Rotated text in table cell rendered above cell not within

Question

I have the following template to generate a table defined:

<xsl:template name="CreateTable">
    <fo:block>
        <fo:table border-style="solid" table-layout="fixed">
            <fo:table-body>
                <fo:table-row>
                    <xsl:for-each select="Table/Head/Cell">
                        <fo:table-cell border-style="solid">
                            <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="." /></fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                    </xsl:for-each>
                </fo:table-row>
                <xsl:for-each select="Table/Row">
                    <fo:table-row>
                        <xsl:for-each select="Cell">
                            <fo:table-cell  border-style="solid">
                                <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="."/></fo:block>
                            </fo:table-cell>
                        </xsl:for-each>
                    </fo:table-row>
                </xsl:for-each>
            </fo:table-body>
        </fo:table>
    </fo:block>
    <fo:block margin-top="10pt"/>
</xsl:template>

Now I want to rotate the text in the first row by 90 degrees so it is to be read from bottom up.

The best solution I came up with is to:

• set a reference-orientation="0" on <fo:table>:

  <fo:table border-style="solid" table-layout="fixed" reference-orientation="0">
  

• enclose the <fo:block>...</fo:block> within the <fo:table-cell> with a <fo:block-container> rotated by 90 degrees:

  <fo:table-cell border-style="solid">
      <fo:block-container reference-orientation="90">
          <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="." /></fo:block>
      </fo:block-container>
  </fo:table-cell>
  

The text is rotate but the height of the first row is effectively 0 and the text is displayed above the table overlaying previous text:

When defining a specific height for the cells of the first row, the text is still before the table and not within the first row:

How can I position the text within the cells of the first row and have the height of the row computed automatically depending on the longest text within the row?

Confessional

Which formatter are you using? – Hock

In your XSL, count the characters for each table header and come up with a formula that sets the right height. Set it and place the content. Or if your want text to break for longer items, pick a height. The formatter is not going to guess what you wish. – Cammie

@TonyGraham I'm using apache-fop. – Athanasius

@KevinBrown That's for the cell height, i.e. the second problem. The main problem is the positioning of the text blocks. – Athanasius

I'm facing same problem. Noticed that setting text-align on block to end/outside makes things better (text is within table cell), but it seems to be just a side-effect... – Zoilazoilla

Also, setting precise width and height on fo:block-container forces text to be within table cell. But that's not a generic solution, as every table cell might have different size... – Zoilazoilla

When text-intent is set to 0mm and text-align to end/outside, text is 100% within table cell, but incorrectly formated (0pt from table cell border and aligned to wrong table cell edge). – Zoilazoilla

Answer 1

Text displaying outside the table: the fo:block inside the table cell may be inheriting settings like a left margin from an enclosing block.

The cell height problem I haven't seen before, in Antennahouse Formatter you can rotate cell content and IIRC the cell will be resized appropriately.

Submarginal

Answer 2

I had a similar issue that I was able to resolve by adding a margin-top to the block container for the header. And from what I can tell, the header cells resizes itself accordingly:

        <block-container>
                <xsl:attribute name="margin-top" select="'5em'"/>
                <xsl:attribute name="margin-bottom" select="'.75em'"/>
                <xsl:attribute name="reference-orientation" select="'90'"/>
            <block padding=".25em">
                <xsl:apply-templates select="node()"/>
            </block>
        </block-container>

Properly rotated header using @margin-top

Isiahisiahi

Answer 3

This is my attempt for the dynamic height. You can look for the yes a better factor...for my claims satisfied this rudimentary approach.

There are certainly much more precise and better solutions, but I think it is the right direction. Thanks to @Kevin Brown comment.

<xsl:for-each select="dischargeBudgets">
    <xsl:variable name="cell_height">
        <xsl:value-of select="string-length(.) * 2.2"/>
    </xsl:variable>
    <fo:table-cell padding="2px" height="{$cell_height}mm" width="6mm"
               text-align="end"
               border-style="solid">
        <fo:block-container reference-orientation="90">
            <fo:block white-space="nowrap">
                <xsl:value-of select="."/>
            </fo:block>
        </fo:block-container>
    </fo:table-cell>
</xsl:for-each>

Renascence