Re: XSLT vs JSP

[thomask@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Thomas Kwan)]

I think the original author is asking for the
advantages and disadvantages between XML/XSL
and JSP. Both technologies can be used to
generate HTML as well as XML.

To put you into context, I am doing a project
where my application (a servlet) does some
calculation based on the input parameters. It
will map the result (some Java objects)
into XML objects, and call lotus XSL engine
to generate the HTML output based on the XML
objects and a XSL template file.

Here is my XML/XSL experience from implementing such
thing.

Advantages of XML/XSL:
(1) Layout Code Portability
    In the XML/XSL model, the application converts the
    language-specific objects (i.e. in C, Java) into XML objects
    which is then passed to XML/XSL engine (i.e. lotus XSL) to
    generate the HTML. This extra transformation guaratees the
    portability of the XSL code.

Disadvantages of XML/XSL:
(1) The specification is not finalized. Changes will happen.
(2) Not Enough Authoring Tools, if any
    The point of using XML/XSL is to separate application logic and
    UI logic. It is very hard to find powerful authoring tools
    such as Dreamweaver, FrontPage that support XSL.
(3) XSL is marketed as a declarative language, and is not as
    powerful as language like Java. UI designer needs to may need to
    complex transformation that XSL cannot handle.
(4) Yet another language, more syntaxes to learn
    If you are a small shop where you are the application developer
    as well as the UI designer, you need to master 2 languages
    instead of 1.

Advantages of JSP:
(1) No extra transformation from Java Object to XML. It means faster.
    In case the desired end result is XML instead of HTML, JSP
    can handle that too.
(2) Authoring tool and application server vendors supports JSP.
    For example, Drumbeat generates JSP. At least, that is what
    they said in Java One.
(3) UI developer can access all the facilities in Java environment
    during the transformation.
Disadvantages of JSP:
(1) The layout (.jsp file) is Java specific. It assumes your
    application speaks Java.



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