Topic: Launch Civil 3D XSL toolbox report from the command line

[sdunn]

I cannot find anywhere in the report source code where a command is created that starts the process.  Is it possible to launch an xsl based report from the command line or via code? 

[dgorsman]

XSL or XML?

[sdunn]

The General Legal Description for Parcels.  It is an XSL report.

[Jeff_M]

I've looked for ways to do so, and tried numerous things, all without success. It would probably help if I knew how the XML/XSL files work together, but I haven't figured that out yet either (not that I've tried too hard, because looking at the code for these makes my head hurt )

[dgorsman]

I'm not familiar with Civil3D, so they may be using XSL term as something else.  If they are using it for actual XSL, I might be able to help with that.

XML is a nice, structured data format using tagged elements.  XSL is an instructional language used to transform XML into other forms, whether its HTML, CSV, or a different arrangement of XML.  Typically what would happen is a program generates a report in XML, either as data or as as XML file.  If the XML is just data, the XSL can be applied to transform the content to a text stream which is written to a file (for example, HTML).  If the XML is saved to a file, then it can be read back in and transformed, or a pointer to the XSL file can be added to the XML header, which causes the stylesheet to be applied when the file is double-clicked.

In theory, if the program like Civil3D stores the XSL stylesheet separately you could customize report format by changing the XSL contents without touching the internal program structure.

Look here and here.

[sdunn]

I can and have modified the style sheets and much of the java based code they contain.  I am after the mechanism that is used within Civil 3d to initiate the report process.