100% pure XML driven web sites

[Charles]

I create web sites with XHTML 1.0 Transitional, wich is compatible with
the XML specification on the W3C web site. I was wondering if it's
possible to create real-world web sites with only XML files (not using any
HTML markups) and external style sheets.
If so, do you have useful links, and examples? I'm just curious. I didn't
find relevant material on XML.com
Thanks a lot.

 

[Martin Honnen]

I create web sites with XHTML 1.0 Transitional, wich is compatible with
the XML specification on the W3C web site. I was wondering if it's
possible to create real-world web sites with only XML files (not using
any HTML markups) and external style sheets.

There are people building web sites with SVG only, but of course SVG is
like XHTML a well defined XML application. And to use SVG sites you
usually need a plugin like the Adobe SVG viewer.
As for creating and styling your own markup language, with browsers like
Mozilla and Opera that have strong CSS 2 support that is possible. But
then what do you intend to do to have a link for instance? You would
then need to turn back to XHTML and include an
<a xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" href="whatever.xml">link</a>
element or you would need to use XLink (which only Mozilla supports but
not Opera). I think Opera also has some CSS extension to turn an XML
element into a hyperlink but I have never used that.
So in my view it is not of much use, if you want to build a web site use
an established and well supported document type like text/html.
You can of course use XML to markup your data but if you want to have
people view that data with a browser then transform it to HTML for them.

 

[Martin Honnen]

Charles wrote:

If so, do you have useful links, and examples?

I said that people build web sites with SVG, the following book description
<http://www.pearson.ch/pageid/34/artikel/71166NR/NewRiders/0735711666/DesigningSVGWebGraphics.aspx>
mentions one but it seems to be gone.
You might want to ask on the SVG groups on groups.yahoo.com for existing
examples.

 

[Charles]

So in my view it is not of much use, if you want to build a web site use

an established and well supported document type like text/html.
You can of course use XML to markup your data but if you want to have
people view that data with a browser then transform it to HTML for them.

Yes, thanks, I agree with you, I was just curious, and who knows, I might
try it just for fun

 

[Lakeuk]

I create web sites with XHTML 1.0 Transitional, wich is compatible with
the XML specification on the W3C web site. I was wondering if it's
possible to create real-world web sites with only XML files (not using any
HTML markups) and external style sheets.
If so, do you have useful links, and examples? I'm just curious. I didn't
find relevant material on XML.com
Thanks a lot.

Not sure exactly what you mean, (a website from just a xml file?), but I've
created a TV Guide website for use offline that currently contains around 10
pages and uses one xml file and one xsl file.

Site contains Now/Next, Favourites checking, search programmes, grid/listing
pages

You can download it at http://www25.brinkster.com/lakeuk/xmltv/xmltv.htm

The xsl can easily be used to produce other websites.

Dave

 

[Charles]

Not sure exactly what you mean, (a website from just a xml file?)

Yes, I mean a xml file with a style sheet (not an XHTML or HTML file).
I guess it's not possible.

 

[Arjun Ray]

I was wondering if it's possible to create real-world web sites with
only XML files (not using any HTML markups) and external style sheets.

We're a long way from that yet, and, in my more pessimistic moments, I
think we may never get there.

A stylesheet technology is already in place, but while that's a very
important piece, it isn't the whole story. There are other packages of
semantic functionality which also need proper implementation. Links and
forms are two obvious examples. (XLink was a step in the right direction
at first. but then the XML Namespaces bogosity made a travesty of it.)

If so, do you have useful links, and examples?

This is not an answer to your request, but if you can find a copy of "SGML
on the Web" by Yuri Rubinsky and Murray Maloney, the CD with that book has
Softquad's Panorama browser, which used the same essential idea behind
XLink to recognize various generic categories in arbitrary SGML markup.
(And that was nearly a decade ago.)

Right now, all you can hope for is that a Big Company[TM] or three might
expend the resources to implement some useful fractions of the bloated
specs emerging from the W3C.

 

[Lakeuk]

Yes, I mean a xml file with a style sheet (not an XHTML or HTML file).
I guess it's not possible.

That being the case then take a look at my TV guide that uses a xml with a
style sheet

http://www25.brinkster.com/lakeuk/xmltv/xmltv.htm

Dave

 

[docbook.xml]

here is another interesting e.g.:
http://www.xml-dev.com/blog/index.php#114

This CSS is specifically for documents created using DocBook XML DTD,
but you might find it useful.

 

[Peter Flynn]

I create web sites with XHTML 1.0 Transitional, wich is compatible with
the XML specification on the W3C web site. I was wondering if it's
possible to create real-world web sites with only XML files (not using any
HTML markups) and external style sheets.
If so, do you have useful links, and examples? I'm just curious. I didn't
find relevant material on XML.com

Nor will you. There are thousands of these, but they all work by using an
XML-to-HTML converter like Cocoon, Axkit, or PropelX at the server end,
so the user doesn't need an XML-compatible browser.

If you mean XML-only sites, serving raw XML with CSS or XSLT for the browser
to interpret, they're fairly rare, because they would exclude users who are
still running older browsers (millions of them).

///Peter

 

[docbook.xml]

Since you mentioned Cocoon, here is a site that uses Cocoon to convert
DocBook XML content to HTML on the fly:

http://www.xml-dev.com/blog/index.php#88
In Peace,
Saqib Ali
http://www.silverdivan.com

 

[John Fereira]

Nor will you. There are thousands of these, but they all work by using
an XML-to-HTML converter like Cocoon, Axkit, or PropelX at the server
end, so the user doesn't need an XML-compatible browser.

I've looked for a couple of times since this thread was posted (both times)
but haven't been able to find a site I saw a demo on about a year ago. It
consisted of a single xml document using the Mets dtd
(www.loc.gov/standards/mets/) a handful of stylesheets and a single servlet
that performed an xml/xsl transformation. The site was a small digital
library with a simple page turner for digital images. The design was pretty
simple but maintaining the large xml file wouldn't scale very well.