NAME

XML::Handler::AxPoint - AxPoint XML to PDF Slideshow generator

SYNOPSIS

Using SAX::Machines:

  use XML::SAX::Machines qw(Pipeline);
  use XML::Handler::AxPoint;
  
  Pipeline( XML::Handler::AxPoint->new() )->parse_uri("presentation.axp");

Or using directly:

  use XML::SAX;
  use XML::Handler::AxPoint;
  
  my $parser = XML::SAX::ParserFactory->parser(
        Handler => XML::Handler::AxPoint->new(
                Output => "presentation.pdf"
                )
        );
  
  $parser->parse_uri("presentation.axp");

DESCRIPTION

This module is a port and enhancement of the AxKit presentation tool, AxPoint. It takes an XML description of a slideshow, and generates a PDF. The resulting presentations are very nice to look at, possibly rivalling PowerPoint, and almost certainly better than most other freeware presentation tools on Unix/Linux.

The presentations support slide transitions, PDF bookmarks, bullet points, source code (fixed font) sections, images, colours, bold and italics, hyperlinks, and transition effects for all the bullet points, source, and image sections.

Rather than describing the format in detail, it is far easier to examine (and copy) the example in the testfiles directory in the distribution. We have included that verbatim here in case you lost it during the install:

 <?xml version="1.0"?>
 <slideshow>
 
  <title>AxKit</title>
  <metadata>
     <speaker>Matt Sergeant</speaker>
     <email>matt@axkit.com</email>
     <organisation>AxKit.com Ltd</organisation>
     <link>http://axkit.com/</link>
     <logo scale="0.4">ax_logo.png</logo>
     <background>redbg.png</background>
  </metadata>
  
  <slide transition="dissolve">
    <title>Introduction</title>
    <point level="1">Perl's XML Capabilities</point>
    <point level="1">AxKit intro</point>
    <point level="1">AxKit static sites</point>
    <point level="1">AxKit dynamic sites (XSP)</point>
    <point level="1">Advanced <colour name="red">AxKit</colour></point>
    <source_code>
 Foo!
    </source_code>
  </slide>
  
  <slideset>
     <title>XML with Perl Introduction</title>
     
     <slide>
        <title>
        A very long <i>title that</i> should show how 
        word <i>wrapping in the title</i> tag hopefully works
        properly today
        </title>
        <point level="1">SAX-like API</point>
        <point level="1">register callback handler methods</point>
        <point level="2">start tag</point>
        <point level="2">end tag</point>
        <point level="2">characters</point>
        <point level="2">comments</point>
        <point level="2">processing instructions</point>
        <source_code>
 &lt;?pi here?>
        </source_code>
        <point level="2">... and more</point>
        <point level="1">Non validating XML parser</point>
        <point level="1">dies (throws an exception) on bad XML</point>
     </slide>
     
     <slide>
        <title>XML::Parser code</title>
        <source_code>
 my $p = XML::Parser->new(
 <i>    Handlers => { # should be in italics!
        Start => \&amp;start_tag, 
        End => \&amp;end_tag,
        # add more handlers here
        });
    </i>
 $p->parsefile("foo.xml");
 
 exit(0);
 
 sub start_tag {
  my ($expat, $tag, %attribs) = @_;
  print "Start tag: $tag\n";
 }
 
 sub end_tag {
  my ($expat, $tag) = @_;
  print "End tag: $tag\n";
 }
        </source_code>
     </slide>
     
     <slide>
     <title>XML::XPath Implementation</title>
     <point level="1">XML::Parser and SAX parsers build an in-memory tree</point>
     <point level="1">Hand-built parser for XPath syntax (rather than YACC based parser)</point>
     <point level="1">Garbage Collection yet still has circular references (and works on Perl 5.005)</point>
     <image>pointers.png</image>
     </slide>
     
  </slideset>
  
  <slide>
  <title>Conclusions</title>
  <point level="1" transition="dissolve">Perl and XML are a powerful combination</point>
  <point level="1" transition="replace">XPath and XSLT add to the mix...</point>
  <point level="1" transition="glitter">AxKit can reduce your long term costs</point>
  <point level="2" transition="dissolve">In site re-design</point>
  <point level="2" transition="box">and in content re-purposing</point>
  <point level="1" transition="wipe">Open Source equal to commercial alternatives</point>
  <image transition="dissolve">world_map-960.png</image>
  </slide>
  
  <slide>
  <title>Resources and contact</title>
  <point level="1">AxKit: http://axkit.org/</point>
  <point level="1">CPAN: http://search.cpan.org</point>
  <point level="1">libxml and libxslt: http://www.xmlsoft.org</point>
  <point level="1">Sablotron: http://www.gingerall.com</point>
  <point level="1">XPath and XSLT Tutorials: http://zvon.org</point>
  </slide>
  
 </slideshow>