Re: [xsl] Planning for a xml/xslt Website

["M. David Peterson" <conners_dad@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Geoff,

The simpler way would be to take asp, php, coldfusion, etc... out of the 
picture and just use the client to transform your pages.  In a perfect world 
this would be a perfect solution.  However, as you said, you have no say as 
to whether or not the end user has the capabilities.  This mean simply that 
you must do the transform on your side.  Transforming on the server couldn't 
be easier and ASP, PHP, and ColdFusion make the process childs play.

I can understand your concern of complexity of the files outweighing the 
simplicity of the process.  But I have been down this road before and I can 
promise you with no hesitation that the complexity is worth absolutely every 
temporary bout of confusion that you will undoubtedly encounter along the 
way.  But once you realize just how powerful XSLT is at rendering your data 
you will never return.  And, if you build your XSLT files with the idea that 
you want to be able to let the client to the work at some point down the 
road youll be thanking yourself forevermore when that day finally arrives.

In the mean time, bite the bullet and keep in mind that what you can do with 
3 lines of XSLT can take 15, 20, 30, etc.... lines of ASP or PHP or blah, 
blah, blah...(calls to the database, open and closing the connection, 
reading, writing, and sorting the data, etc...)  For transforming data there 
IS NO BETTER SOLUTION than XSLT.  You will also find that the structured 
syntax will be a welcome blessing as you compare it to the syntactically 
challenged server side processing languages you are used to.

I came from an EXTREMELY heavy ASP development background.  I now develop on 
top of .NET which is an excellent platform.  But as excellent of an 
development framework as .NET is XSLT is that much better. After all is said 
and done every variable is passed to my XSLT files through XslTransform and 
I let XSLT works its rendering magic.

You will get used to the complexity and it will become an afterthought.  Don't 
give it another thought... MAKE THE SWITCH! ;)

Best Regards,

M.David


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Geoff Hankerson" <ghank@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 11:01 AM
Subject: [xsl] Planning for a xml/xslt Website


> I've become convinced using xml, xslt, and css is the way I want to
> build Web sites.  I'm looking for a few suggestions on best practices.
>
> Background:
> My server side varies depending on the site I might be working on. In
> some cases it's ColdFusionMX, others asp or php.
> The xml for a given page might come from an xml file, remote feed or a
> database query converted to an xml string on the fly. I will probably
> do the xslt transformation on the server because browser support is too
> iffy at this point.
>
> Here is my question:
> Each page of the site could potentially have a coldfusion or php file,
> and xml file and in some cases an xslt file and css file. I would  make
> sure my pages share xslt and css style sheets. I know the whole point
> of using xslt and css is to build components of a site that can be
> reused, but the potential for exceptions always exist.  So I have an
> xml file, a script (cfm, php, jsp or asp) file, and perhaps an xslt and
> css file for one page. Have I really maintaining my site and code
> easier? I've separated presentation from content so that helps a lot.
> But up to 4 files for one Web page? Is there a better way?
>
>
>  XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
>
> 

 XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list