XML driven sites, well-formed and valid documents.

kgun · #1 (**permalink**) 04-13-2007, 09:41 AM

Web 1.0 was / is about tagging by using html. HTML has been extended to XHTML, a reformulation of HTML 4 in XML 1.0. A XHTML document has to be well-formed in the same way as a XML document.

More and more websites will be XML driven, where XML documents are transformed to the preferred format using XSL Transformations (XSLT). You have one datasource, but many uses. The XML document may be transformed to (X)HTML, PDF, WAP or other XML formats like RSS and Atom etc. The sky is the limet, and possible formats are increasing. XML is also an important, but not necessary element, in web applications made by the AJAX technologies. For exmaple flickr combines AJAX and Flash. These webapplications are as mentioned often driven by XML archived XML documents or XML documents pulled from a database like MySQL using the now object oriented scripting language PHP. PHP 5.0 and above have important extensions to manipulate XML documents. This makes XML driven sites extremely flexible and efficient and will be used by large companies to get a better control of their document structure and quality.

A well-formed XML document is one that is written using legal XML syntax and structure according to the XML specification. A valid document is one that is well-formed and conforms to a structure outlined in a DTD (Document Type Definition) or a schema like XML schemas or RELAX NG.

Of these three technologies, XML Schema, made and developed by the world wide web consortiom,W3C is the most complex, but also the most effective and

"open the door to great possibilities in flexibility and granularity when dealing with a document's structure".
Source: Robert Richards (2006): "Pro PHP XML and Web Services."

This type of controlling documents will be used by large companies and institiutions in the future and small companies may use part of the technology to drive their online documents.

HTML tagging will still be used effectively for brochure like websites etc.

You find tutorials on most of the above mentioned technologies on the excellent web site W3 Schools.

If you need additional and deeper information, I can reccommend the above book that is one of the best IT related books I have ever read.

Conclusion:
A well-formed XML document need not be valid, but a valid XML document must be well-formed.

SemAdvance · #2 (**permalink**) 04-16-2007, 02:49 PM

All of this effects a consumer shopping for a video game how?

If you look at most companies where there is a need for large volumes of pages most would be looking at the Intranet side and not the internet side.

Most corporations have a large collection of internal documentation and do not have their manuals released online.

All of the other online businesses who for example sell widgets and now try manipulating search rankings with article marketing do not realize they are wasting time & resources trying to make a search engine think a business performs in a different way than the norm...

It's like Starbucks using article marketing....completely absurd given that 99% of the coffee houses in operation do not, nor have never used article marketing.

Some wanna be marketers use this ploy to sell their services mistakeningly of the belief that the search engines can be fooled so easily.

While XML sounds great for large corporations for the average SMB that is online, it is probably not the most important aspect needed to survive in the Internet economy.

Good post none the less!

**rumblepup** · #3 (**permalink**) 04-17-2007, 05:02 PM

Quote:

legal XML syntax

I've always wondered at the use of "legal" when dealing with document structure. W3C is a neat thing, and XML is too, but I agree that this mass adoption will probably not be so mass.

I personally know the virtues of XML, and use it when I can, however, I agree with SemAdvance's assertion that

Quote:

While XML sounds great for large corporations for the average SMB that is online, it is probably not the most important aspect needed to survive in the Internet economy.

It seems that for every step the W3C takes forward, eventually, they have to take a step back. That's why when Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, says

Quote:

Some things are clearer with hindsight of several years. It is necessary to evolve HTML incrementally. The attempt to get the world to switch to XML, including quotes around attribute values and slashes in empty tags and namespaces all at once didn't work. The large HTML-generating public did not move, largely because the browsers didn't complain. Some large communities did shift and are enjoying the fruits of well-formed systems, but not all. It is important to maintain HTML incrementally, as well as continuing a transition to well-formed world, and developing more power in that world.

It's a little difficult to toll the absolute adoption of any standard, let alone W3C's. As a method of pushing data feeds, it's fantastic! However, for the type of adoption you're suggestion will happen with the large corporations, only time will tell.

Steven1976a · #4 (**permalink**) 04-18-2007, 09:57 AM

Not that i have a clue about how xml works but we are adopting it into our business and we believe it is going to be very good for us.

We are not building full websites based on it but just by building for google base, ebay stores, RSS feeds, I believe their are some great opportunities out there.

I agree with the other posts that i think that we are along way from them being the standards, at the end of the day there is probably less than 1% of people who make websites who have heard about it never mind implementing it.

kgun · #5 (**permalink**) 04-20-2007, 07:19 AM

This is a professional eBusiness forum and since XML and the related technologies are just that, technology this post is perhaps more relevant on technology and IT related forums like the W3 Schools forum, Sitepoint forum etc.

XLink summary:
"This has been an extremely brief look at the XLink technology. It has been around for quite a while, and some people think it will revolutionize internet browsing."
Source: Robert Richards (2006): "Pro PHP XML and Web Services." page 159.

My bolding.

Yes it takes time before technologies become understood and even longer before they become standard. It took 20 years before object oriented programming were understood by people outside the SIMULA community. When Samalltalk were implemented in the 80's, OOP took off.

kgun · #6 (**permalink**) 04-24-2007, 04:55 AM

An example: Flux CMS Wiki

"Flux CMS is a XML/XSLT CMS based on PHP 5 (http://www.php.net/) and Popoon (http://popoon.org/).

It's easy to use for the enduser and has WYSIWYG editing capabilites, but it's also very extensible and powerful for implementors to suit your needs.

And it's open source and free (GPL licensed)".

Related link: Bitflux Editor - The Wysiwyg XML Editor