Re: XSLT on the server side

Hi,

Selon Antsnio Mota <amsmota@xxxxxxxxx>:

> Hi again:
>
> After playing around with xsl for some months, only on the client
> (browser) side, i'm beggining to evaluate the benefits of doing it
> also on the server side. Since i'm not a expert on this, i'll seek for
> help to the list. So here are some questions.

I'm not an expert but I'll be happy to give you my 2 cents if you will.

>
> What are the benefits of server-side transforms? How do i make then?
> Can i call a xslt directly on the server by xmlhttprequest or do i
> have to write some server-side component that wraps the xslt? (like a
> servlet or asp)

I suppose that using the XmlHttpRequest to fetch an XSLT document to then use it
on client side won't make any difference in the end :)

The question you ask has the same answer as asking for any other part of your
code in fact. Should you do the logic on client or server side? It's hard to
find the balance. I guess due to the lack of correct client side environment
development (understand lack of Javascript tools...) I still do a lot on server
side. Besides browsers handle so differently Javascript (Opera doesn't have
built-in XSLT support yet) that it makes really hard to ensure the code won't
break one way or the other.

XSLT processing can be CPU consuming but with some basic cache you'll improve
the situation a lot.

>
> I want to keep the server-side processing the most platform-indpendent
> as i can. However the company is using IIS and .Net, so how can i
> achive this?

When you use XSLT, it is your XSLT documents that matter and that's what makes
your application platform and language independant. They'll be processed the
same way regardless of which XSLT toolkit you might use.

>
> What processors can i use? Saxon .Net? Can i eventually port some
> server-side component that uses Saxon .Net to another platform using,
> say, Java and Saxon?

Saxon.NET is already a port of Saxon so be sure they'll work the same :)
But again, as long as your XSLT processor respects the W3 standards you don't
have to worry, they'll output the same result.

Note also that Saxon.NET works with Mono so your code will be as portable as it
can.

>
> I have more questions than i can formulate, so i'll stop here, but if
> someone has experince on such a porting, please let me know some
> insights.

Hope my 2 cents helped :)

- Sylvain
>
> Thanks.
>
>




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