Re: Re[2]: XML+XSL Workflow Advice?

["Robert Koberg" <rob@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> > 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).
>
> So are you currently making use of Flash 5's XML capabilities to read in
XML?
> Passing parameters from XSL stylesheet to a Flash SWF?

Director and Flash play (and can maintain state) on the client.  So what you
do is download the XML file into and parse it to create an XML content
object. In director it is  more difficult to create the object (you have to
make your own - the XML parser just creates a monster property
list/multidimensional array) but you can do ALOT with director. With flash
the XML object is created automatically and is much more user friendly to
access especially since Flash is now based on ECMAScript (very similar to
javascript)

Yesterday (or was it this morining...) I said we style the content. I did
not mean to say we use XSL for this.  All manipulation of the XML content
(which is now converted into an object) happens in the runtime of the app on
the client.

A cool thing about this is you can read AND WRITE the xml file on the client
(manipulating it any way you need). The when they are all finished you can
upload the document to the server (or write it locally if that is what is
wanted)

> > 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.
>
> How exactly do you make use of this xml file?

I point the perl script or Java app to the config file. It reads the
hieracrhy and pages to assemble the necessary pieces to do the
transformation.  This way I can type a command and do something else for a
hour (more or less) while it is pre-generating.

If I am using it for a dynamic site we load the config file into memory.
Then the java and DB guys take over and send me back a well-formed XML page
that contains all the necessary XML along with the config info.

The main reason we do this is to keep our site/company specific stuff out of
an Standards compliant XML structure (Docbook or IMS for us)

> How might I make use of something
> like that in a JSP->XML->XSLT environment?
>

So your stuff is mostly dynamic (generated at runtime).  You could use a
config file to keep nav info (toggle-on-off ), image info, mainly stuff you
want to have organized but not necessarily in your content. The config file
can also represent you site's folder hierarchy - so you can traverse the
tree to find path info.

Perhaps you JSP pulls out the appropriate section of the config file and
places that in the XML you create.  But it sounds like you guys handle this
in the JSP code. Half a dozen of one, six of the other...


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