RE: [xsl] Help: Reasons to use XML/XSL ?

Subject: RE: [xsl] Help: Reasons to use XML/XSL ?
From: Rod Humphris - FLPTN <rod.humphris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 15:42:44 +0100
Hi Jarrell

I started off doing what you are doing, only in the Microsoft environment
(what is now classic asp). Reading through ADO datasets to make html. This
is why I've moved to xml/xslt.

Why xml:
1. It's very easy to cache, either in memory or on disk and I like caching
as as far a I can see it's the easiest way to get speed.
2. It's easy to manipulate. You can add bits to it from other sources to
give you a one complete set of data for whatever it is you are doing, or if
necessary perform operations on it to change it if for some reason it's not
in the form you want.
3. Working, as I do, in a place where the data comes in many forms from many
different sources converting it all into xml distributes the complexity away
from the point of building the interface. I have always found it very quick
and easy to roll my own if the storage system doesn't do it for me.

Why xslt:
1. Once you get used to it it's simpler and more powerful than the other
way. Doing simple stuff like making html tables from data is really really
quick and easy.
2. If you do have to do complex stuff then it's better for that too. Xslt
gives you the ability to do totals, results of combinations, change the
display under this or that circumstance, etc, much less laboriously than
classic asp.
3. Speed of execution. I have found that when there is some real work to be
done msxml4 will do it faster than the alternatives open to me, certainly
faster than some complex script.
4. Reusability. Even if it's only copy/paste reusability, because the
presentation code is so much better separated from the data it's really easy
to build up a library of templates, xpath constructs, etc that you can
reuse.

And then for the cake:
I like building web apps that (from the users point of view anyway) have
only one url. Remembering that xslt is xml and itself easy to manipulate
with xslt or dom code, it's perfectly possible, indeed practical, to have
one asp/aspx page which has a resource of many interfaces (real(on disk) or
virtual(created on the fly) (probably cached)) and many data sources which
map together to form a whole application. Sort of an application that
generates itself in response to the users input (according to rules of
course).

I know that sound complicated, and possibly mad, but it is fun and can give
you a really slick and fast result.

Cheers

Rod

-----Original Message-----
From: Jarrell Dunson [mailto:Jarrell_Dunson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 19 May 2004 14:16
To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [xsl] Help: Reasons to use XML/XSL ?


Hey, 

Thanks ahead of time to each of you for reading this. 
 
I'm an XSD, XML, XSLT Newbie....and am trying to learn the process.
However, I really need some input - not from a programming perspective,
but from a philosophy and usage perspective. 


For instance, I'm a current user and programmer of Perl...using SQL, CGI,
and Perl DBI for pulling information from an Informix Relational Database.
 I'm able to pull data out of a database quite easily...via Perl
DBI/SQL...and format it with Perl into quality HTML pages. ..and the
process is rather efficient.  

For HTML, I can build the pages via wriing the code myself, or using Perl
script, etc,  I can also, at times, use a text editor (or text editor
assistant / html formatter) to build basic html and modify it as needed. 
[Instead of coding a table by hand, for example, I'll use an editor
assistant (such as Dreamweaver, or Notetab) to create all the code for a
3x4 table...and then modify and/or populate the HTML as needed]. 

So for this process, I'm going from database ...via Perl script...to HTML.


In learning XSD, XML, XSLT, however, I just don't see the advantage of it?
 What more does XSD, XML, XSLT give me as a programmer? 


For me to do the same steps....to go from a database to web page, it seems
to me that I have to take three [or four] more major steps...each
involving a more complicated process. From my beginner perspective, I have
to build a XSD...and then a matching XML - based upon the XSD (validating,
etc.).  For output, I have build the output leg, XSLT (transforming the
XML, etc)....to get the same results.  I just don't see the advantage.
 
In my current programming, I'm using one scripting process
	
	DATABASE -->  [1] Perl/DBI (using SQL) --> To HTML/Web Page


In using XML, I need  three (or four) processes: 
  
	[1] Build XSD first.  Then:  DATABASE --> [2] Perl/DBI (using SQL)
--> To
XML.  Then, 
	[3] Build an XSLT --> [4] Transform the XML via XSLT --> HTML/Web
page


Isn't this far more complicated? 

Granted, I could see advantages if I were outputting my data in different
ways...say, one of my outputs was for the Internet, another for a PDA,
another for an RSS feed....etc.

OR, I could possibly see  advantages [per the claims I've heard from big
corporations] if I were a great business enterprise...and all my data
needed to be standard...and I needed to use my own mark-up language -
though I'm not fully convinced of this. 

But for simple processes....from database to web, I just don't get it  It
seems far more complicated, and [other than buiiding my resume skills]
raises the question if it's worth...  

So, for an uneducated newbie, can you help?  I've learned XSD...and
XML...and am working on the XSLT, but I haven't seen enough to "buy into
it".  What's the real benefit of learning and using XSD, XML, AND XSLT?  -
especially over a simple process like Perl/DBI....and why ? 




THANK YOU ahead of time, 

Jarrell
 


Jarrell R. Dunson, III
Asbury Theological Seminary
Administrative Computing Coordinator
Jarrell_Dunson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(859) 858-2379 (direct)
(859) 858-2330 (fax)


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