Re: XML+XSL Workflow Advice?

[Robert Koberg <rob@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I hope this thread gets some play - very interested in hearing how others do
it.

In addition to XSL, I use Macromedia's Director and Flash (both of which we
use to style XML content).  I work for the Design Studio in our (500 person)
company. I work closely with server-side java developers, Oracle consultants
and Interwoven consultants (all from differnet departments). We manage our
content workflow through Interwoven (content entry through deployment).  We
manage code with CVS (invaluable).

I genrally work from a spec'd out Photoshop file, html storyboards (just
simple, basic html walk through of the site - so styling or graphics), and
possibly some kind of html demo (styled, with graphics, but not really
functional).

I usually create a "siteconfig.xml" file that lays out the site
hierarchically down to the page level. At each hierarchical level are things
like global elements such as page navigation. At the page level I mark-up
page specific information like pointers to any XML that makes up the page
and the XSL that will style it.  This is either precompiled at server
startup for dynamic sites or used later with a Perl script or java app to
generate offline.

A useful thing is a "globaldefinitions.ent" file that holds global
variables. For example:
<!ENTITY srv_uri "http://www.myserver.com>
<!ENTITY img_uri "&srv_uri;/images">
etc....
Then you just need to reference the entity: <img
src="&img_uri;/myimage.gif"/>

We are only doing 4th generation-browser-compatible sites. We make use of
CSS. We check with JavaScript whether the client machine is MacIE5,
(otherwise) Mac, or Win32 and give an appropriate stylesheet (unix/linux
gets basic, default everything).

thanks for starting the thread,
Rob



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