XML Templates...

[email protected] (Derek Neighbors - ATCX) Tue, 15 Feb 2000 10:41:47 -0700
Newsgroups	php.template
Message-ID	<DADA090C4A7FD3118DF200508B08F0CD02A5D8EE@maricopa_xcng0.maricopa.gov>
>  Hi.
> 
> My main goal with a template systeme is that I want the person using it to
> 
> have zero knowledge in programming. I want anybody knwoing HTML to 
> copy/paste a html page to the template system and get it dynamic in a
> minute.
> 
> What's a point in separating the code from the look of the site if it is
> to 
> make this look look like code too ? This restricts the person changing it 
> to the one understanding XML or at least programming.
> 
	[Derek Neighbors - OMBX]  

	Response Within.....

	In due course any HTML author will have to know XML.  That is the
way the world is going.  Wouldn't we rather be ahead of the curve than
behind it.  If you look at the spec anyone knowing HTML would have a short
jump to learn XML in this context.  As the tags are the same only with
extended properties.  And you can go back to HTML at any time.  Have you
seen Mozilla yet?  They are using XML in a similar fashion to author their
XUL content.  They expect people to readily jump from HTML to XUL.  This
would be no different.

	In one sense this almost makes programming obsolete for many simple
applications.  It dumbs PHP down to a Cold Fusion level.  By defining a few
tags to point to databases and build queries you simple then add a property
to the html.  We are still in the infant stages of the implementation so it
takes a little vision to see how it would work.  Perhaps the following
example would help.


<?xml version="1.0"?>
<document xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:jadeke="http://www.jadeke.org/2000/jadeke">

<jadeke:document xmlns="jadeke:x:html"
                 xmlns:html="jadeke:x:jadeke"
                 xmlns:php="jadeke:x:php">
  <html>
    <jadeke:database id="dbName" dbtype="mysql" host="server.test.com"
database="db_name" username="user" password="pass"/>
    <jadeke:dataset id="dsetName" src="dbName" />
    <jadeke:datasource id="dsrcName" src="dsetName" />
    <jadeke:query id="qryName" src="dsetName" sql="SELECT * FROM table" />
    
    <table>
      <tr>
        <td>
          First Name
        </td> 
        <td>
          Last Name
        </td> 
        <td>
          SSN
        </td> 
      </tr> 
      <tr>
        <td>
          <jadeke:printvalue colName="FNAME" src="dsrcName" />
        </td> 
        <td>
          <jadeke:printvalue colName="LNAME" src="dsrcName" />
        </td> 
        <td>
          <jadeke:printvalue colName="SSN" src="dsrcName" />
        </td> 
      </tr> 
    </table>
  </html>
</jadeke:document>

This of course is still a work in process but this sample should currently
work.  Please note that this will only bring back one record.  There are
ways around this currently that are a semi-kludge.  Where actual PHP code
could handle the while loop for example.  In the future however a simple
<while> tag could be implemented to accommodate this behavior.  However an
author could easily go and create the html document and a programmer could
add the properties to connect the data.  I think the real goal is to allow a
"non" programmer the ability to do some of the "easier" data binding.

Thanks,

Derek Neighbors
Administrative Technology Center
Lead Client Server Programmer/Analyst
Phone: 602-506-2273
Pager: 602-310-2428
Email: [email protected]