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RE: Using XSL to represent UI metadata


You might want to take a look at XForms from www.w3c.org. 

-----Original Message-----
From: R.Price@epixtech.com [mailto:R.Price@epixtech.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2000 1:42 PM
To: XSL-List@mulberrytech.com
Subject: Using XSL to represent UI metadata


I'm new to XML/XSL and have been tasked with designing a means to display
UI elements (checkboxes, grids, textboxes, forms, you name it...)
with the corresponding data for those elements to a browser front-end.

Currently, we have a UI designer, written in-house in C++, that creates the
metadata (stored in tables on the database) for our C++ client front-end.
This designer allows us to determine, for a given table, which columns are
utilized, how those columns are represented (button, text, cell in a grid,
etc.)
their positioning relationships, etc.

First off, I'm wondering if it is even possible to, say, take the metadata
that exists in these tables and somehow create an XSL template that
effectively
serves the same purpose?  If so, are there authoring tools, designers, or
such that exist already?  Are there UI design tools available that
accomplish
the same thing as our in-house product, but do it for XSL?  If there aren't
any designers available, do you think it's possible to do on our own (in a
relatively short period of time)?

I haven't looked at it too much, but XSL:FO appears to provide what I may
want.  Is that true, or am I thinking down the wrong path?

Ultimately, what I want is to be able to design a static XSL template that
will be applied in a given situation for a given set of data which
represents
WHAT (UI) elements are available and HOW those (UI) elements are rendered
on the browser.  Our current architecture is such that the browser sends a
request (via XML) to a "order" server that translates that XML into a
EnterpriseJavaBean call on the webserver.  The results are then processed
by the "order"
server into an XML response back to the browser.  It's this response that I
want to apply the XSL template to and render accordingly on the browser.

Am I dreaming here?  What am I missing?  Is it feasible?
<insert appropriate question here that I don't know to ask>

Robert Price


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