Reducing Web Site and Application Maintenance Using XML with ASP

1
Reducing Web Site and Application Maintenance
Using XML with ASP

• Paul Spencer
• Boynings Consulting
• paul.spencer_at_boynings.co.uk
• http//www.boynings.co.uk

2
AGENDA

• XML in 60 seconds
• How XML can ease maintenance
• 4 examples
• Consistent display from different sources
• Different displays from the same source
• Data entry form
• Using XML when neither the server nor browser
  supports it

3
XML in 60 seconds

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6

7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35 36
37 38 39 40 41 42
43 44 45 46 47 48
49 50 51 52 53 54
55 56 57 58 59 60
4
How XML can ease maintenance
5
How XML can ease maintenance

• Enforcing a common format
• Re-use of data
• Multiple display formats
• Common material in pages

6
Consistent display from different sources
7
Travel example
regional host
small local systems
server
users
remote hosts
8
Consistent display?

• HTML - no
• HTML CSS - not really
• XML
• Definitely
• And we can allow controlled variations

9
Different displays from the same source (1)
10
The original system
1200/75 bps dialup or 1200 bps leased line
travel agents
Viewdata (videotex)
11
The mark 1 web-based system
Web Server
travel agents
Active Server Pages (application and display)
Comms
12
The new system
Web Server
travel agents
Active Server Pages (application)
Comms
XSL (display)
13
Benefits of XML

• More reliable web applications
• Easier to customize
• Easier application maintenance

14
Different displays from the same source (2)
15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
Benefits of XML

• Automatically change drop-down lists
• Simple stylesheets for display
• Easy to customize stylesheets

19
Data entry form
20
Problems using HTML

• Problem
• Several hundred fields over many pages
• Users keep changing screen layouts
• Solution
• Define the pages and fields using XML
• Use XSL and the DOM to display them

21
Displaying a screen of data
repository (XML)
HTML
page descriptions (XML)
forms data
XSL
22
Benefits of this approach

• Simple to move data from one screen to another
• Simple to make global layout changes
• Data such as enumerated values are stored once
  in the repository and used in both the display
  and later for messaging

23
Using XML when neither the server nor browser
supports it
24
Boynings Consulting web site

• Three types of page
• Navigation and static pages to be browser
  independent
• ISP does not support XML (or ASP)
• I want to minimize my work

25
(No Transcript)
26
My solution

• Develop in XML
• Pre-process to HTML before upload

27
The static page tags
28
Docinfo element

• ltxsltemplate match"docinfo"gt
• ltHEADgt
• ltxslapply-templates select"description" /gt
• ltxslapply-templates select"keywords" /gt
• ltxslcommentgtCreated
• ltxslvalue-of select"/.//created/_at_day" /gt
• ltxslvalue-of_ select"/.//created/_at_month"
  /gt
• ltxslvalue-of select"/.//created/_at_year" /gt
• lt/xslcommentgt
• ltxslcommentgtLast modified
• ltxslvalue-of select"/.//modified/_at_day" /gt
  
• ltxslvalue-of_ select"/.//modified/_at_month"
  /gt
• ltxslvalue-of select"/.//modified/_at_year"
  /gt
• lt/xslcommentgt
• ltLINK rel"stylesheet" type"text/css"
  href"boynings.css" /gt
• ltxslapply-templates select"robots" /gt

29
Robots element

• ltxsltemplate match"robots"gt
• ltMETAgt
• ltxslattribute name"name"gtrobotslt/xslattribu
  tegt
• ltxslattribute name"content"gt
• ltxslvalue-of select"_at_content" /gt
• lt/xslattributegt
• lt/METAgt
• lt/xsltemplategt

30
Defined HTML elements

• ltxsltemplate match"TABLE TR TD SELECT
  OPTION MAP AREA A BR"gt
• ltxslcopygtltxslapply-templates select"_at_
  text()"/gtlt/xslcopygt
• lt/xsltemplategt

31
General HTML elements

• ltxsltemplate match"html"gt
• ltxslapply-templatesgt
• ltxsltemplate match" _at_ comment()
  text()"gt
• ltxslcopygt
• ltxslapply-templates select"_at_
  comment() text()" /gt
• lt/xslcopygt
• lt/xsltemplategt
• lt/xslapply-templatesgt
• lt/xsltemplategt

32
Handling script - XML

• ltscriptgt
• lt!CDATA
• function onLoad()
• var str,browser
• if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE 4") !
  -1)
• document.all("ie4").innerHTML 'ltA
  href"salesie4/sales.htm" target"_top"gtTry the
  systemlt/Agt'
• if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE 5") !
  -1)
• document.all("ie5").innerHTML 'ltA
  href"salesie5/sales.htm" target"_top"gtTry the
  systemlt/Agt'
• gt
• lt/scriptgt

33
Handling script - HTML

• ltSCRIPTgt
• //lt!--
• function onLoad()
• var str,browser
• if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE 4") !
  -1)
• document.all("ie4").innerHTML 'ltA
  href"salesie4/sales.htm" target"_top"gtTry the_
  systemlt/Agt'
• if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE 5") !
  -1)
• document.all("ie5").innerHTML 'ltA
  href"salesie5/sales.htm" target"_top"gtTry the_
  systemlt/Agt'
• //--gt
• lt/SCRIPTgt

34
Handling script - templates

• ltxsltemplate match"script"gt
• ltSCRIPTgt
• ltxslapply-templates select"_at_"/gt
• ltxslapply-templates /gt
• lt/SCRIPTgt
• lt/xsltemplategt
• ltxsltemplate match"cdata()"gt
• //ltxslcommentgtltxslvalue-of /gt//lt/xslcommentgt
• lt/xsltemplategt

35
The navigation frame XML

• lt?xml version"1.0"?gt
• lt?xml-stylesheet type"text/xsl" href"toc.xsl"?gt
• lttocgt
• ltentry href"main.htm" text"Home" /gt
• ltentry href"relation.htm" text"Relationship
  Management" /gt
• ltentry href"xml.htm" text"XML"gt
• ltentry href"book.htm"gtBook - XML Design and
  Implementationlt/entrygt
• ltentry href"x-eg.htm" text"Examples"gt
• ltentry href"x-eg1.htm" text"Multiple
  Outputs from an XML source" /gt
• ltentry href"x-eg2.htm" text"A
  Browser-based Sales System" /gt
• ltentry href"x-eg3.htm" text"XML for Data
  Collection /gt
• lt/entrygt
• ltentry href"x-tut-fr.htm" text"DOM
  Illustration" /gt
• ltentry href"x-links.htm" text"XML
  Resources" /gt
• ltentry href"seminar.htm"gtXML Traininglt/entrygt
• ltentry href"x-serv.htm" text"Boynings
  Consulting's XML Services" /gt
• lt/entrygt
• ltentry href"about.htm" text"About This Site"
  /gt
• ltentry href"profile.htm" text"Consultant
  Profile" /gt

36
The navigation frame
37
The entry template

• ltxsltemplate match"entry"gt
• ltDIVgt
• ltxslattribute name"Style"gt
• margin-left1em font-sizeltxslevalgt12-dept
  h(this)lt/xslevalgtpt
• lt/xslattributegt
• ltA target"right"gt
• ltxslattribute name"href"gt
• http//www.boynings.co.uk/ltxslvalue-of
  select"./_at_href" /gt
• lt/xslattributegt
• ltxslvalue-of select"./_at_text" /gt
• lt/Agt
• ltxslapply-templates/gt
• lt/DIVgt
• lt/xsltemplategt

38
Building the pages - page list

• lt?xml version"1.0"?gt
• ltfilesgt
• ltfilegtmainlt/filegt
• ltfilegtaboutlt/filegt
• ltfilegtxmllt/filegt
• ltfilegtcommercelt/filegt
• ltfilegtx-eglt/filegt
• ltfilegtx-eg1lt/filegt
• ltfilegtx-eg2lt/filegt
• ltfilegtx-eg3lt/filegt
• ltfilegtx-linkslt/filegt
• ltfilegtrelationlt/filegt
• ltfilegtseminarlt/filegt
• ltfilegtx-servlt/filegt
• ltfilegtprofilelt/filegt
• ltfilegtbooklt/filegt
• ltfilegttoclt/filegt
• lt/filesgt

39
The ASP code structure

• // get the set of files to process
• // start the display table
• // now transform each one and save it
• // get the XML file
• // if there is a stylesheet PI, get the
  stylesheet (otherwise use make.xsl)
• // load the stylesheet
• // process it
• // save the resulting HTML in the parent
  directory
• // end the display table

40
Getting the stylesheet name

• for (var j 0 j lt domSource.childNodes.leng
  th j)
• var current domSource.childNodes.item(j)
• if (current.nodeType 7
  current.nodeName "xml-stylesheet")
• var strPi stripSpace(current.data)
• var start current.data.indexOf("href")
  6
• var end current.data.indexOf(".xsl")
  4
• style current.data.substr(start,end-star
  t)

41
A successful make
42
Benefits of XML

• Easy to maintain navigation frame
• Single list of pages, even for browser-specific
  navigation
• Common text is in the stylesheet
• (could use entity substitutions in a DTD)
• I can redesign the site by changing a single
  stylesheet

43
Summary
44
Why use XML with ASP?

• XML eases the control of display formats for data
  from different sources
• XML makes it easy to customize displays
• XML allows us to use the same information in
  different places