Metadata-Version: 2.4
Name: yxf
Version: 1.1.0
Summary: Convert from XLSForm to YAML and back
Author-email: Jonas Wagner <jonas@purpureus.net>
License-Expression: BSD-2-Clause
Project-URL: homepage, https://github.com/Sjlver/yxf
Project-URL: documentation, https://github.com/Sjlver/yxf
Project-URL: repository, https://github.com/Sjlver/yxf
Project-URL: Bug Tracker, https://github.com/Sjlver/yxf/issues
Keywords: xlsform,xlsx,odk,pyxform
Classifier: Topic :: Utilities
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3
Classifier: Operating System :: OS Independent
Requires-Python: >=3.9
Description-Content-Type: text/markdown
License-File: LICENSE
Requires-Dist: markdown-it-py>=2.0
Requires-Dist: openpyxl>=3.0
Requires-Dist: strictyaml>=1.6
Dynamic: license-file

# Convert from XLSForm to YAML and back

yxf (short for **Y**AML **X**LS**F**orms) is a converter between XLSForms and
YAML files. With yxf, you can store forms as text-files. This brings a number of
advantages to managing many forms. For example, you can store forms in version
control, view differences between two forms, and easily share updates between
multiple forms.

## Usage

To convert an XLSForm to a YAML file: `python -m yxf form.xlsx`.

By default, the result will be called `form.yaml`, in other words, the same name
as the input file with the extension changed to `.yaml`. You can specify a
different output file name using the `--output othername.yaml` option.

To convert a YAML file to an XLSForm: `python -m yxf form.yaml`.

Here's a screenshot showing the YAML and XLSForm version of a form side-by-side:

![YAML and XLSForm version of a form](https://github.com/Sjlver/yxf/blob/main/docs/yxf-yaml-and-xlsx-side-by-side.png)

### Using Markdown

yxf can generate and read Markdown instead of YAML. The format is taken from
[md2xlsform](https://github.com/joshuaberetta/md2xlsform). This can be useful if
you would like something more compact than YAML, e.g., to paste into a community
forum.

To use Markdown, add a `--markdown` argument to the yxf invocation:

```shell
# Will generate form.md
python -m yxf --markdown form.xlsx
```

## Installation

Get the latest version from the GitHub repo:

```shell
python -m pip install yxf
```

## Features

### Comments in forms

yxf encourages adding comments to XLSForms. It uses a special column labeled `#`
to that end. Other tools ignore this column, so that it can be used for
explanations that are useful to the readers of the `.xlsx` or `.yaml` files.

### Pretty spreadsheets

yxf tries hard to make the XLSForm files look pretty:

- Groups and repeats are highlighted. Each top-level group gets its own color,
  and groups nested inside it get darker shades of that color. Blank rows
  separate each group from what surrounds it.
- HTML markup inside labels and hints is shown in a dimmed, fixed-width font, so
  that the text a respondent will actually read stands out from the tags.
- Columns that hold expressions, names, and comments each get their own style,
  and column widths are set to fit their content.

It is possible to use yxf just for that purpose, without intending to store
forms as YAML files. To do so, simply convert a form to YAML and back:

```shell
python -m yxf form.xlsx
python -m yxf -o form-pretty.xlsx form.yaml
```

### Supported sheets

yxf converts the `survey`, `choices`, `settings`, `entities` and
`external_choices` sheets. Any other sheet in a workbook, such as the
documentation sheet in the template from xlsform.org, is ignored.

## Validating the form

yxf does not deeply validate forms. If you'd like to make sure that a form is
semantically valid, you can use the `xls2xform` command from the `pyxform`
package:

```shell
python -m pip install pyxform
xls2xform form.xlsx
```

## Development

yxf is still being developed. Feedback and contributions are welcome.
Please open issues in the [issue tracker](https://github.com/Sjlver/yxf/issues).

Please run all of the following before committing:

- Format the code: `black .`
- Run unit tests: `pytest`
- See lint warnings (and please fix them :)): `pylint yxf`

To publish on PyPI:

- Increment the version number in `pyproject.toml`.
- Run `uv build`.
- Upload using `python -m twine upload dist/*`.
