Re: How do you deal with HTML in Perl? (Russ: XML->XSLT?)

I now work in a heavily XML-oriented workplace. The latest idea floated around my little world is to have perl write XML (holding your data structures), then use XSLT to transform that into HTML.

(Just completing the thought: your XSLT translation can now exist completely separately from the code, allowing a "web" developer to just deal with the output data, without needing to understand the intricacies of perl - at least that's how it was presented to me)

Avoids useless (expensive?) templating
separates data from presentation

Not sure I'm sold on this, BTW, but it has its merits.

The downfalls:

Developers must now use (and be somewhat familiar with) XML and its tools
"Web" developers have to be familiar with XSL as well as HTML presentation
If one person wears both hats (perl coder and web developer), you now have three "technologies" to understand all-at-once

Russ
Brainbench 'Most Valuable Professional' for Perl

Comment on Re: How do you deal with HTML in Perl? (Russ: XML->XSLT?)

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Re: Re: How do you deal with HTML in Perl? (Russ: XML->XSLT?) by jk2addict (Chaplain) on Jul 25, 2002 at 00:48 UTC
Along this line of thought, checkout AxKit. In a nutshell, it's an application framework in which you can 'bind' or map (a gross generalization) html/xml tags onto Perl modules ('taglibs'), thus keeping your logic seperated from your look and feel. While the designers may need to be familiar with XSLT/XSL, they also get the chance to be a programmer in ways that most WYSIWYG editors and non-programmers can deal with. I can get anyone to write `<cart:add item="SKU123" quantity="1"></cart>` instead of intermixing Perl and HTML/XML. -=Chris	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: How do you deal with HTML in Perl? (Russ: XML->XSLT?) by tomhukins (Curate) on Jul 26, 2002 at 14:26 UTC
My experience suggests XSLT has its merits but healthy scepticism is useful. We've discussed XSLT, templating and related issues many times here: you'll find interesting material by typing XSLT, templating and other similar words into the search box at the top of each page. I recommend the discussion in XSLT vs Templating?, XSLT vs Templating, Part 2 and Why is Perl so bad with XML? as a starting point.	[reply]