xslt alone or xslt/java for static site?

[Ted (3)]

Looking for advice on the best approach to building static websites.

Last year I built a static website with XSLT. The content is in XML and I run it through XSLT to update the site. The XSLT builds about 200 pages. Each page keeps a "bread-crumb" of links so the user can navigate back and forth. The pages also indicate which "section" it is in. The XSLT also builds the "print version" of the page.

I have a main template (basically a page template) that I call and pass parameters to to make each page. For instance, if I pass "articleIndex" to the main template, it knows to build the index of articles. I used to rely on the context but I found this was easier for me.

Is this good approach? It sometimes seems difficult to get what I want. I tend to want to put things into arrays and pass them around.

I know Java but haven't looked into JDOM or Velocity.

TIA,
Ted

 

[Laurens]

Looking for advice on the best approach to building static websites.

Seeing that you already know Java, you might want to look into Cocoon [1] to create your next site. (Cocoon can be used for both static and dynamic websites.) One advantage of Cocoon is that you can use Generators [2] for processing data sources other than XML files. You can also write your own Generator [3], should the need arise.

Cocoon does have a significant learning curve, but there's an active community that you can consult.

Regards
-Laurens

[1] http://cocoon.apache.org
[2] http://cocoon.apache.org/2.1/userdocs/generators/generators.html [3] http://cocoon.apache.org/2.1/tutorial/tutorial-generator.html