EpiDoc Resources and Tools

The Markup List

The Stoa Consortium has assisted the EpiDoc Community in a number of ways since its earliest days. One of the most important aspects of this on-going collaboration is a listserv — called “markup” — that is used by the community to discuss questions of content, method, development and practice. This list is the focal point for all EpiDoc release announcements.

All interested parties are invited to join the Markup List by visiting the Markup List Archive Page.

EpiDoc IRC Channel

The EpiDoc Community maintains an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel to facilitate synchronous communication between its members. All active EpiDoc practitioners are highly encouraged to login to the channel as often as possible when doing so does not interfere in other work. In this way, questions can be answered quickly and Community interaction enhanced. Regular planning meetings are scheduled, and special-purpose meetings organized, in this virtual space.

Information about the EpiDoc IRC Channel, and common software and configuration requirements, is available from the IRC Channel article on the EpiDoc Documentation Wiki.

The EpiDoc Subversion (SVN) Repository

SourceForge provides us with access to a version control system called "Subversion". We have used this system to create a repository where EpiDoc developers can share and manage changes to code and documents, and can track the history of those changes. Anyone can use a web browser to examine the content of the repository via the EpiDoc SVN viewer, courtesy of SourceForge. An SVN client program can be used anonymously to check out the contents of the repository to a local file system for examination and customization. To modify content in the repository (i.e., "commit" changes so as to contribute your modifications back to the EpiDoc community), you will need not only an SVN client but also a SourceForge userid to which one of the EpiDoc SourceForge administrators has granted SVN commit privileges.

Users may also monitor changes to the content of the SVN repository via the following services from cia.cv:

• EpiDoc Development Events
• EpiDoc Development Events Feed (RSS)
• A cia.cv bot in the EpiDoc IRC Channel

Historical note: prior to 15 April 2008, the EpiDoc Community used a CVS respository from SourceForge. This has now been obsoleted in favor of the more flexible SVN offering. The Community is grateful for the work of Hugh Cayless in effecting the transition of its content from the old repository system to the new one.

The EpiDoc Guidelines

The EpiDoc Guidelines is a prose document intended to provide complete guidance for the application of TEI markup to the preparation of digital editions of primary source documents like inscriptions or papyri.The Guidelines are collaboratively authored under the auspices of a slightly hacked version of the same TEI customization that is distributed as the EpiDoc DTD; however, work is underway to replace this method with a custom RelaxNG schema that will also function as a TEI P5 ODD from which a future P5-compliant version of the EpiDoc schema will be generated (browse: schema-gl).

Copies of The EpiDoc Guidelines can be obtained in one of the following ways:

• Latest release:
  • Online (in HTML), courtesy of the Stoa Consortium
  • As a downloadable packages of XML and/or HTML files, courtesy of SourceForge
• Raw, development versions:
  • Via checkout from the EpiDoc SVN Repository, courtesy of SourceForge (browse: guidelines)

Documentation Wiki

The EpiDoc Documentation Wiki is meant for the collaborative authoring and reviewing of documentation on core EpiDoc concepts, tools, and recommendations. All EpiDoc Community members are encouraged to participate in the creation of documentation, even if only by entering individual questions or concerns into the wiki, which then may be addressed by others. If you would like to edit this Wiki, please contact the Markup list with your request and you will be issued with the password.

Users can monitor changes to the documentation wiki via:

• EpiDoc Documentation Wiki RSS Feed

Planning Wiki

The EpiDoc Roadmap Wiki is meant for the collaborative development of priorities, plans and schedules for EpiDoc software, documentation, tools, meetings and so forth. All EpiDoc community members — particularly developers and project directors — are encouraged to participate in the establishment of community-wide priorities and plans, via this wiki and regular meetings on the EpiDoc IRC Channel.

Users can monitor changes to the roadmap wiki via:

• EpiDoc Roadmap Wiki RSS Feed

EpiDoc Example Files

A number of example XML files are available for inspection by those interested in the EpiDoc approach. Some of these files are distributed with the EpiDoc Web Application (inside the “prj” subdirectory), others are distributed in a separate EpiDoc Example File collection, described here. Some of the EpiDoc Projects also distribute their source files from their websites. Upgrading and diversifying the example files is a current development priority of the EpiDoc Community; however, users of the example files should always remain alert to the age and origin of a given file. The EpiDoc DTD has gone through a number of changes over the years, and continues to be an active development focus. Older example files are unlikely to validate against the current DTD.

Copies of the EpiDoc Example Files Collection can be obtained in one of the following ways:

• Current, stable “release” versions:
  • As a downloadable package, courtesy of SourceForge
• Raw, development versions:
  • Via checkout from the EpiDoc SVN Repository, courtesy of SourceForge (browse: xml-examples)

The EpiDoc Document Type Definition (DTD)

At present, the EpiDoc Guidelines make recommendations in accordance with the P4 version of the TEI Guidelines. A customized DTD, created using the TEI Pizza Chef, provides for coordinating editorial control and document validation. Planning is now in progress to update EpiDoc for conformance with the newer P5 release of the TEI. As dates for this transition are finalized, they will be reported via the markup list.

Copies of the EpiDoc DTD can be obtained in one of the following ways:

• Online reference copies of all past releases of the DTD are available online, courtesy of the Stoa Consortium
• Current, stable “release” versions:
  • As a downloadable package, courtesy of SourceForge
• Raw, development versions:
  • Via checkout from the EpiDoc SVN Repository, courtesy of SourceForge (browse: dtd)

The EpiDoc “Standard” Stylesheets

A series of modular XSLT stylesheets, together with accompanying CSSs, provide for the transformation to HTML of EpiDoc documents. These are also used to prepare HTML versions of the EpiDoc Guidelines. These stylesheets perform the necessary conversions to produce the human-readable versions of EpiDoc, using the familiar Leiden conventions.

Copies of the EpiDoc Standard Stylesheets can be obtained in one of the following ways:

• Current, stable “release” versions:
  • As a downloadable package, courtesy of SourceForge
• Raw, development versions:
  • Via checkout from the EpiDoc SVN Repository, courtesy of SourceForge (module name: epidoc-xsl; note that an earlier version, called basic-style, is deprecated and unmaintained)

The Chapel Hill Electronic Text Converter (CHETC)

The Chapel Hill Electronic Text Converter is a software tool designed to convert digital texts that employ standard typographic editorial conventions into EpiDoc-compliant XML files. A series of regular expressions are applied to the source document and the results are placed into a “shell file” (i.e., a template), which can be customized in advance. The regular expressions are stored in a separate configuration file to permit customization, but this file is generated from regular expressions embedded in the EpiDoc Guidelines source files. This arrangement permits robust automated and user-driven self-tests within the EpiDoc webapp and facilitates a high degree of coordination across EpiDoc tools. Prior versions exist (MSAccess + VBA and Java, both now deprecated), but more recent development has focused on a JavaScript version that will run without plugins in a modern web browser. Work is now in progress on an entirely new and more powerful incarnation of the tool, realized in the python programming language. This version is currently in development to support the conversion of the Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri to EpiDoc format, and will be released back to the EpiDoc Community by midsummer 2008.

Copies of the Chapel Hill Electronic Text Converter can be obtained in one of the following ways:

• Current, stable “release” versions:
  • Online, courtesy of the Stoa Consortium
  • as a downloadable package, courtesy of SourceForge
• Raw, development versions:
  • Online, courtesy of the Stoa Consortium
  • Via checkout from the EpiDoc SVN Repository, courtesy of SourceForge (browse: chetc-js; note that earlier versions, the chet-c and chet-c-java modules, are deprecated and unmaintained)

Crosswalker: EpiDoc Exporter Tool

Crosswalker is an experimental software toolset for converting EpiDoc XML documents to other formats; i.e., to comma-separated-value (CSV) text, or to XML governed by another schema. Users create an XML file (the “crosswalk file”) that maps (or describes) the relationships between components of the EpiDoc XML file and components of the targeted format. An XSL transform interacts with the crosswalk file to produce a separate, custom XSL transformation file that can then be used to convert EpiDoc documents to the desired format. Data may be replicated and combined from one or more elements in the source file to a single field (or element) in the output. Multiple source locations (indicated with XPath expressions) and hard-coded default values (if the XPath fails) may be specified. String replacements, value substitutions (for, e.g., vocabulary conversions) and user-supplied XSL transformations may be performed on the data by supplying the appropriate information in the crosswalk file. This tool is still under preliminary development, although most features for production of CSV are fully implemented.

Copies of Crosswalker can be obtained in the following way:

• Raw, development versions:
  • Via checkout from the EpiDoc SVN Repository, courtesy of SourceForge (browse: crosswalker)

The EpiDoc Cocoon Web Application

The Apache Cocoon Web Development Framework, with the addition of Schematron support, is used to develop, test and deploy the EpiDoc Guidelines, Example Files and Standard Stylesheets. It also provides potential users with a basic, EpiDoc-ready deployment environment that can be quickly downloaded and incorporated into a new or existing Cocoon installation.

Two versions of the EpiDoc Web Application are available:

The Transcoder

Transcoder is a Java class that maps font encodings to one another and allows encoding shifts such as Beta Code to Unicode and the reverse. It was written to support shifting between different encodings for Ancient Greek, but is extensible to support any character set. Supported encodings include Beta Code, Unicode with precomposed characters (Form C), Unicode with combining characters (Form D), GreekKeys, SPIonic, and transliterated Greek.

Copies of the Transcoder can be obtained in one of the following ways:

• Current, stable “release” versions:
  • As a downloadable package, courtesy of SourceForge
• Raw, development versions:
  • Via checkout from the EpiDoc SVN Repository, courtesy of SourceForge (browse: transcoder)