# Cheat Sheet Content File XML Format

Version 3.2

This document describes the cheat sheet content file structure as a series of DTD fragments (machine readable XML schema).

## `cheatsheet`

    <!ELEMENT cheatsheet (intro, item+)>
    <!ATTLIST cheatsheet
      title               CDATA #REQUIRED
    >

The <cheatsheet> element defines the body of the cheat sheet content file. <cheatsheet> attributes are as follows:

- title - the title of the cheat sheet

## `intro`

    <!ELEMENT intro (description)>
    <!ATTLIST intro
      contextId           CDATA #IMPLIED
      href                CDATA #IMPLIED
    >

The <intro> element is used to describe the cheat sheet introduction to be displayed. The <description> subelement contains the body of the introduction. <intro> attributes are as follows:

- contextId - The optional help context id of the documentation for this cheat sheet. If supplied, context help for the given fully-qualified context id is shown to the user (typically in a small pop-up window) when they clicks the introduction's help link. If this attribute is supplied, the href attribute should not be supplied (href will be ignored if both are present).
- href - The optional help document describing this cheat sheet. If supplied, this help document is shown to the user (typically in a help browser shown in a separate window) when they clicks the introduction's help link. If this attribute is supplied, the contextId attribute should not be supplied (href will be ignored if both are present).

## `description`

    <!ELEMENT description EMPTY>
    <!ATTLIST description
    >

The <description> element holds the description of a cheat sheet or of a cheat sheet item. The description consists of text interspersed with simple formatting tags. The cheat sheet automatically formats and lays out the text to make it show up reasonably in the UI. Within the text, balanced <b>...</b> tags cause the enclosed text to be rendered in a bold font, and the <br/> element can be used to force a line break. These are the only formatting tags supported at this time (however, others may be added in the future). Certain characters in the text have special significance for XML parsers; in particular, to write "<", ">", "&", "'", and """ (quotation mark) instead write "&lt;", "&gt;", "&amp;", "&apos;", and "&quot;" respectively. Whitespace (spaces and line breaks) is treated as a word separator; adjacent spaces and line breaks are treated as single unit and rendered as a single space or a line break. Whitespace immediately after the <description> and <br/> tags is ignored, as is whitespace immediately before the </description> tag.

## `item`

    <!ELEMENT item (description ([action|perform-when] | (subitem|repeated-subitem|conditional-subitem)*))>
    <!ATTLIST item
      title               CDATA #REQUIRED
      dialog              ("true" | "false") "false"
      skip                ("true" | "false") "false"
      contextId           CDATA #IMPLIED
      href                CDATA #IMPLIED
    >

Each <item> element describes one top-level step in a cheat sheet. The <item> is either simple or composite. <item> attributes are as follows:

- title - The title of the cheat sheet item.
- dialog - dialog="true" means this step involves opening a modal dialog. This is a hint to the system that it should allow the user to continue using the cheat sheet while in the modal dialog.
- skip - skip="true" means that the whole step can be skipped; the UI generally shows a button that the user can press to indicate that they are skipping this step
- contextId - The optional help context id of the documentation for this cheat sheet step. If supplied, context help for the given fully-qualified context id is shown to the user (typically in a small pop-up window) when they clicks the step's help link. If this attribute is supplied, the href attribute should not be supplied (href will be ignored if both are present).
- href - The optional help document describing this cheat sheet step. If supplied, this help document is shown to the user (typically in a help browser shown in a separate window) when they clicks the step's help link. If this attribute is supplied, the contextId attribute should not be supplied (href will be ignored if both are present).

The org.eclipse.ui.cheatsheets.cheatSheetItemExtension allows additional custom controls for the item to be displayed in the UI. Contributions to this extension point declare the names of additional, string-valued attributes that may appear on <item> elements.

Simple items have a description and an optional action. In the typical presentation, the titles of cheat sheet items are shown to the user most of the time. An item's description is only shown while the step is in the process of being executed. The presence of an <action> (or <perform-when>) element is typically associated with a button that the user can press to perform the step's action. If no action is present, the step is one that the user must carry out manually and then overtly indicate that they have successfully completed the step.

Composite steps are broken down into sub-steps as specified by the <subitem> subelements. Unlike items, which the user must follow in strict sequence, the sub-items of a given item can be performed in any order. All sub-items within an item have to be attempted (or skipped) before progressing to the next item. (Which means actions that must be performed in a required sequence cannot be represented as sub-items.)

A <conditional-subitem> subelement allow a step to tailor the presentation of a sub-step based on cheat sheet variables whose values are acquired in earlier steps. A <repeated-subitem> subelement allows a step to include a set of similar sub-steps. Again, the exact set of sub-steps may be based on cheat sheet variables whose value are acquired in earlier steps.

## `subitem`

    <!ELEMENT subitem ( [action|perform-when] )>
    <!ATTLIST subitem
      label               CDATA #REQUIRED
      skip                ("true" | "false") "false"
      when                CDATA #IMPLIED
    >

Each <subitem> element describes a sub-step in a cheat sheet. A <subitem> carries a simple text label, but has neither a lengthy description nor further sub-items. <subitem> attributes are as follows:

- label - The title of the cheat sheet sub-item. If the string contains substring occurrences of the form "${var}", they are considered references to cheat sheet variables. All such occurrences in the string value will be replaced by the value of the corresponding variable in the context of the execution of the cheat sheet, or the empty string for variables that are unbound. The values of the variables are as of the beginning of the execution of the main step (when the <item> element is elaborated), rather than when the individual sub-step are run.
- skip - skip="true" means that the sub-step can be skipped. The UI generally shows a button that the user can press to indicate that they are skipping this sub-step.
- when - Indicates this subitem is to be used if and only if the value of the condition attribute of the containing <conditional-subitem> element matches this string value. This attribute is ignored if the <subitem> element is not a child of a <conditional-subitem> element.

Sub-items have an optional action. The presence of an <action> (or <perform-when>) element is typically associated with a button that the user can press to perform the sub-step's action. If no action is present, the sub-step is one that the user must carry out manually and then overtly indicate that they have successfully completed the step.

Unlike items, which must be followed in strict sequence, the sub-items of a given item can be performed in any order. All sub-items within an item have to be attempted (or skipped) before progressing to the next item. (Which means actions that must be performed in a required sequence should not be represented as sub-items.)

## `conditional-subitem`

    <!ELEMENT conditional-subitem (subitem+)>
    <!ATTLIST conditional-subitem
      condition               CDATA #REQUIRED
    >

Each <conditional-subitem> element describes a single sub-step whose form can differ based on a condition known at the time the item is expanded. <conditional-subitem> attributes are as follows:

- condition - Arbitrary string value used to select which child <subitem> will be used. If the attribute string has the form "${var}", it is considered a reference to a cheat sheet variable var, and value of the condition will be the value of the variable for the cheat sheet at the start of execution of the containing <item> element (or the empty string if the variable is unbound at that time).

The condition attribute on the <conditional-subitem> element provides a string value (invariably this value comes from a cheat sheet variable). Each of the <subitem> children must carry a when attribute with a distinct string value. When the item is expanded, the <conditional-subitem> element is replaced by the <subitem> element with the matching value. It is considered an error if there is no <subitem> element with a matching value.

For example, if the cheat sheet variable named "v1" has the value "b" when the following item is expanded

    <item ...>
      <conditional-subitem condition="${v1}">
         <subitem when="a" label="Step for A." />
         <subitem when="b" label="Step for B." />
      </conditional-subitem>
    </item>

then the second sub-item is selected and the item expands to something equivalent to

    <item ...>
      <subitem label="Step for B."/>
    </item>

## `repeated-subitem`

    <!ELEMENT repeated-subitem (subitem)>
    <!ATTLIST repeated-subitem
      values               CDATA #REQUIRED
    >

Each <repeated-subitem> element describes a sub-item that expands into 0, 1, or more similar sub-steps. <repeated-subitem> attributes are as follows:

- values - A string containing a comma-separated list of values. If the attribute string has the form "${var}", it is considered a reference to a cheat sheet variable var, and value of the condition will be the value of the variable for the cheat sheet at the start of execution of the containing <item> element (or the empty string if the variable is unbound at that time).

The values attribute provides a list of comma-separated strings; the <subitem> child provide the template. When the item is expanded, the <repeated-subitem> element is replaced by copies of the <subitem> element with occurrences of the variable "this" replaced by the corresponding string value.

For example, if the cheat sheet variable named "v1" has the value "1,b,three" when the following item is expanded

    <item ...>
      <repeated-subitem values="${v1}">
         <subitem label="Step ${this}.">
            <action class="com.xyz.myaction" pluginId="com.xyz" param1="${this}"/>
         </subitem>
      </repeated-subitem>
    </item>

then the item expands to something equivalent to:

    <item ...>
      <subitem label="Step 1.">
         <action class="com.xyz.myaction" pluginId="com.xyz" param1="1"/>
      </subitem>
      <subitem label="Step b.">
         <action class="com.xyz.myaction" pluginId="com.xyz" param1="b"/>
      </subitem>
      <subitem label="Step three.">
         <action class="com.xyz.myaction" pluginId="com.xyz" param1="three"/>
      </subitem>
    </item>

## `action`

    <!ELEMENT action EMPTY>
    <!ATTLIST action
      class               CDATA #REQUIRED
      pluginId            CDATA #REQUIRED
      param1              CDATA #IMPLIED
      ...
      param9              CDATA #IMPLIED
      confirm             ("true" | "false") "false"
      when                CDATA #IMPLIED
    >

Each <action> element describes an action in a cheat sheet. <action> attributes are as follows:

- class - The fully-qualified name of the Java class implementing `org.eclipse.jface.action.IAction`. If this action also implements `org.eclipse.ui.cheatsheets.ICheatSheetAction` it will be invoked via its run(String[],ICheatSheetManager) method and be passed the cheat sheet manager and action parameters. The pluginId attribute must be present whenever this attribute is present. It is strongly recommended that actions intended to be invoked from cheat sheets should report success/fail outcome if running the action might fail (perhaps because the user cancels the action from its dialog). (See org.eclipse.jface.action.Action.notifyResult(boolean) for details.)
- pluginId - The id of the plug-in which contains the Java class of the action class. This attribute must be present whenever the class attribute is present.
- paramN - For action classes that also implement `org.eclipse.ui.cheatsheets.ICheatSheetAction`, the string values of these attributes are passed to the action when it is invoked. You can pass up to 9 parameters to a cheat sheet action (param1, param2, etc.). The parameters supplied must start with parameter 1 and be contiguous; that is, it is illegal to specify param2 without param1 also being present. If the attribute string has the form "${var}", it is considered a reference to a cheat sheet variable var, and value of the condition will be the value of the variable for the cheat sheet at the start of execution of the containing <item> element (or the empty string if the variable is unbound at that time).
- confirm - "true" indicates this step (or sub-step) requires the user to manually confirm that the action has been completed.
- when - Indicates this action is to be used if and only if the value of the condition attribute of the containing <perform-when> element matches this string value. This attribute is ignored if the <action> element is not a child of a <perform-when> element.

## `perform-when`

    <!ELEMENT perform-when (action+)>
    <!ATTLIST perform-when
      condition               CDATA #REQUIRED
    >

Each <perform-when> element describes an action in a cheat sheet. <perform-when> attributes are as follows:

- condition - Arbitrary string value used to select which child <action> will be performed. If the attribute string has the form "${var}", it is considered a reference to a cheat sheet variable var, and value of the condition will be the value of the variable for the cheat sheet at the start of execution of the containing <item> element (or the empty string if the variable is unbound at that time).

The condition attribute on the <conditional-subitem> element provides a string value (invariably this value comes from a cheat sheet variable). Each of the <subitem> children must carry a when attribute with a distinct string value. When the item is expanded, the <conditional-subitem> element is replaced by the <subitem> element with the matching value. It is considered an error if there is no <subitem> element with a matching value.

For example, if the cheat sheet variable named "v1" has the value "b" when the following item is expanded

    <item ...>
      <subitem label="Main step">
         <perform-when condition="${v1}">
            <action when="a" class="com.xyz.action1" pluginId="com.xyz" />
            <action when="b" class="com.xyz.action2" pluginId="com.xyz" />
         </conditional-subitem>
      </subitem>
    </item>

then the second action is selected and the item expands to something equivalent to

    <item ...>
      <subitem label="Main step">
         <action class="com.xyz.action2" pluginId="com.xyz" />
      </subitem>
    </item>

## Example

The following is an example of a very simple cheat sheet content file:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <cheatsheet title="Example">
      <intro>
        <description>Example cheat sheet with two steps.</description>
      </intro>
      <item title="Step 1" dialog="true">
         <description>This is a step with an action that involves opening a modal dialog.</description>
         <action class="com.xyz.myaction" pluginId="com.xyz"/>
      </item>
      <item title="Step 2">
         <description>This is a fully manual step.</description>
      </item>
    </cheatsheet>

Copyright (c) 2004, 2005 IBM Corporation and others.
All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0 which accompanies this distribution, and is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html