Tables
- To create tables.
- To format tables.
Creating Tables
The syntax for creating a table in XSL-FO is as follows.
Code Sample: Tables/Demos/TableSyntax.fo
<fo:table table-layout="fixed" border-width="1mm" border-style="solid">
<fo:table-column column-width="3in"/>
<fo:table-column column-width="3in"/>
<fo:table-header text-align="center" background-color="silver">
<fo:table-row>
<fo:table-cell padding="1mm" border-width="1mm" border-style="solid">
<fo:block font-weight="bold">Header</fo:block>
</fo:table-cell>
<fo:table-cell padding="1mm" border-width="1mm" border-style="solid">
<fo:block font-weight="bold">Header</fo:block>
</fo:table-cell>
</fo:table-row>
</fo:table-header>
<fo:table-body>
<fo:table-row>
<fo:table-cell padding="1mm" border-width="1mm" border-style="solid">
<fo:block>Content</fo:block>
</fo:table-cell>
<fo:table-cell padding="1mm" border-width="1mm" border-style="solid">
<fo:block>Content</fo:block>
</fo:table-cell>
</fo:table-row>
<fo:table-row>
<fo:table-cell padding="1mm" border-width="1mm" border-style="solid">
<fo:block>Content</fo:block>
</fo:table-cell>
<fo:table-cell padding="1mm" border-width="1mm" border-style="solid">
<fo:block>Content</fo:block>
</fo:table-cell>
</fo:table-row>
</fo:table-body>
</fo:table>
Let's examine this element by element.
fo:table
The fo:table element contains the whole table. Common attributes include table-layout (fixed, auto, or inherit) and attributes controlling the borders (e.g, border-width) and background (e.g, background-color) of the table.
fo:table-column
The fo:table-column elements are used to set the width of the column. The key attribute is column-width. The fo:table-column elements are the first children of the fo:table element and there should be one fo:table-column element for each column in the table.
fo:table-header, fo:table-body, fo:table-footer
The table is vertically divided into a fo:table-header, fo:table-body, and fo:table-footer. Only the fo:table-body is required. These elements are then divided into rows with the fo:table-row element.
fo:table-row
The fo:table-row element is divided into one or more cells with fo:table-cell elements. The total number of cells in each row should equal the number of fo:table-column elements in the table, though cells can span columns, in which case they count for however many columns they span.
fo:table-cell
The fo:table-cell element contains the content of the cell, which is displayed in the output.
Let's look at an example.
Code Sample: Tables/Demos/Beatles.xsl
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">
<xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>
<xsl:template match="/beatles">
<fo:root xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">
<fo:layout-master-set>
<fo:simple-page-master master-name="table" page-height="11in"
page-width="8.5in" margin-top=".5in" margin-bottom=".5in"
margin-left=".5in" margin-right=".5in">
<fo:region-body margin-top="1in" margin-bottom="1in"/>
<fo:region-before extent=".5in"/>
<fo:region-after extent=".5in"/>
</fo:simple-page-master>
</fo:layout-master-set>
<fo:page-sequence master-reference="table">
<fo:static-content flow-name="xsl-region-before" text-align="center">
<fo:block font-size="20pt" font-weight="bold">
The Beatles
</fo:block>
</fo:static-content>
<fo:static-content flow-name="xsl-region-after">
<fo:block text-align="right" font-size="9pt">
Image borrowed from
<fo:basic-link external-destination="url('
http://www.northwestern.edu/observer/issues/2003-06-05/images/beatles.jpg')"
color="blue">here</fo:basic-link>.
</fo:block>
</fo:static-content>
<fo:flow flow-name="xsl-region-body">
<fo:block>
<fo:external-graphic src="url('beatles.jpg')" width="340px" height="238px"/>
</fo:block>
<fo:table table-layout="fixed" border-width="1mm"
border-style="solid" font-size="26pt" space-before="20pt">
<fo:table-column column-width="3in"/>
<fo:table-column column-width="3in"/>
<fo:table-header text-align="center" background-color="silver">
<fo:table-row>
<fo:table-cell padding="1mm" border-width="1mm" border-style="solid">
<fo:block font-weight="bold">First Name</fo:block>
</fo:table-cell>
<fo:table-cell padding="1mm" border-width="1mm" border-style="solid">
<fo:block font-weight="bold">Last Name</fo:block>
</fo:table-cell>
</fo:table-row>
</fo:table-header>
<fo:table-body>
<xsl:for-each select="//beatle">
<fo:table-row>
<fo:table-cell padding="1mm" border-width="1mm" border-style="solid">
<fo:block>
<fo:basic-link external-destination="url('{@link}')" color="blue">
<xsl:value-of select="name/firstname"/>
</fo:basic-link>
</fo:block>
</fo:table-cell>
<fo:table-cell padding="1mm" border-width="1mm" border-style="solid">
<fo:block>
<fo:basic-link external-destination="url('{@link}')" color="blue">
<xsl:value-of select="name/lastname"/>
</fo:basic-link>
</fo:block>
</fo:table-cell>
</fo:table-row>
</xsl:for-each>
</fo:table-body>
</fo:table>
</fo:flow>
</fo:page-sequence>
</fo:root>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
The result would look like this.
Tables Conclusion
In this lesson of the XSL-FO tutorial, you have seen how to create tables with XSL-FO.