required : 2 week ) : Redesign of UI for Text Filter in Scribus to make it more consistent and more flexible. Design of UI for Text Filter also will be submitted to the community for review and suggestions.
  • Clean Up week : Clean up the code, review comments, fix bugs and write documentation

PROJECT OUTCOMES

The expected outcomes of this project are as follows
1. Ability to import/export Xtags, IDML Snippets/ IDX in Scribus
2. Improved UI for Text Filter which is more consistent and flexible with other scribus dialogs

ABOUT ME

Name  : Jain Basil Aliyas
IRC Nick : jainbasil
Email ID : jainbasil@gmail.com
Location : Kerala, India
Timezone : GMT + 5:30
Blog  : [1]jainbasil.wordpress.com