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doctools::toc(3tcl) Documentation tools doctools::toc(3tcl) 





NAME


doctools::toc - Holding tables of contents






SYNOPSIS


package require doctools::toc ?2?


package require Tcl 8.4


package require doctools::toc::structure 


package require struct::tree 


package require snit 


::doctools::toc objectName


objectName method ?arg arg ...?


objectName destroy


objectName + reference id label
    docid desc


objectName + division id label
    ?docid?


objectName remove id


objectName up id


objectName next id


objectName prev id


objectName child id label
  ?...?


objectName element ?...?


objectName children id


objectName type id


objectName full-label id


objectName elabel id ?newlabel?


objectName description id
  ?newdesc?


objectName document id ?newdocid?


objectName title


objectName title text


objectName label


objectName label text


objectName importer


objectName importer object


objectName exporter


objectName exporter object


objectName deserialize = data
  ?format?


objectName deserialize += data
    ?format?


objectName serialize ?format?










DESCRIPTION


This package provides a class to contain and programmatically
    manipulate tables of contents.


This is one of the three public pillars the management of tables
    of contents resides on. The other two pillars are



  
[1]

  
Exporting tables of contents, and

  
[2]

  
Importing tables of contents




For information about the Concepts of tables of contents,
    and their parts, see the same-named section. For information about the data
    structure which is used to encode tables of contents as values see the
    section ToC serialization format. This is the only format directly
    known to this class. Conversions from and to any other format are handled by
    export and import manager objects. These may be attached to a container, but
    do not have to be, it is merely a convenience.






CONCEPTS



  
[1]

  
A table of contents consists of a (possibly empty) list of
      elements.

  
[2]

  
Each element in the list is identified by its label.

  
[3]

  
Each element is either a reference, or a division.

  
[4]

  
Each reference has an associated document, identified by a symbolic id,
      and a textual description.

  
[5]

  
Each division may have an associated document, identified by a symbolic
      id.

  
[6]

  
Each division consists consists of a (possibly empty) list of
      elements, with each element following the rules as specified in
      item 2 and above.




A few notes



  
[1]

  
The above rules span up a tree of elements, with references as the leaf
      nodes, and divisions as the inner nodes, and each element representing an
      entry in the whole table of contents.

  
[2]

  
The identifying labels of any element E are unique within their division
      (or toc), and the full label of any element E is the list of labels for
      all nodes on the unique path from the root of the tree to E, including
    E.








API




PACKAGE COMMANDS



  
::doctools::toc objectName

  
This command creates a new container object with an associated Tcl command
      whose name is objectName. This object command is explained
      in full detail in the sections Object command and Object
      methods. The object command will be created under the current
      namespace if the objectName is not fully qualified, and in the
      specified namespace otherwise.








OBJECT COMMAND


All objects created by the ::doctools::toc command have the
    following general form:



  

  
The method method and its arg'uments determine the exact
      behavior of the command. See section Object methods for the
      detailed specifications.








OBJECT METHODS



  

  
This method destroys the object it is invoked for.

  

  
This method adds a new reference element to the table of contents, under
      the element specified via its handle id. This parent element has to
      be a division element, or the root. An error is thrown otherwise. The new
      element will be externally identified by its label, which has to be
      be unique within the parent element. An error is thrown otherwise.
    
As a reference element it will refer to a document identified
        by the symbolic docid. This reference must not be the empty
        string, an error is thrown otherwise. Beyond the label the element also
        has a longer descriptive string, supplied via desc.

    
The result of the method is the handle (id) of the new
        element.

  

  

  
This method adds a new division element to the table of contents, under
      the element specified via its handle id. This parent element has to
      be a division element, or the root. An error is thrown otherwise. The new
      element will be externally identified by its label, which has to be
      be unique within the parent element. An error is thrown otherwise.
    
As a division element it is can refer to a document,
        identified by the symbolic docid, but may choose not to.

    
The result of the method is the handle (id) of the new
        element.

  

  

  
This method removes the element identified by the handle id from
      the table of contents. If the element is a division all of its children,
      if any, are removed as well. The root element/division of the table of
      contents cannot be removed however, only its children.
    
The result of the method is the empty string.

  

  

  
This method returns the handle of the parent for the element identified by
      its handle id, or the empty string if id referred to the
      root element.

  

  
This method returns the handle of the right sibling for the element
      identified by its handle id, or the handle of the parent if the
      element has no right sibling, or the empty string if id referred to
      the root element.

  

  
This method returns the handle of the left sibling for the element
      identified by its handle id, or the handle of the parent if the
      element has no left sibling, or the empty string if id referred to
      the root element.

  

  
This method returns the handle of a child of the element identified by its
      handle id. The child itself is identified by a series of
    labels.

  

  
This method returns the handle of the element identified by a series of
      labels, starting from the root of the table of contents. The series of
      labels is allowed to be empty, in which case the handle of the root
      element is returned.

  

  
This method returns a list containing the handles of all children of the
      element identified by the handle id, from first to last, in that
      order.

  

  
This method returns the type of the element, either reference, or
      division.

  

  
This method is the complement of the method element, converting the
      handle id of an element into a list of labels full identifying the
      element within the whole table of contents.

  

  
This method queries and/or changes the label of the element identified by
      the handle id. If the argument newlabel is present then the
      label is changed to that value. Regardless of this, the result of the
      method is the current value of the label.
    
If the label is changed the new label has to be unique within
        the containing division, or an error is thrown.

    
Further, of the id refers to the root element of the
        table of contents, then using this method is equivalent to using the
        method label, i.e. it is accessing the global label for the whole
        table.

  

  

  
This method queries and/or changes the description of the element
      identified by the handle id. If the argument newdesc is
      present then the description is changed to that value. Regardless of this,
      the result of the method is the current value of the description.
    
The element this method operates on has to be a reference
        element, or an error will be thrown.

  

  

  
This method queries and/or changes the document reference of the element
      identified by the handle id. If the argument newdocid is
      present then the description is changed to that value. Regardless of this,
      the result of the method is the current value of the document reference.
    
Setting the reference to the empty string means unsetting it,
        and is allowed only for division elements. Conversely, if the result is
        the empty string then the element has no document reference, and this
        can happen only for division elements.

  

  

  
Returns the currently defined title of the table of contents.

  

  
Sets the title of the table of contents to text, and returns it as
      the result of the command.

  

  
Returns the currently defined label of the table of contents.

  

  
Sets the label of the table of contents to text, and returns it as
      the result of the command.

  

  
Returns the import manager object currently attached to the container, if
      any.

  

  
Attaches the object as import manager to the container, and returns
      it as the result of the command. Note that the object is not
      put into ownership of the container. I.e., destruction of the container
      will not destroy the object.
    
It is expected that object provides a method named
        import text which takes a text and a format name, and returns the
        canonical serialization of the table of contents contained in the text,
        assuming the given format.

  

  

  
Returns the export manager object currently attached to the container, if
      any.

  

  
Attaches the object as export manager to the container, and returns
      it as the result of the command. Note that the object is not
      put into ownership of the container. I.e., destruction of the container
      will not destroy the object.
    
It is expected that object provides a method named
        export object which takes the container and a format name, and
        returns a text encoding table of contents stored in the container, in
        the given format. It is further expected that the object will use
        the container's method serialize to obtain the serialization of
        the table of contents from which to generate the text.

  

  

  
This method replaces the contents of the table object with the table
      contained in the data. If no format was specified it is
      assumed to be the regular serialization of a table of contents.
    
Otherwise the object will use the attached import manager to
        convert the data from the specified format to a serialization it can
        handle. In that case an error will be thrown if the container has no
        import manager attached to it.

    
The result of the method is the empty string.

  

  

  
This method behaves like deserialize = in its essentials, except
      that it merges the table of contents in the data to its contents
      instead of replacing it. The method will throw an error if merging is not
      possible, i.e. would produce an invalid table. The existing content is
      left unchanged in that case.
    
The result of the method is the empty string.

  

  

  
This method returns the table of contents contained in the object. If no
      format is not specified the returned result is the canonical
      serialization of its contents.
    
Otherwise the object will use the attached export manager to
        convert the data to the specified format. In that case an error will be
        thrown if the container has no export manager attached to it.

  










TOC SERIALIZATION FORMAT


Here we specify the format used by the doctools v2 packages to
    serialize 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 exactly one of them will be canonical.



  

  







  
[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 dictionary holding the
      title of the table of contents, a label, and its elements. The relevant
      keys and their values are







  

  
The value is a string containing the title of the table of contents.

  

  
The value is a string containing a label for the table of contents.

  

  
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 alternative 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

  







  

  
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 referenced document, a label, and a longer textual description
      which can be associated with the entry. The relevant keys and their values
      are







  

  
The value is a string containing the id of the document associated with
      the entry.

  

  
The value is a string containing a label for this entry. This string also
      identifies the entry, and no two entries (references and divisions) in the
      containing list are allowed to have the same label.

  

  
The value is a string containing a longer description for this entry.







  

  
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







  

  
The value is a string containing the id of the document associated with
      the whole group. This key is optional.

  

  
The value is a string containing a label for the group. This string also
      identifies the entry, and no two entries (references and divisions) in the
      containing list are allowed to have the same label.

  

  
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
      contents, including other divisions.













  

  
The canonical serialization of a table of contents has the format 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 output 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


HTML, TMML, conversion, doctoc markup, documentation, formatting,
    generation, json, latex, markup, nroff, parsing, plugin, reference, table,
    table of contents, tcler's wiki, text, wiki






CATEGORY


Documentation tools






COPYRIGHT


Copyright (c) 2009 Andreas Kupries <andreas_kupries@users.sourceforge.net>








  

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