/Open Source/ Publish data dynamically
01/02/2008 | Filed under Develop > Open Source
XSL transformations enable you to style and lay out XML data on-the-fly. This month, Karl Hodge uses the open source editor HTML-Kit to show you how it’s done
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to incorporate XML marked-up data dynamically into a web page with an XSLT style sheet, using nothing more complex than the open source HTML editor, HTML-Kit.
XSLT stands for Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations. It’s an XML language that lets you add raw data to a page, transforming it into readable HTML. While you can do this with PHP, ASP and other server-side scripting languages, XSLT has one crucial thing going for it: the transformation takes place client-side. There’s no need to use a database server; everything is done in XML within your browser. This is a powerful content-handling technique to add to your toolkit, because once created, you only ever need to update the XML data file to change a page. You can also replace the file entirely, as long as you retain the original filename and dependencies. Many modern database applications enable you to output data in XML format, so you could easily use this method to manage your data in future.
About the author:
Name: Karl Hodge
Occupation: Journalist
Areas of expertise: Interface design and development
Clients: nerve.com
Who’s the fastest: Speedy Gonzales or Road Runner? Road Runner
Click here to download the support files
Click here to download tutorial PDF
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Comments
Johan / 05/02/2008 / 13:14 / http://www.betaaladvies.nl
@ Karl Hodge, Can you explain me why this method isn't that much used on the web? I know just a handful of sites running on this technique. Though this technique is flexible, easy to use and multi language compliant. Or is there just something I’m missing here?
Anandkumar / 09/02/2008 / 08:07
Good i have studied something from this
Jessica / 14/02/2008 / 10:41
I think xml is infrequently used because it isn't simple to intergrate images.
dogsthat / 18/02/2008 / 00:20
Unfortunately I don't think HTML-Kit is open source, see the license here:
http://www.htmlkit.com/download/#license
:(
Karl Hodge / 03/03/2008 / 08:48
You're right, HTML-Kit 292 isn't open source - so a slap on my wrist for that. It is, however, still free to download.
Patra / 04/10/2008 / 14:54
Correct me if I'm wrong - but I was under the impression that client side transformations produce pages that browsers such as lynx have difficulty reading and so may have accessibility issues?
