I'm looking at proposing a single-layout system for all our reports (and possibly exports) where I work. The system is in Perl and I figured that there had to be some CPAN solution out there. However, there are 1095 modules with the word 'Template' in their name. I haven't even started the list for 'Layout'.

The problem is this - I want a single layout from which, given data, I can choose to generate HTML, PDF, XLS, XML, char-delim, fixed-width, etc. Essentially, I want to separate layout from format.

It seems obvious that XML is the way to go, but I wanted to know if there was any other system out there. (Plus, I don't like the speed hit of XSLT to create HTML, which is going to be the most common format used.)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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In reply to Is XML the only generic layout system out there? by dragonchild

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