Subject: RE: [xsl] When *not* to use XLST... From: "Michael Kay" <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:19:15 +0100 |
I can't see anything in this list that's at all difficult to do in XSLT. >but the syntax to do takes a long time to discover by Google searches. Perhaps you need a better strategy for learning the language. Buy yourself a good book, and read it. Michael Kay http://www.saxonica.com/ > -----Original Message----- > From: shawn.milo@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:shawn.milo@xxxxxxxxx] On > Behalf Of Shawn Milochik > Sent: 23 April 2009 19:51 > To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: [xsl] When *not* to use XLST... > > I'm writing an online application (as in a form you fill > out). When printed, it's about 30 pages long, so the site has > to be modular. I'm putting sections of it into XML files and > having XSLT process the controls (text boxes, etc.) into HTML forms. > > XSLT is fantastic for allowing me to define XML and then > create dynamic text boxes, check boxes, and radio buttons. > However, it gets more complicated as need to add some > advanced features. I'm wondering if I should just create a > (programming) class to handle my XML pages and have my > back-end code read the XML directly and create the dynamic > HTML instead. > > Below are a few things I need to do. My question is whether > these things are easy or straightforward enough in XSLT, or > whether I should just be writing server-side code to do all > this. As I said earlier, I'm brand-new to XML (as of about > two weeks ago), and have just pieced a bunch of things > together from Google searches to get it working so far. I > wouldn't really say I "know" XSLT -- only that I have "been > using" XSLT. > > 1. For some controls, I want to automatically create > additional controls. An example would be a table which, when > generated, would also need a set of text boxes (one per > column in the table), which would be used to edit data within > a table row, or add a new row. > > 2. If I have many simple controls in a row, for example 15 > checkboxes, I'd like to have them two or three per line, > rather than one per line. > Of course, it has to gracefully handle a number of items > which doesn't divide evenly by the desired number per line. > > 3. Some XML nodes of the same type may have some, but not > all, possible attributes. The HTML for one case can be > different than another. > > It seems that XSLT is designed to turn XML data into a > formatted document, rather than use XML data to create > dynamic forms, and maybe I should just be writing code. I > just wanted to check in with the list to see whether the > problem is more due to my lack of knowledge about XSLT than > limitations of XSLT. If that's the case, let me know, and > please recommend the best book for becoming a proficient user of XSLT. > > A final note which may help clarify what I'm asking for: The > two most challenging problems I've had so far were how to get > the value of an attribute of a parent node in the XSLT > section that processes the child, and how to check to see > whether any of the child nodes had a specific value in a > named attribute when processing the parent node. > Both are trivial to do with a class in a programming language > by just accessing a property or method. To be fair they're > trivial in XSLT as well, but the syntax to do takes a long > time to discover by Google searches. > > Thanks, > Shawn
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