Hi Bertrand As you maybe remember, this level of SOC is a main topic of my job. Although I do not understand all details of the attribute-based transformation, I actually see the following limitations (L) and disadvantages (D):
L) The HTML-template to XSLT transformation is limited to one "level" of data access (i.e. what do you do if you want to process XPATH expressions that are in the XML-data stream?). L) How would you solve case specific (if) rendering within a for-each="..."? D) I'm not sure if the web designers would be very happy to work with a mixed XSL/XPATH syntax, that's not familiar to them (i.e. <div apply-templates="node()"/> or <h2>[EMAIL PROTECTED]</h2>). D) This approach needs an additional transformation step. In my opinion for the web designer it would be enough if they would have basic tags of procedural logic like <ctpl:if/> and <ctpl:for-each> bundled with unlimited XPATH capabilities. I'm currently porting my "static" template language based on XSLT/XPATH 1.0 to XSLT/XPATH 2.0. As soon it is mature I will make it available for reflection to this list. </Raffaele> > -----Urspr�ngliche Nachricht----- > Von: Bertrand Delacretaz [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Gesendet: Freitag, 10. Dezember 2004 11:28 > An: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Betreff: Templating: experiments with Conal's html-to-xslt transform > > (ccing users@ as I'm sure many subscribers there could contribute to > this experiment as well, please discuss on dev@) > > I've been playing [1] with Conal Tuohy's transform [2], to generate > XSLT transforms based on simple attribute-based templates (HTML in this > case, could be whatever) and I like it very much. > > Converting attribute-based templates to XSLT instead of processing them > directly is fairly easy to implement, easy to use for the template > writer yet powerful by giving access, when needed, to all XSLT > constructs. And the syntax of attributes like for-each or > apply-templates *is* XSLT, so Bob can ask Alice for help when needed > ([3]). > > There's more info, including source code, on the wiki [1]. Feel free to > use this page as a poor man's source code control system for improving > this, if people like it we might want to include this our distribution? > > Compared to Conal's version, the current version allows "element > templates" to be defined in the HTML template, they are similar to XSLT > templates but much easier to write. I think this adds a lot of power > while allowing the template to remain concise and modular, and "fairly" > editable in visual tools. There has to be a compromise somewhere I > think, converting XML data to HTML or another format *is* programming > at some stage, the "100% visual" paradigm does not work for this in > today's world IMHO. > > Comments/opinions/enhancements/flames are welcome (well, maybe not > flames but if you think this sucks I'm all ears ;-) > > -Bertrand > > [1] http://wiki.apache.org/cocoon/HtmlToXsltExperiments > [2] http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=xml-cocoon-dev&m=110246247525208&w=2 > [3] http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=xml-cocoon-dev&m=110231970204971&w=2 --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
