doctools::toc - Holding tables of contents

Api

PACKAGECOMMANDS::doctools::tocobjectName
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 Objectcommand and
Objectmethods. The object command will be created under the current namespace if the objectName
is not fully qualified, and in the specified namespace otherwise.

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

objectNamemethod ?argarg...?
The method method and its arg'uments determine the exact behavior of the command. See section
Objectmethods for the detailed specifications.

OBJECTMETHODSobjectNamedestroy
This method destroys the object it is invoked for.

objectName+referenceidlabeldociddesc
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.

objectName+divisionidlabel ?docid?
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.

objectNameremoveid
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.

objectNameupid
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.

objectNamenextid
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.

objectNameprevid
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.

objectNamechildidlabel ?...?
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.

objectNameelement ?...?
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.

objectNamechildrenid
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.

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

objectNamefull-labelid
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.

objectNameelabelid ?newlabel?
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.

objectNamedescriptionid ?newdesc?
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.

objectNamedocumentid ?newdocid?
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.

objectNametitle
Returns the currently defined title of the table of contents.

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

objectNamelabel
Returns the currently defined label of the table of contents.

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

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

objectNameimporterobject
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 importtext 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.

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

objectNameexporterobject
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 exportobject 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.

objectNamedeserialize=data ?format?
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.

objectNamedeserialize+=data ?format?
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.

objectNameserialize ?format?
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.

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  TcllibTrackers  [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 unifieddiffs, 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.

Concepts

       [1]    A tableofcontents 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.

Copyright

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

tcllib                                                  2                                    doctools::toc(3tcl)

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]    Exportingtablesofcontents, and

       [2]    Importingtablesofcontents

       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 ToCserializationformat.  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.

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

Name

       doctools::toc - Holding tables of contents

Synopsis

       package require doctools::toc?2?

       package require Tcl8.59

       package require doctools::toc::structure

       package require struct::tree

       package require snit::doctools::tocobjectNameobjectNamemethod ?argarg...?

       objectNamedestroyobjectName+referenceidlabeldociddescobjectName+divisionidlabel ?docid?

       objectNameremoveidobjectNameupidobjectNamenextidobjectNameprevidobjectNamechildidlabel ?...?

       objectNameelement ?...?

       objectNamechildrenidobjectNametypeidobjectNamefull-labelidobjectNameelabelid ?newlabel?

       objectNamedescriptionid ?newdesc?

       objectNamedocumentid ?newdocid?

       objectNametitleobjectNametitletextobjectNamelabelobjectNamelabeltextobjectNameimporterobjectNameimporterobjectobjectNameexporterobjectNameexporterobjectobjectNamedeserialize=data ?format?

       objectNamedeserialize+=data ?format?

       objectNameserialize ?format?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

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 dictionary 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 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

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 referenced document, a label, and a longer textual 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
divisions) 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 optional.

label 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.

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 contents, including other divisions.

canonical serialization
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.