Re: Improving xsl stylesheet

[Fyodor <fyodor () insecure org>]

On Wed, Feb 01, 2006 at 11:29:24PM +0100, Benjamin Erb wrote:
> I'll have some free time in the next days so I'd like to improve the 
> stylesheet used for nmap.
> I already got some ideas what to change and to improve. For instance, 
> I'd like to make the
> stylesheet work with Transformiix (the current sheet got some problems 
> so I had to disable
> timestamp conversion on Mozilla-based viewers). Also the stylesheet for 
> printing could have
> a better layout. And  I also want to make the output more efficient.
>
> However, there are some general issues I am really note sure about.
> Should I add more comfortable functions based on JavaScript? Or should I 
> try to do strip
> anything but plain XHTML code?
> Should there be an unified simple style for all uses or should it 
> contain (more) special styles
> for screens, printers, handhelds etc.?
> Is there anything important missing in the current stylesheet or do you 
> have any suggestions?
>
> Once again, I'll stick to the current nmap.dtd shipped with the source 
> of the current release.

Hi Benjamin.  I'm glad to hear about your improvement plans for the
XSL.  It is an important component, which I mentioned quite
prominantly in the 4.00 release announcement.  Hopefully other people
will send their desires, but my suggestions are:

o Try to degrade gracefully.  Snazzy JavaScript may be helpful, but
  the fundamentals should still work on non-javascript browsers.

o I don't know that there are enough users to warrant a special
  handheld style.  If their handheld doesn't render the converted
  XHTML properly, they can always use the normal/interactive mode on
  their handheld until they gain access to a real computer.

o I would avoid requiring the availability of special images and the
  like -- it is nice to have the reports as portable as possible. 

o It would be nice to fix some of the times used.  My Firefox
  1.5-rendered version says things like "nmap was initiated at
  1138848144", even though Nmap has for a long time had an alternative
  string element too (start="1138848144" startstr="Wed Feb 1 18:42:24
  2006").

o For some reason, my Firefox won't load a remote stylesheet from an
  XML on the local hard drive.  Shrug, maybe this is done for security
  reasons or maybe it is just my installation.  But for whatever reason,
  I get a blank page when I try to view /tmp/test.xml, which was
  generated with --webxml.  But if I put the same file on my webserver
  and load it via http, it renders fine.  Or if I rerun the scan without
  --webxml, it renders fine straight from the filesystem.

o A optional view mode people could select which would put everything into one
  big spreadsheet/table, which includies the IP addresses as well as the
  info currently included in the ports table, would likely be useful.
  Especially if they could click a column to sort it.  But maybe this
  would be too much of a pain.

o Compatability is definitely very important.  Most of the features
should work on recent versions of Firefox and IE.  The basics should
(if possible) work on Safari, Opera, Lynx, etc.

Anyway, I look forward to your changes!

Cheers,
Fyodor


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