1. XML and XSL Institutional Web Management 2001: Organising Chaos

2. Running order  Background  All about XML  All about XSL  Hands-on XML and XSL  Publishing engines  Example applications  Crystal balls

3. Background  Mark Ray and Andrew Savory  Using XML since 1996  Used a variety of tools and methods

4. XML and XSL  W3C specifications  Separation of Concerns  Reuse of data  Multiple output formats  Styles tailored to reader / Standardised styles

5. Applications of XML and XSL  Static information  Institutional web sites  Prospectuses  Course catalogues  Dynamic information  News or event information services  Course catalogues  Staff directories

6. Benefits of XML and XSL  Standards-based, format-independent  Serve sites and formats based on user need  Text-based (text readers, slow links, low-tech)  Netscape / Internet Explorer specifc  TV, Phone, PDA  PDF, SVG, VRML,...  Simplification of web site management...

7. The management bit  Management  Decide what the site should contain, how it should behave and how it should appear  Content  Responsible for writing, owning, managing the site content

8. The management bit  Logic  Responsible for integration with dynamic content generation  Style  Responsible for information presentation, look & feel, site graphics and maintenance

9. What is XML?  eXtensible Markup Language  Not a fixed format  'Metalanguage'  For describing information

10. XML Design Goals 1 XML shall be straightforwardly usable over the Internet. 2 XML shall support a wide variety of applications. 3 XML shall be compatible with SGML. 4 It shall be easy to write programs which process XML documents. 5 The number of optional features in XML is to be kept to the absolute minimum, ideally zero.

11. XML Design Goals 6 XML documents should be human-legible and reasonably clear. 7 The XML design should be prepared quickly. 8 The design of XML shall be formal and concise. 9 XML documents shall be easy to create. 10 Terseness is of minimal importance.

12. Structure of an XML document This is content.

13. A first XML document Construct a well-formed XML document using the following tags:  xml opening tag  page  title  content  para Don't forget to add the closing tags!

14. Differences to HTML  Order: WRONG RIGHT  Balance WRONG RIGHT  Case WRONG RIGHT

15. Differences to HTML  Attributes WRONG RIGHT  Empty Tags WRONG RIGHT  XML is stricter...and therefore better!

16. Well-formed vs. Valid  Exactly what they say:  Well-formed means it's written correctly  Valid means we can validate it

17. A well-formed example child second

18. A valid example <!DOCTYPE PARENT [ <!ATTLIST MARK NUMBER ID #REQUIRED LISTED CDATA #FIXED "yes" TYPE (natural|adopted) "natural"> ]> &STATEMENT; child second

19. Document Type Definitions  First standard mechanism for XML validation  Define the role and structure of XML elements  Sufficient for simple XML schemas  Don't support namespaces  Use non-XML syntax

20. XSchema  XML structural definition language of choice  Defines a class of XML document  Supports name spaces  More powerful

21. Xschema example Example Schema for IWM workshop

22. What is XSL?  Preferred style sheet language of XML  a method for transforming XML documents  a method for defining XML parts and patterns  a method for formatting XML documents  An application of XML (same formatting rules)

23. Hands-on XML  Create the following XML document: Hello This is my first XML page!  Save it as hello_world.xml

24. Uploading the file  Navigate to the site provided  Click on "upload.html"  Beside the "file to upload" box, click on "choose"  Select the file you want to upload  Click on "upload"

25. Viewing the file If you see the file you wanted to upload and receive a "File written successfully" message...  Click on "Content", then the name of the file

26. Structure of an XSL stylesheet  Most templates have the following form:  The whole element is a template  The match pattern determines where this template applies

27. Structure of an XSL stylesheet  Literal result element(s) come from non-XSL namespace(s)  XSLT elements come from the XSL namespace

28. Hands-on XSL  Create the following XSL stylesheet:

29. Uploading the file  Navigate to the site provided  Click on "upload.html"  Beside the "file to upload" box, click on "choose"  Select the file you want to upload  Click on "upload"

30. Publishing engines  Cocoon  Java-based  AxKit  Perl-based  4Suite  Python  Others or roll your own

31. Viewing the file If you see the file you wanted to upload and receive a "File written successfully" message...  Click on "View site in cocoon"  Select the file you uploaded and the stylesheet you want to view it in

32. Hands-on XSL  Add the following to the XSL stylesheet:

33. New platforms, new beginnings?  The old way of publishing  Repurposing  The new way of publishing  Target multiple platforms  Multiple stylesheets  Multiple formats

34. Browser-specific content

35. Lynx-friendly XSL stylesheet  Add the following to your XSL stylesheet: This site is lynx-friendly  Save the stylesheet as simple-page2html-lynx.xsl

36. Uploading the file  Navigate to the site provided  Click on "upload.html"  Beside the "file to upload" box, click on "choose"  Select the file you want to upload  Click on "upload"

37. Viewing the file If you see the file you wanted to upload and receive a "File written successfully" message...  Click on "View site in cocoon"  Select the file you uploaded and the stylesheet you want to view it in

38. Where next?  The semantic web

39. References  http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/papers. nsf/dw/xml-papers- bytopic?OpenDocument&Count=500 http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/papers. nsf/dw/xml-papers- bytopic?OpenDocument&Count=500  http://www.xml101.com/ http://www.xml101.com/  http://nwalsh.com/docs/tutorials/xsl/ http://nwalsh.com/docs/tutorials/xsl/