1. AxKit A member of the Apache XML project Ryan Maslyn Kyle Bechtel

2. Purpose AxKit allows web designers to focus on web site design, content developers to work on a purely content basis, and webmasters to focus on their core competencies It provides on-the-fly conversion from XML to any format, such as HTML, WAP or text using either W3C standard techniques, or flexible custom code

3. Standard Web Server Retrieves document HTML must be generated for every access of page Uses static XML style sheet to parse XML into HTML. Returns static document, regardless of browser, media type, or user-preference

4. AxKit Enabled Web Server Retrieves document Intelligent caching checks for already generated documents Selects XML style sheet to use based on user-selection, media type, etc Outputs customized document for the exact needs of the visitor.

5. Versatility Output in many different character sets Support for almost every platform around Deliver to different media using the same URLs for all media types.

6. Performance Intelligent caching abilities Allows pages to be served as fast as static pages Fast speed due to tight integration with mod_perl in Apache About 80% speed of Apache alone

7. Style Sheets Multiple style sheets possible for one document Style sheets in AxKit can do anything, provided you can build a Language module to parse it. “End-to-End SAX” – One SAX parser for each cascading style sheet. Avoids DOM trees in memory, and begins outputting as soon as parsing begins

8. Processing an Axkit http Request 1. Client Browser Request (http) 2. Source Document Retrieval 3. Application of Transformation(s) 4. (Optional) Cache and/or GZip

9. Generic Request Example

10. Receiving a Client Request URI is parsed and mapped to Hard Drive The URI’s extension can tell Apache to allow Axkit to process response Apache Directives in Configuration Engine associated with URI directory define defaults Directives in the source document can tell Axkit which of its modules are needed

11. Example Declarations Apache Configuration Directives DirectoryIndex index.xsp AddHandler axkit.xml.xsp AxAddXSPTaglib AxAddStyleMap application/x-xsp Apache::AxKit::Language::XSP Source Document Directives

12. The Target Document Content can come from – Program output – Static file ( XML, Data File, etc. ) – Dynamic Content XSP Data Base Query AxKit optimized for XML source files – Enforces separation of logic, presentation, data

13. Transformations In cooperation with Apache’s Configuration engine a pipeline is constructed Transformations can be set up in an order specified in the source document AxKit modules are ordered and matched with libraries (where needed) – Ex. XSP engine needs Axkit::XSP::Util Style Sheets are retrieved for transformations

14. Pipeline Construction Data Object Models (DOM) can be passed from one transformation to the next The text output from one transformation can be captured and then be passed on End-to-End SAX – A series of SAX parsers can be lined up so that the result of an event in one parser is directly fed into the next

15. XSP Transformation

16. References cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/htdocs/AxKit/AxKit.html www.perl.com/pub/a/2002/03/12/axkit.html xml.apache.org/ axkit.org/ www.xml.com/pub/a/2000/05/24/axkit/

17. Example of Axkit in Action http://www.howlingfrog.com/