XML Export for Etherpad Lite

This plug-in lets you export the content of a pad as XML.

Download and Install

Available on github and npm

1. Install etherpad lite (EPL)
2. cd to your EPL install direcory
3. npm install ep_xmlexport

Usage

You can use the plug-in via a graphical UI or via HTTP API calls.

UI

The plug-in adds itself to the list of export formats. Choose XML from list of formats.

You can't control the XML output format using the GUI. If you need something different than the default XML, use the HTTP API instead.

TODO: Make the default configurable.

HTTP API

Request URIs

Basic call, requesting generic EPL XML

http://<hostPort>/p/<padName>/export/xml

Choose pad revision, requesting generic EPL XML

http://<hostPort>/p/<padName>/<revision>/export/xml

Control output of line attributes (handling of EPL line marker, lmkr), requesting extended EPL XML

http://<hostPort>/p/<padName>/<revision>/export/xml?lineattribs=true

Removes the line marker (asterisk with attribute lmkr) from a line and adds all lmkr attributes as XML attributes to the line element. key/value become the name/value of the correpsonding line attribute.

Control output of lists markup, requesting extended EPL XML

http://<hostPort>/p/<padName>/<revision>/export/xml?lists=true

Generates list and item elements.

Regex matching of URIs, requesting extended EPL XML

http://<hostPort>/p/<padName>/<revision>/export/xml?regex=true

Generates markup for URIs. This feature is implemented because the original code, which this plug-in relies on, does a regex search for URIs; so I just kept this feature.

But the markup is generalized. For every URI in the pad text you'll get the following markup on export: <matched-text key="uri" value="...">...</markup-text.

The generalized markup allows for an easy, later extension to match more patterns.

Pretty printing XML

http://<hostPort>/p/<padName>/<revision>/export/xml?pretty=true

Pretty prints XML with the help of pretty-data. pretty-data is an optional dependency in package.json. If it's installed, you can use it. Otherwise the pretty=true argument has no effect.

I suggest to use pretty printing only for debugging purposes. It might insert some probably unwanted whitespace.

Response

MIME type and encoding

Currently the MIME type plain/xml is used. A switch to application/xml might be reasonable.

Little is known about dealing with the correct encoding (BOM, XML declaration, HTTP header) in EPL. If you think I'm doing wrong, let me know (fork & PR appreciated).

Message body

The plug-in produces well-formed XML.

You have the choice of exporting generic EPL XML or extended EPL XML (non-generic). What does this mean?

Generic EPL XML (default)

The generic export mode simply translates every line of pad content into a line element in XML, and every pad attribute into an attribute element in XML. attribute elements carry key and value XML attributes. (Don't get confused: EPL attributes are transformed to XML elements named "attribute"; their key/values are transformed to XML attributes.)

You can validate the generic EPL XML against the epl.dtd.

Extended EPL XML

The XML format changes if at least one of the output control parameters are set to true. How the format changes is described for each of the control paramaters, see above.

There's only an experimental DTD for extended EPL XML: epl-x.dtd. Why experimental? Because the XML format changes with every new plug-in that introduces a new line marker attribute. BTW: The '-x' means "extended", not "experimental".

Q: epl-x or epl? Which DTD should I use? A: Of course the answer is: That depends! epl.dtd seems to be pretty stable, and it should support a predictable output format. I simply try to export any part of the pad content in a canonical XML format.

epl-x.dtd on the other hand contains some decisions that might be subject to discussion. What's "correct" handling of lists isn't easy to define, so maybe you want to deal with lists on your own. EPL allows some weird lists indentations. How should the plug-in behave in such a case? The plug-in relies on code from the latex plug-in to do some "reasonable" lists conversion. Some like it, some don't.

I suggest to use as much from the epl-x export format as you like. I'll try to give you as much control as possible.

Exporting Comments

Since version 2.0.0 EPL-comments are supported. The supported plugin is ep_comments_page. If installed, comments are exported along with their replies. There's no switch and no need to turn this feature on. But jsxml is required. It's listed as an optional dependency in package.json. If jsxml is not available, you won't get any comments in the exported XML.

Samples

Plain text

The request

http://<hostPort>/p/<padName>/export/xml

exports helloworld.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<pad revisionDate="1435916467677">
  <content>
    <line>Hello World</line>
    <line></line>
  </content>
</pad>

Heading

Generic EPL-XML

The request

http://<hostPort>/p/<padName>/export/xml

exports heading-generic.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<pad revisionDate="1435916467677">
  <content>
    <line><attribute key="heading" value="h1"><attribute key="insertorder" value="first"><attribute key="lmkr" value="1">*</attribute>Hello World</line>
    <line>A heading above</line>
    <line></line>
  </content>
</pad>

Extended EPL-XML

The request

http://<hostPort>/p/<padName>/export/xml?lineattribs=true

exports heading-extended.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<pad revisionDate="1435916467677">
  <content>
    <line heading="h1" insertorder="first" lmkr="1">Hello World</line>
    <line>A heading above</line>
    <line></line>
  </content>
</pad>

Lists

Generic EPL-XML

The request

http://<hostPort>/p/<padName>/export/xml

exports list-generic.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<pad revisionDate="1435916467677">
  <content>
    <line><attribute key="insertorder" value="first"><attribute key="lmkr" value="1"><attribute key="list" value="bullet1"><attribute key="start" value="1">*</attribute>List item a</line>
    <line><attribute key="insertorder" value="first"><attribute key="lmkr" value="1"><attribute key="list" value="bullet1"><attribute key="start" value="2">*</attribute>List item b</line>
    <line><attribute key="insertorder" value="first"><attribute key="lmkr" value="1"><attribute key="list" value="bullet1"><attribute key="start" value="3">*</attribute>List item c</line>
    <line></line>
  </content>
</pad>

Extended EPL-XML with lineattribs=true

The request

http://<hostPort>/p/<padName>/export/xml?lineattribs=true

exports list-lineattribs.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<pad revisionDate="1435916467677">
  <content>
    <line insertorder="first" list="bullet1" lmkr="1" start="1">List item a</line>
    <line insertorder="first" list="bullet1" lmkr="1" start="2">List item b</line>
    <line insertorder="first" list="bullet1" lmkr="1" start="3">List item c</line>
    <line></line>
  </content>
</pad>

Extended EPL-XML with lists=true

The request

http://<hostPort>/p/<padName>/export/xml?lists=true

exports list-lists.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<pad revisionDate="1435916467677">
  <content>
    <list type="bullet">
      <item>
        <line>List item a</line>
      </item>
      <item>
        <line>List item b</line>
      </item>
      <item>
        <line>List item c</line>
      </item>
    </list>
    <line></line>
  </content>
</pad>

Comments

The request

http://<hostPort>/p/<padName>/export/xml

exports comment-reply.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<pad revisionDate="1435916467677">
  <content>
    <line>Hello <attribute key="comment" value="c-Bu5TKhq62OyBX9iI">Wolrd</attribute></line>
    <line></line>
  </content>
  <comments>
    <comment id="c-Bu5TKhq62OyBX9iI" timestamp="1425999544594" isoDateTime="2015-03-10T14:59:04.594Z">
      <author id="a.hrDy4M2ybSkTHI50">Anonymous</author>
      <text>That's a typo.</text>
      <replies>
        <comment id="c-reply-xNnbXKp3Mi0y6KCZ" timestamp="1425999570817" isoDateTime="2015-03-10T14:59:30.817Z">
          <author id="a.hrDy4M2ybSkTHI50">Anonymous</author>
          <text>Thanks! I'll fix it.</text>
        </comment>
      </replies>
    </comment>
  </comments>
</pad>

Legal Information

The work on this plug-in began as a fork of https://github.com/edy/ep_latexexport, which is available under an Apache license.

It's now a project on it's own with significant changes. Furthermore I plan a major re-factoring of the current code.

My own part of work is available under the following license.

   Copyright 2015 Stefan Mintert

   Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
   you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
   You may obtain a copy of the License at

     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
   distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
   WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
   See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
   limitations under the License.

Version history

2.1.6

• added revision date for pad to xml (epl.dtd and epl-x.dtd was changed)

2.1.5

• Code cleaning. Refactoring.

2.1.4

• Some bug fixing
• Added support for exporting line height (epl-x.dtd was changed)

2.1.0

• Added support for nested lists (epl-x.dtd was changed)
• Added ?pretty=true|false HTTP parameter for pretty printing XML

2.0.0

• Added export functionality for EPL comments. Requires jsxml
• Incompatible change of XML export format. See DTD(s) for details. You have to update your code if you're processing the exported XML.

1.0.x

• First version
• Exports content of a Pad in XML.