Re: [xsl] Re: Lightweight XSLT based web framework

[James Fuller <jim.fuller@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Peter Gerstbach wrote:

>Thanks a lot for your suggestions, I will give them a try!
>  
>

It is odd that no 'website' xml micro format (with accompanying XSLT)
has never stuck or been attempted to become a primary standard. This is
related to the diverse problem domains that web applications and sites
cater for....also there are potentially endless debates about rewriting
what is essentially XHTML etc....I think the other reason for
non-adoption is the perception of benefit gained with validation from
some underlying schema...but thats another story.

one last suggestion;

personally, I would suggest something of the following as a lightweight
XSLT foundation;

* use a native xml db as a smart xml based file system, I use eXist
(dbxml variant) which gives u instant server side xpath/xquery querying
of collections and xml documents, REST/SOAP/XML-RPC/WEBDAV interface,
XSLT processing etc....

* define a simple xml/xslt distro, using a global xml and global xslt
(simple inheritance, dont get too complicated here!). Seperate XSLT into
a top level dir called _stylesheet and place all resources (images, css,
etc) under _resource...in any event keep things simple. Doing this right
will mean u can view xml/xslt on using either server side XSLT or client
side, which is very useful for development

* define a simple publishing workflow from native xml database to
generate all static pages (I prefer using Ant as a controller of such
processes, which integrates very nicely with eXist)

* server side dynamic queries can be made directly from db xml (eXist),
though I redirect requests using a little Apache rewrite magic....other
functional stuff, like PHP processing should be controlled with pre/post
processing at the apache layer

* static resources like images, css, etc should be served up using
something like thttpd

* data validation can be performed using relaxng in eXist and its REST
interface

its never been a better time to 'roll your own' system like this....and
if u need something in between Lenya/Cocoon/Zope/Plone/etc and simple
xml/xslt processing I have found this combination works well in a
continuous integration environment (keeping everything in svn, having a
software build using Ant, etc).

gl, and tell us how u get on. Jim Fuller