Re: DOCBOOK: newbie help needed!

[Bob Stayton <bobs at caldera dot com>]

On Sat, Dec 21, 2002 at 12:05:59PM +0800, damar@netvigator.com wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am new to this list and new to both XML and docbook.
> 
> Recently, I installed Apache+tomcat+cocoon and managed to published a
> docbook article, using docbook dtd and xsl.  It is a very simple
> publication - docbook xsl installed, docbook article created, and made it
> point to the xsl. With my very limited XML and XSL knowledge,I could not
> follow the XSL files for modifications. I at least have the platform for
> creating documents for the future site (if I cannot call it a site now!).  
> 
> Now, I read about docbook's website framework for publishing webpages.
> Again with my limited knowledge, I have no clue how I should start this
> with -- could not follow the instruction given in the example
> webpage.
> 
> Can any one give me some hints on the basics of docbook and website
> framework? How can I publish example site on cocoon? It may give me some
> hints afterwards.

You haven't described your application much, so it isn't
clear to me why you want to combine DocBook and Cocoon.

Cocoon is generally used to convert on demand an XML
document to an HTML document and deliver it over the wire.
Doing so with DocBook XSL often leads to dissatisfaction
with the performance, because the DocBook XSL stylesheets
are big and complex, and don't usually process  within the
response window most people expect for browsing.  If your
XML files are fairly static, you might be better off
converting the XML to HTML outside of Cocoon and simply
serving the HTML with Apache.  The response time will be
much better, and you won't be loading down the server
with a lot of intense DocBook processing.

Website is an extension of the DocBook XSL stylesheets to
generate a set of web pages that make up the navigational
tree for a web site.  You create XML input files that define
the web pages using the website DTD, and then process
them with the website stylesheet to generate HTML.
The result is a set of HTML files that contain the
web pages a user can navigate through on the site.

I don't think you can use website with Cocoon because
website generates multiple HTML files from the input XML.  
A server can deliver only one HTML file to a browser in
a single request.  It could cache the rest of the files,
but then you might as well just generate the HTML
ahead of time and serve that with plain Apache.

Hope this helps.


Bob Stayton                                 400 Encinal Street
Publications Architect                      Santa Cruz, CA  95060
Technical Publications                      voice: (831) 427-7796
The SCO Group                               fax:   (831) 429-1887
                                            email: bobs@sco.com