XML is a way to store data in a structure format that is correct and is platform independent; meaning u can share data with anything that understands xml format.
For web applications xml allows you to send data to the client and have the browser do the parsing for you. (I would suggest ie5.5 and ns6.0 browsers if you are doing client-side parsing). If you are doing server-side php parsing then i would suggest using domxml+domxslt or using xslt (sablotron). Then you can parse the xml doc, get xhtml(html) and send that to the user. The benefits are seperation of logic and presentation in your php. All presentation code should be in your xslt style sheets and all logic should create a data document (xml). This allow you to change the presentation with out changing logic. -- BigDog On Tue, 2003-07-08 at 04:26, Petre Agenbag wrote: > Hi List > > Firstly, this question is arguable more about XML than PHP, but they are > interlinked, so I hope it is "topical" for this list. > > Firstly, Where I come from: > > I am VERY comfortable with PHP/MySQL on Linux and understand all those > concepts. > > Now I'm trying to see the benefits of XML, and quite frankly, I just > cannot see why one would want to use it... > > Anyway, I don't want to start a discussion on that from. > > I have done extensive reading on XML/XSL(XSLT : XHTML), DTD and XML > parsing on browser and server side. > > I arguable still don't have a 100% understanding of exactly how things > fit together, but the little bit I think I got so far is: > > I would use an XML doc to package my data in a structure. > This XML file is "useless" on it's own, and good for transporting data > to another app or client. > Should I need to do something with the data, I would look at XSL and in > particular XSLT in order to convert the XML into XHTML so a browser can > display the data ( so we can safely assume that I am only interested in > the web applications of XML) > > This is where I'm starting to get a headache, because now it seems that > there are browser issues wrt XSL, and one also have the added choice of > parsing the XML with the browser or on server level. > > For me, parsing it on browser level must be a no-no, as I would assume > that it's would take alot of effort to find out what type of browser the > client has, then load the appropriate XSL file for that browser. > > So, I'm here, with the server side XML parsing in mind. > > Now on M$ systems, it seems that IIS has built in ActiveX XMLDOM parsing > built in, and you can "easily" parse the XML document by using ASP etc. > > So can I assume that this is also true with PHP/Apache, ie, Apache has a > built in XML parser and I can use PHP fnuctions to parse my XML file on > the server side and thus "pump" out XHTML that is compatible with all > past and future browsers? > > Also, what is the procedure that most of you (members of the PHP lists) > follow when dealing with XML. ie, do you go for the client side parsing > or do you do server side parsing. And how do you decide when to use XML > and when to stick to trusty old PHP/MySQL? ( Sorry, know this is > probably the dumbest question I can ask, but I really battle to see when > to use it, or rather WHY I should use it seeing that the data is > arguably "static" in nature ( I would either get the XML file from > somewhere else, or I would generate it from some source and pass it on, > effectively creating a little data island/snapshot of the actual data at > a point in time?) > > Thanks for any input. > > > > -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
