Re: Cocoon written in PHP

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 06:49:14 -0700

Thanks for the links. Most of the Paloose site is very orthogonal as far as content, structure and style is concerned. I make heavy use of div and span. I intend to put a how2 written with my son (a graphic designer responsible for my other sites, and a good few others, as well as being a DeviantArt member) on the whole process of using Paloose in this way.

One problem is the differing behaviour of all the browsers, especially flavours of IE :-( . For example IE can have strange problems with divs and it is better to use tables for the layout structure. Not ideal, but we have been both caught like this before. Divs are certainly great but must be used with care. Please be patient while I put the how2 together.

Looking at the two articles you sent me was interesting. Keeping the syle, structure and content is easily done in Paloose or Cocoon. I keep the XML strictly describing the content with concepts such as paragraphs, headings, lists, links, quotations, foreign words etc.  To take an example of the paragraph in my content:

<t:p>Paloose is a simplified (much simplified) version of ... </t:p>

There is nothing here that indicates the final look (obviously). The relevant template

<xsl:template match="t:p" mode="inline-text">
      <xsl:element name="div">
         <xsl:attribute name="class">normalPara</xsl:attribute>
         <xsl:apply-templates mode="inline-text"/>
      </xsl:element>
</xsl:template>

 translates this into a simple HTML div

<div class="normalPara">Paloose is a simplified (much simplified) version of ... </div>

Again no style information yet - only a structure which may be placed on the page. The final bit is the CSS file which  defines how paragraphs should look and, if necessary their position, for example

.normalPara {
background-color: #d2cab5;
color: #66766d;
font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
padding: 10px 0px 0px 0px;
font-size: 11px;
line-height: 18px;
}

Sorry if all this is stating the obvious but it does illustrate the orthogonal approach that I use for all my sites. The only problem is when different bits of structure appear on different pages. This can only be done with the XSLT which has the necessary functionality. Not a problem as it is still considered structure. Different houses uses different bricks but not what colour they are, if you see what I mean. Having said all this I have a small confession to make on the Paloose site :-) that in one place I do not currently do it like this (emphasized text), although it will be changed shortly.

This approach has always been a good way for my son to concentrate on just the style issues and he only concerns himself with the CSS file which he can create/edit using other tools.

Regards

Hugh


On 6 Aug 2006, at 00:50, Antony Quinn wrote:

On the subject of templating, I've recently been experimenting with
"style-free stylesheets" as pioneered by Eric van der Vlist
[http://tinyurl.com/kk6on]. Andreas Hartmann wrote a good article about
using the technique in Cocoon

Style-free stylesheets are a good way to separate HTML from XSLT, and so
are ideal for working with graphic designers who don't know or don't
want to know about XSLT.

Cheers,

Antony

Bertrand Delacretaz wrote:
On 8/4/06, Hugh Field-Richards <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
....If you have a link to point me towards a site describing
what you are referring to, I will have a look....
I was thinking of templating systems like Smarty,
http://smarty.php.net/ - AFAIK there are several such templating
systems that are popular in PHP circles (but I know little about PHP
in practice).
What I'd find interesting would be an example of how people could get
data via an HTTP/XML interface, process it with Paloose if needed, and
at the end of the pipeline generate the final presentation using such
templating systems.
My use-case is a Cocoon--based CMS where "junior" people currently
write presentation layers using sitemaps and XSLT. Having a
well-integrated PHP-based solution that does not require the use of
XSLT would be an interesting alternative.
-Bertrand



---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]


=================================
Dr H.S. Field-Richards
MIEE MIEEE CEng BSc PhD
www.hopvine-music.com

Reply via email to