Node:Annotations, Next:Flexibility, Previous:Source to target, Up:Overview
Transbuild allows access to context sensitive information from the source tree to create a richly interlinked set of target files.
Normally, XSLT transformations are applied to one XML source file. With Transbuild, they can be applied to the source file plus a set of annotations. These annotations come from the other source files and directories near the source file being processed.
Many items can be easily accomplished using annotations. The list of immediate subdirectories can be used to generate links to subsections in the Web site. Navigation links to higher sections can be found by examining each parent and ancestor directories.
Annotations are dynamically determined from the structure and contents of the source tree. This makes constructing and maintaining navigation links a breeze. In most other content management packages, you would have to manually enter hard-coded navigation links - simple site-wide changes can be very costly. With Transbuild, all of this information is dynamically obtained - site-wide changes can be very easily done.
For example, adding a new section to the Web site is simply done by adding the extra directories and files for that section. The annotations mechanism will automatically detect the new material and generate the navigation links to it. Just create the files: no need to perform any reconfiguring. The same applies to moving a file to another subdirectory. The annotations will pick up its new context, and all the links will be automatically readjusted.