Edmund,
theoretically it should be possible to create an XSL transform for whatever
form of input you have. It can then generate an XML file from your data.
> Richard,
>
> Thanks again, but unfortunately even getting comma delimited files out to
> you would take more work than we currently have time for. I will bear this
> in mind as a route for disseminating the 'beta' version in Summer however.
> I'll contact you off the list nearer the time.
>
> Edmund
Mike Pringle quoted a government document as follows:
"<snip>However, there is no backward compatibility between XML and HTML and
web
designers should be mindful of the need to consider the needs of those who
use older browsers which do not support XML. "
this is not really a concern as one can return the results of a query search
as HTML or whatever you want. If you wanted to do the work client-side then
the appropriate software would be necessary, but otherwise you'll do the
quering on the server and can return the results as HTML or XML.
A colleague and I are currently using XML and XSLT for a database of
Palaeolithic sites worldwide, which is partly the reason for my interest in
the conference, and we are now reasonably advanced with the design of the
data structure and the contruction of the query engine. XML is turning out
to be very powerful and have great potential for offering flexibility in
what is done with the data and how it is presented, and given that the grunt
work can be done server-side it seems to have relatively few disadvantages,
the principal one being the relative immaturity of the querying and styling
languages. XML itself, however, seems stable now, so it's well worth
investigating further.
Best,
Jeremy
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