[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: XML for Preferences
Looks interesting. You could extend this to store the prefs in XML also, by using the schema in my CGI::XMLForm module. It stores the form element names as XSL/XQL-like queries, and creates XML based on the form. For an online example see http://sergeant.org/cgi-bin/cvedit.pl (and do a view-source to see what's going on). Matt. -- http://come.to/fastnet Perl, XML, ASP, Database, mod_perl, High Performance Solutions perl -e 'print scalar reverse q(\)-: ,hacker Perl another Just)' It's Matt. See http://sergeant.org/notmatthew.txt > -----Original Message----- > From: Dave Winer [SMTP:dave@u...] > Sent: Sunday, May 16, 1999 3:28 PM > To: xml-dev@i... > Subject: XML for Preferences > > We've come up with another excellent use for XML, to specify the interface > for a web-based preference system. > > There are a lot of reasons why XML is the right choice here. First, it's > understandable to people who write documentation. That means that the > preferences wizard has a hope of being understandable to newcomers, since > the system developer doesn't have to write the help text, and the work > doesn't even need to be coordinated. The interactive part is just software, > interpreting the content which is specified in XML. > > Also, you can render the same specification in a variety of different > formats. For now, we're rendering as HTML, but it could just as easily be > rendered in Flash, DHTML or as a Visual Basic "wizard". The concepts and > the content are the same, but the engine running the content doesn't have > to be. > > Further, if there were an agreement on how to specify preferences systems > we could switch our deployment from Frontier to PHP or Zope or Oracle or > Vignette, or whatever, and a lot of our content would just move with us by > moving the preferences spec. > > In other words, this is an important place where a standard, defacto or > standards-body-based, would enable growth and eliminate lock-in. > > ***Where we're at with this > > We have a running system at http://prefs.userland.com/. This is a live > system, to access it you must be a member of userland.com, which is open to > the public. > > If you're not a member, go to this page: http://logon.userland.com/, go > thru the logon sequence, get the password via email, it should be > self-explanatory. > > Sorry, there's no way to use this system without being a member. We won't > do anything with your email address other than store it along with your > password and preferences. > > ***Show me the XML! > > Now, there are two ways to see the XML spec behind this system. First you > can directly access the XML page, thru this URL: > > http://prefs.userland.com/outline.xml > > Or you can see a screen shot of the editor: > > http://discuss.userland.com/msgReader$6316 > > Important point: Any XML editor can be used to edit this text. It does not > have to be our outliner, which is a good XML editor. Any tool that can > produce XML output will work fine. > > ***How to think of this > > It's a very lightweight thing. Any HTML coder can learn how to do this. > It's not as powerful as Mozilla's XUL, but then it's a lot simpler than > XUL. We looked at XUL before doing this, thinking perhaps that it would be > a good starting point. We decided that it introduced a lot of unnecessary > complexity for the people doing authoring, writers, explainers, users. > > We're doing this in the open. Maybe someone else wants to build on this > idea? If so, please let me know. The spirit of XML is building on each > others' work, that's why I keep telling you guys what we're doing. > > Keep diggin! > > Dave Winer > UserLand Software > > xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev@i... > Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/ and on CD-ROM/ISBN 981-02-3594-1 > To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@i...> the following message; > (un)subscribe xml-dev > To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message; > subscribe xml-dev-digest > List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@i...) xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev@i... Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/ and on CD-ROM/ISBN 981-02-3594-1 To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message; (un)subscribe xml-dev To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message; subscribe xml-dev-digest List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@i...)
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