doctools::toc::export::json(3tDocumentation tdoctools::toc::export::json(3tcl)
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NAME
doctools::toc::export::json - JSON export plugin
SYNOPSIS
package require Tcl 8.4
package require doctools::toc::export::json ?0.1?
package require textutil::adjust
export serial configuration
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DESCRIPTION
This package implements the doctools table of contents export plugin
for the generation of JSON markup.
This is an internal package of doctools, for use by the higher level
management packages handling tables of contents, especially doc-
tools::toc::export, the export manager.
Using it from a regular interpreter is possible, however only with con-
tortions, and is not recommended. The proper way to use this function-
ality is through the package doctools::toc::export and the export man-
ager objects it provides.
API
The API provided by this package satisfies the specification of the
doctoc export plugin API version 2.
export serial configuration
This command takes the canonical serialization of a table of
contents, as specified in section ToC serialization format, and
contained in serial, the configuration, a dictionary, and gener-
ates JSON markup encoding the table. The created string is then
returned as the result of the command.
JSON NOTATION OF TABLES OF CONTENTS
The JSON format used for tables of contents is a direct translation of
the ToC serialization format, mapping Tcl dictionaries as JSON objects
and Tcl lists as JSON arrays. For example, the Tcl serialization
doctools::toc {
items {
{reference {
desc {DocTools - Tables of Contents}
id introduction.man
label doctools::toc::introduction
}}
{division {
id processing.man
items {
{reference {
desc {doctoc serialization utilities}
id structure.man
label doctools::toc::structure
}}
{reference {
desc {Parsing text in doctoc format}
id parse.man
label doctools::toc::parse
}}
}
label Processing
}}
}
label {Table of Contents}
title TOC
}
is equivalent to the JSON string
{
"doctools::toc" : {
"items" : [{
"reference" : {
"desc" : "DocTools - Tables of Contents",
"id" : "introduction.man",
"label" : "doctools::toc::introduction"
}
},{
"division" : {
"id" : "processing.man",
"items" : [{
"reference" : {
"desc" : "doctoc serialization utilities",
"id" : "structure.man",
"label" : "doctools::toc::structure"
}
},{
"reference" : {
"desc" : "Parsing text in doctoc format",
"id" : "parse.man",
"label" : "doctools::toc::parse"
}
}],
"label" : "Processing"
}
}],
"label" : "Table of Contents",
"title" : "TOC"
}
}
CONFIGURATION
The JSON export plugin recognizes the following configuration variables
and changes its behaviour as they specify.
boolean indented
If this flag is set the plugin will break the generated JSON
code across lines and indent it according to its inner struc-
ture, with each key of a dictionary on a separate line.
If this flag is not set (the default), the whole JSON object
will be written on a single line, with minimum spacing between
all elements.
boolean aligned
If this flag is set the generator ensures that the values for
the keys in a dictionary are vertically aligned with each other,
for a nice table effect. To make this work this also implies
that indented is set.
If this flag is not set (the default), the output is formatted
as per the value of indented, without trying to align the values
for dictionary keys.
Note that this plugin ignores the standard configuration variables
user, format, file, and map and their values.
TOC SERIALIZATION FORMAT
Here we specify the format used by the doctools v2 packages to serial-
ize tables of contents as immutable values for transport, comparison,
etc.
We distinguish between regular and canonical serializations. While a
table of contents may have more than one regular serialization only ex-
actly one of them will be canonical.
regular serialization
[1] The serialization of any table of contents is a nested
Tcl dictionary.
[2] This dictionary holds a single key, doctools::toc, and
its value. This value holds the contents of the table of
contents.
[3] The contents of the table of contents are a Tcl dictio-
nary holding the title of the table of contents, a label,
and its elements. The relevant keys and their values are
title The value is a string containing the title of the
table of contents.
label The value is a string containing a label for the
table of contents.
items The value is a Tcl list holding the elements of
the table, in the order they are to be shown.
Each element is a Tcl list holding the type of the
item, and its description, in this order. An al-
ternative description would be that it is a Tcl
dictionary holding a single key, the item type,
mapped to the item description.
The two legal item types and their descriptions
are
reference
This item describes a single entry in the
table of contents, referencing a single
document. To this end its value is a Tcl
dictionary containing an id for the refer-
enced document, a label, and a longer tex-
tual description which can be associated
with the entry. The relevant keys and
their values are
id The value is a string containing the
id of the document associated with
the entry.
label The value is a string containing a
label for this entry. This string
also identifies the entry, and no
two entries (references and divi-
sions) in the containing list are
allowed to have the same label.
desc The value is a string containing a
longer description for this entry.
division
This item describes a group of entries in
the table of contents, inducing a hierarchy
of entries. To this end its value is a Tcl
dictionary containing a label for the
group, an optional id to a document for the
whole group, and the list of entries in the
group. The relevant keys and their values
are
id The value is a string containing the
id of the document associated with
the whole group. This key is op-
tional.
label The value is a string containing a
label for the group. This string
also identifies the entry, and no
two entries (references and divi-
sions) in the containing list are
allowed to have the same label.
items The value is a Tcl list holding the
elements of the group, in the order
they are to be shown. This list has
the same structure as the value for
the keyword items used to describe
the whole table of contents, see
above. This closes the recusrive
definition of the structure, with
divisions holding the same type of
elements as the whole table of con-
tents, including other divisions.
canonical serialization
The canonical serialization of a table of contents has the for-
mat as specified in the previous item, and then additionally
satisfies the constraints below, which make it unique among all
the possible serializations of this table of contents.
[1] The keys found in all the nested Tcl dictionaries are
sorted in ascending dictionary order, as generated by
Tcl's builtin command lsort -increasing -dict.
BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK
This document, and the package it describes, will undoubtedly contain
bugs and other problems. Please report such in the category doctools
of the Tcllib Trackers [http://core.tcl.tk/tcllib/reportlist]. Please
also report any ideas for enhancements you may have for either package
and/or documentation.
When proposing code changes, please provide unified diffs, i.e the out-
put of diff -u.
Note further that attachments are strongly preferred over inlined
patches. Attachments can be made by going to the Edit form of the
ticket immediately after its creation, and then using the left-most
button in the secondary navigation bar.
KEYWORDS
JSON, doctools, export, serialization, table of contents, toc
CATEGORY
Text formatter plugin
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2009-2019 Andreas Kupries <andreas_kupries@users.sourceforge.net>
tcllib 0.1 doctools::toc::export::json(3tcl)