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RE: Guidance on XML in Objects vs. Iframes vs. complete rendering in xslt

2003-03-05 17:36:12
http://www.netcrucible.com/xslt/einclude.htm


I dislike object and iframes because of portability issues.  I use the
referenced stylesheet to build recursively compound documents like you 
describe.  It is pure XSLT and works in Netscape or IE client-side.



-----Original Message-----
From: bix xslt [mailto:bix_xslt(_at_)hotmail(_dot_)com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 12:23 PM
To: XSL-List(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com

All,

This is more of a design question.  I have come up with a scenario
where
I
would really like to display my data in several different ways using
various
xslt transformations.  The various transformations together form a
nice
GUI
environment where I (and my team) can quickly access the information
we
are
most interested in.  In addition, all of my data is on the client's
computer
and no access is required across the internet.

For instance, suppose the data in the XML file looks something like
this:

<obj>
  <obj label="requirements">
    <obj label="req_subset">
        <obj label="req_a"/>
        <obj label="req_b"/>
        <obj label="req_c"/>
        <obj label="req_d"/></obj></obj>

    <obj label="various_reqs"/></obj>

  <obj label="design">
    <obj label="design_artifacts"/></obj>

  <obj label="etc">
    <obj label="moreElements"/></obj>
</obj>

I might want to display a menu (e.g. transform sampleFromAbove.xml
using
menu.xslt) which creates a something of the effect:
- requirements
   + req_subset
   * various_reqs
+ design
+ etc

I might want to display an index of the various items contained
within
the
nodes (i.e. index.xslt).  I might also want to display the current
path
in
another portion of the view (i.e. path.xslt produces
requirements->req_subset->req_a).  Another example may be that I
would
want
to create a small section of the web view where the data could be
queried
for a particular label.  The end result would be a compact, useful
view
that
all uses that original data file.

The question is where does it make sense to transform this data?  Do
I
make
all of the transformations at the top node, and then, using <div>
elements
produce my desired output?  Do create the html page first, and then
fragment
the xml data into the different types (i.e. menu, path, index,
search,
etc.)
with each producing its own html?  If I do the latter method, does
it
make
sense to have embedded xml objects or iframes?

At a future point in time, I may wish to update the menu code so
that I
can
display either a vertical or horizontal display of the data.
Perhaps
I'd
like the index information to reference only the child nodes as
opposed
to
the entire tree.  In other words, I want the environment flexible
enough
that it can be extended (hence the various groupings of .xslt
files).  I
have noted that iframes allow me to produce a "space" on the screen
where
I
would have scrollbars (something that will become significant as my
data
grows), allowing me to keep the displayed material compact, and yet
still
be
flexible to increased amounts of data.

Finally, is there any reference material that anyone might be able
to
point
me to for this type of design work?

Thanks in advance!
bix

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