Transform XML to HTML only for Browsers

[Mungo Henning]

Hi Folks,
Beg pardon for this simplistic question (I've searched via Google but got
lost with all the terminology).

An application I have created dumps out some data in XML format to a file.

I want the file to remain unchanged so that other applications can open
it and read the data contained in there.

But, if someone points a browser at the file I want the XML file to be
transformed via an XSLT script into HTML so that it looks pretty on the screen
instead of collections of angled-bracketed data lumps.

So the transform only occurs when some browser looks at the file; any other
program looking at the file will see only plain XML.

Can this be engineered?

Any help appreciated; thanks in advance

Mungo Henning

[rumionfire@gmail.com]

Re: Transform XML to HTML only for Browsers

Using XSLTs to transform you XML to HTML will require a server side
engine like Cocoon to perform the transformation. You can instead
use a CSS to perform the transformation.

Here are some links with more information on this:

http://www.xml-dev.com/blog/#18

http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-stylesheet/

e.g.

http://unadorned.org/waspchump/xml/index.xml

In Peace
Saqib Ali

http://validate.sf.net

[rumionfire@gmail.com]

Re: Transform XML to HTML only for Browsers

one more interesting site:

http://www.badgers-in-foil.co.uk/projects/docbook-css/

In Peace,
Saqib Ali

http://validate.sf.net

[Johannes Koch]

Re: Transform XML to HTML only for Browsers

Mungo Henning wrote:[color=blue]
> An application I have created dumps out some data in XML format to a file.
>
> I want the file to remain unchanged so that other applications can open
> it and read the data contained in there.
>
> But, if someone points a browser at the file I want the XML file to be
> transformed via an XSLT script into HTML so that it looks pretty on the screen
> instead of collections of angled-bracketed data lumps.
>
> So the transform only occurs when some browser looks at the file; any other
> program looking at the file will see only plain XML.[/color]

You may take a look at the HTTP Accept header. If the requesting user
agent wants text/html, you perform the transformation, otherwise send
the raw XML. And make sure that the 'other applications' don't order
text/html in the Accept header.
--
Johannes Koch
In te domine speravi; non confundar in aeternum.
(Te Deum, 4th cent.)

[Manuel Collado]

Re: Transform XML to HTML only for Browsers

Mungo Henning wrote:
[color=blue]
> Hi Folks,
> Beg pardon for this simplistic question (I've searched via Google but got
> lost with all the terminology).
>
> An application I have created dumps out some data in XML format to a file.
>
> I want the file to remain unchanged so that other applications can open
> it and read the data contained in there.
>
> But, if someone points a browser at the file I want the XML file to be
> transformed via an XSLT script into HTML so that it looks pretty on the screen
> instead of collections of angled-bracketed data lumps.
>
> So the transform only occurs when some browser looks at the file; any other
> program looking at the file will see only plain XML.
>
> Can this be engineered?[/color]

Recent versions of Internet Explorer and Netccape/Mozilla can render XML
contents with CSS or XSL stylesheets. So simply create an adequate
stylesheet and put a reference to it in your XML documents. The
documents will be nicely displayed in these browsers.
--
To reply by e-mail, please remove the extra dot
in the given address: m.collado -> mcollado

[Nick Kew]

Re: Transform XML to HTML only for Browsers

In article <de92d65.041020 2057.3b685694@p osting.google.c om>,
rumionfire@gmai l.com writes:[color=blue]
> Using XSLTs to transform you XML to HTML will require a server side
> engine like Cocoon to perform the transformation.[/color]

No need for anything so heavyweight as cocoon. See for example

http://www.outoforder.cc/projects/apache/mod_transform/

I offer users choice of format for XML reports. So
http://my.server/reports/foobar <=== raw XML
http://my.server/reports/foobar.html <=== HTML for browsers
http://my.server/reports/foobar.rdf <=== semweb

--
Nick Kew

Nick's manifesto: http://www.htmlhelp.com/~nick/

[rumionfire@gmail.com]

Re: Transform XML to HTML only for Browsers

> No need for anything so heavyweight as cocoon. See for example

Yea there are many other lightweight solutions like AxKit, and other
PHP based apps that can do the trasnformation. But they all require
extra server component etc.

Using CSS to display the contents in a browser, does not require any
serverside add-ons.

In Peace,
Saqib Ali

http://validate.sf.net