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- Main page
- Introduction
- Hello, world!
- Basics
  - How to write the layout
  - Structure of the data file and the layout rules
  - Outputting objects
  - Grid
  - Areas on the page (PositioningArea)
  - File organization
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  - Using fonts
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  - Server mode (REST API)
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  - Imitate bulleted lists
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Version 4.2.0
Search manual

- Main page
- Introduction
- Hello, world!
- Basics
  - How to write the layout
  - Structure of the data file and the layout rules
  - Outputting objects
  - Grid
  - Areas on the page (PositioningArea)
  - File organization
  - Hyphenation / language settings
  - Using fonts
  - Text formats
  - Text formatting
  - Colors
- Programming
- Image inclusion
- Tables
- Advanced topics
  - Bookmarks
  - Creation of XML structures
  - Print output / crop marks
  - Using CSS with the speedata Publisher
  - Groups (virtual objects)
  - Virtual pages
  - Rotation of contents
  - Sorting data
  - Wrap around images
  - Page types
  - Starting the Publisher via the Hotfolder
  - Lua-Filter / pre-processing
  - Schema validation
  - Quality assurance and PDF comparison
  - Troubleshooting / Debugging
  - Server mode (REST API)
  - Control of the layout when calling the Publisher
- Cookbook
  - Thumb index
  - Embed multipage PDF files
  - Layout optimization using groups
  - Imitate bulleted lists
  - Automatically generated directories
  - Create table of contents in one go
  - Page numbers: Page x of y
- Installation instructions
- File name in the Publisher
- speedata Publisher defaults
- Running the speedata publisher on the command line
- How to configure the speedata publisher
- Lenghts and units
- XPath- and Layoutfunctions
- Internal variables
- Associate XML editor with schema
  - Visual Studio Code
  - OxygenXML
  - Atom
- Changelog
- Glossary
- Command reference
  - A
  - Action
  - AddSearchpath
  - AtPageCreation
  - AtPageShipout
  - AttachFile
  - Attribute
  - B
  - Barcode
  - Bold
  - BoldItalic
  - Bookmark
  - Box
  - Br
  - Case
  - Circle
  - Color
  - Column
  - Columns
  - Compatibility
  - Contents
  - Copy-of
  - DefineColor
  - DefineColorprofile
  - DefineFontalias
  - DefineFontfamily
  - DefineTextformat
  - Element
  - Fallback
  - Fontface
  - ForAll
  - Frame
  - Grid
  - Group
  - Groupcontents
  - HSpace
  - Hyphenation
  - I
  - Image
  - Include
  - Initial
  - InsertPages
  - Italic
  - Layout
  - Li
  - LoadDataset
  - LoadFontfile
  - Loop
  - Makeindex
  - Margin
  - Mark
  - Message
  - NewPage
  - NextFrame
  - NextRow
  - NoBreak
  - Ol
  - Options
  - Otherwise
  - Output
  - Overlay
  - Pageformat
  - Pagetype
  - Paragraph
  - PDFOptions
  - PlaceObject
  - Position
  - PositioningArea
  - PositioningFrame
  - ProcessNode
  - Record
  - Regular
  - Rule
  - SaveDataset
  - SavePages
  - SetGrid
  - SetVariable
  - SortSequence
  - Stylesheet
  - Span
  - Sub
  - Sup
  - Switch
  - Table
  - TableNewPage
  - Tablefoot
  - Tablehead
  - Tablerule
  - Td
  - Text
  - Textblock
  - Tr
  - Trace
  - Transformation
  - U
  - Ul
  - Until
  - URL
  - Value
  - VSpace
  - While

- Dieses Handbuch auf Deutsch

# Hello, world!

This page was automatically translated. Stay tuned for a human translation…​

The classic: “Hello, world!” Or: what does a simple document look like? As already described, the input for the Publisher consists of two files: the data file and the layout file. Both must be in XML format and must always be available. The data file is saved under the name data.xml and the layout file under layout.xml. These two files are best created with an XML editor, a simple text editor like Atom or Textmate is sufficient for the first steps.

| If you want to try the “Hello World” example yourself, you can simply call `sp new helloworld`. This creates a directory with the two necessary files. So you can start immediately and create a PDF in this directory with the `sp` command.

The data file for the “Hello World” example is named `data.xml`:

    <data>Hello world!</data>

That is enough for the simple example. The layout file is a bit more extensive (save as `layout.xml`):

    <Layout
      xmlns="urn:speedata.de:2009/publisher/en"
      xmlns:sd="urn:speedata:2009/publisher/functions/en">

      <Record element="data">
        <PlaceObject>
          <Textblock>
            <Paragraph>
              <Value select="."/>
            </Paragraph>
          </Textblock>
        </PlaceObject>
      </Record>
    </Layout>

These two files are stored in an otherwise empty directory. On the command line, change to this directory (with `cd <directory name>`) and call the Publisher with the command

    $ sp

on. The `$` character is intended to represent the prompt and is not entered. If everything goes smoothly, the result is a PDF file named `publisher.pdf` in the same directory.

| For Windows users: if the publisher cannot create the PDF, this is sometimes because the same file is still open in a window. This can be Adobe Reader, but also Windows Explorer.

## The “Hello World!” example explained

Here follows a short explanation of the two files. The data file can be structured as you wish, as long as the content is well-formed XML (see glossary).

    <data>Hello world!</data>

The layout file is a bit more complicated, at least at first sight.

    <Layout  ①
      xmlns="urn:speedata.de:2009/publisher/en"
      xmlns:sd="urn:speedata:2009/publisher/functions/en">

      <Record element="data">  ②
        <PlaceObject>  ③
          <Textblock>
            <Paragraph>
              <Value select="."/> ④
            </Paragraph>
          </Textblock>
        </PlaceObject>
      </Record>
    </Layout>

① The root element is called `Layout` and has the namespace `urn:speedata.de:2009/publisher/en`. The second namespace is necessary for the built-in functions, but is not used in the example. (Tip: nevertheless always specify it in the layout, so that there are no surprises later).

② Here the data processing starts. The root element of the data file is specified in the attribute `element`.

③ `<PlaceObject>` is the command to output things (texts, images, boxes, …​) into the PDF.

④ The dot at the select attribute means “the current element”, in this case the root element. The text value of the element is output here, i.e. the string `Hello world!`

We will not discuss more at this point. Rather, there is a reference to the corresponding chapters in this manual: Under File organization is described how the data file and the layout file are to be structured, and under Outputting objects the command `<PlaceObject>` is described.

- Introduction
- Basics