Linefinder NPM

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µ.LINE: Distribute Lines across HTML iFrames

`µ.LINE`: Distribute Lines across HTML iFrames

How it Works and What it Does

`µ.LINE.Finder`

Configuration

linemarker_tagname ('mu-linemarker'): Which HTML tag name to use when drawing a rectangle for each line of text. These are normally transparent (hence invisible) but can be made visible for debugging.
linecover_tagname ('mu-linecover'): Which HTML tag name to use for the rectangles that are used to cover the first line of text in an iframe that is only partially visible. This will normally be without outline and opaque white to 'erase' the line in question, but can be made visible for debugging.
debug_class_name ('debug'): Which CSS class name to use on the body element for debugging.
line_step_factor (1 / 2): The relative minimum height to recognize a line step. When iterating over single characters in the text, the distance d = cy - ay from the bottom of the character cy and the average bottom of the line rectangle ay is compared with the average character height ch; if distance d is found to exceed the product ch * line_step_factor, then it is assumed the current character is the first one of the next line.
inject_stylesheet_after (null), inject_stylesheet_before (null): A prebuilt stylesheet can be injected into the current document. Since relative order of stylesheets is essential, two convenient methods are provided that accept either a CSS selector or a DOM element to determine the insertion point. For example, if you have a linked CSS-Reset stylesheet, you typically want to have that to be the first stylesheet with all the defaults; it would then be appropriate to call finder.inject_stylesheet_after 'link[href$="reset.css"]' with the default styles for the mu-linemarker and mu-linecover elements. Note that the selector can match one or more elements; only the first match will be considered.

The CSS rules defined in the injected stylesheet for iFrames, linemarkers and linecovers are:

/* for normal look: */
${linemarker_tagname} { ... }
${linecover_tagname} { ... }

/* for debugging: */
.${debug_class_name} iframe { ... }
.${debug_class_name} ${linemarker_tagname} { ... }
.${debug_class_name} ${linecover_tagname} { ... }

The debug button has these style selectors:

button#${debug_button_id} { ... }
@media print { button#${debug_button_id} { ... } }

Structure of a Document

two HTML files:
- the 'galley' document which contains a <mu-galley> element (user-defined tag with CSS display: block;); the nodes directly under this (and their child nodes) will be traversed by a µ.LINE.Finder instance in (hopefully) the intended reading order.
- the 'main' document which contains any number of <iframe> elements the src attribute of which should point to the same galley document.

Sample code:

µ.DOM.ready ->
  ### (1) ###
  cfg =
    paragraph_selector:         'mu-galley > p'
    iframe_selector:            'iframe'
    insert_stylesheet_after:    'link[href$="reset.css"]'
    insert_debug_button:        true
  #.........................................................................................................
  ### (2) ###
  if ( not µ.DOM.page_is_inside_iframe() ) and ( µ.DOM.select_first 'mu-galley', null )?
    distributor = new µ.LINE.Distributor cfg
    await distributor.mark_lines()
    return null
  #.........................................................................................................
  ### (3) ###
  return null unless  µ.LINE.Distributor.is_main_document()
  #.........................................................................................................
  ### (4) ###
  distributor = new µ.LINE.Distributor cfg
  await distributor.distribute_lines()
  return null

(1) Configuration values, valid for both the galley and the main document.
(2) Here we test whether the current document is the standalone galley document (i.e. not displayed inside an iframe). If so, instantiate a LINE.Distributor instance and mark lines; the linemarkers in the galley document are only for debugging and demonstration and so the call to distributor.mark_lines() may be skipped.
(3) Do not continue unless we are in main document.
(4) If in main document, instantiate a distributor and await the finishing of distributor.distribute_lines(). This call is asynchronous so can be watched live. The default style has transparent linemarkers and opaque white linecovers; when debugging is activated, their are displayed with translucent yellow and red backgrounds.

DB Backend for Persistence

Scroll offsets and coordinates of combteeth preserved in SQLite DB

`µ.LINE.Distributor`

Distributing Lines with iFrames: Pros and Cons

Pros

works

Cons

each iFrame establishes a new context, each iFrame loads entire galley document over again, so browser might need high amount of RAM
cannot highlight across iFrame boundary (in fact, can highlight text in each iFrame simultaneously)
even the very capable SingleFile extension does not preserve iFrame scroll offsets

To Do

– in Distributor::constructor, we create a Finder instance only to insert the Linefinder stylesheet; doing it this way means the document in the iframe gets multiple copies
– find better name for 'main' document (which contains the iframes with views into the 'galley' document)
– find better a name for the iframe elements (like 'window (to galley)'? 'view (of galley)'?)
– to simplify talking about document construction and to abstract from the implementation detail that we are using <iframe>s, consider to implement a custom element class. This would also give a chance to gloss over the somehat intricate iframe.contentDocument.documentElement &c shenanigans
- as described in