xsl-list
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [xsl] XSL:FO Vs Reporting Tools

2011-10-16 00:27:46
very valuable, thanks

On 13 October 2011 16:09, G. Ken Holman 
<gkholman(_at_)cranesoftwrights(_dot_)com> wrote:
If all of your formatting requirements are met by both XSLT/XSL-FO and
Jaspersoft, then you will have to try and leverage "soft" benefits:

(1) - multiple independent vendors of XSLT/XSL-FO engines, thus not having
single supplier problems (should, say, the supplier stop supporting the tool
you are using)
(2) - multiple independent sources of XSLT/XSL-FO training and resource
materials (for example we sell books on XSLT and XSL-FO and a video on XSLT
(which includes a copy of the book))
(3) - multiple applications of XSLT/XSL-FO expertise to other areas of your
business (should, say, you wish to produce technical manuals that are not
created by a "report generator") will leverage any investment you make in
learning XSLT/XSL-FO or buying XSLT/XSL-FO technologies to other areas of
your company

You may wish to play up the features of XSL-FO, such as flexibly adding
hyperlinks to your reports, alphabetized indexes and tables of content, etc.
if these are features not available with JasperSoft or are not easy or
flexible to use.

I'm assuming that since you are looking at XSLT that your source content is
already in XML.  Compare and contrast working with XML from C++ and C to
working with XML from XSLT and XQuery:  XSLT is designed *for* XML and its
expression language manifests the result you want by using XML syntax.  This
is unlike programming languages where XML is an add-on to the language
accessed through a subroutine library.  I would far more trust the integrity
of the transformation of XML and its result when using XSLT and its inherent
XML than trying to make sure I remembered to do everything right for XML
when using another programming language.

Just some thoughts.  I don't always win the fight with the above arguments
as it is difficult to sway adherents of other languages who fail to see the
light about XML and XSLT.  Then again, I just get called a proselyte for
having adopted XSLT and being preachy about it.  I do know that I've been
called in after the fact to clean up their messes when they make 11th hour
changes to their Java or C++ that mess up things like Unicode encodings or
markup constraints.  The "oh, I didn't think about that", or "oh, I didn't
know about that" are weak defensive arguments when they originally claimed
they didn't need XSLT because they could do everything they needed in the
______ language.  I don't have to think about it because XSLT and XQuery are
built by and for XML.

I hope this helps.  I think you'll find it an uphill battle, but the battle
won will be a big benefit to your company and not just in report writing.

. . . . . . . . . . Ken

At 2011-10-13 15:50 +0100, Vasu Chakkera wrote:

Guys,
I am in a situation where I am having to advocate that xsl:fo is
great( what a pity!!)  .. Some one came up with jaspersoft (
http://www.jaspersoft.com/ ) and is hell bent on thinking that XSLT is
error prone ( I guess they come from a hard core c++, c background)
and they do not think that XSLT is a great Idea. I tried to reason
with my colleagues that if XSLT were error prone, most publishing
companies will go crashing down and most Banks will go out of
business. These guys agree , but there are some business decision
makers who believe that XSLT is a no no .. I have made a document
listing the sooper gud things ... but need to know... has anyone tried
this jaspersoft thing and is there any points I can get from peoples
experiences on why we should go to Jaspersoft and not do XSL:FO.. I am
trying to get some points that i can add to my advocacy document.
Vasu


--
Contact us for world-wide XML consulting and instructor-led training
Crane Softwrights Ltd.            http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/s/
G. Ken Holman                   
mailto:gkholman(_at_)CraneSoftwrights(_dot_)com
Google+ profile: https://plus.google.com/116832879756988317389/about
Legal business disclaimers:    http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/legal


--~------------------------------------------------------------------
XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
To unsubscribe, go to: http://lists.mulberrytech.com/xsl-list/
or e-mail: 
<mailto:xsl-list-unsubscribe(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com>
--~--





-- 
Vasu Chakkera
NodeLogic Limited
Oxford
www.node-logic.com
==============

--~------------------------------------------------------------------
XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
To unsubscribe, go to: http://lists.mulberrytech.com/xsl-list/
or e-mail: <mailto:xsl-list-unsubscribe(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com>
--~--

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>