The Software AG webshop
http://www.webshop.softwareag.com/
uses XML as the underlying data layer (the catalog,orders ,user profiles,…) are stored in a Tamino in XML.
The technique we used is the following :
- Presentation layer 1 : JSP pages calling Java Beans. These JavaBeans speak HTML (They deliver the data as HTML Tables, ect). So the web pages can be composed by the JSP people
- Presentation layer 2 : the XSLT layer. This is the JavaBeans layer that translate XML to HTML using the stylesheets. Of course the stylesheets have a big influence on the look and feel of the presentation1. This is where a problem can appear if your web designer doesn’t know about XSL. There are multiple solutions :
* based on a graphical prototype, let a XSL specialist write the XSL
* Use standardized XSL → HTML outputs on wich you can apply a CSS = combination of CSS and XSL.
* Use a tool that can help to create the XSL.
- Business Logic layer : these are Java components that speak XML. The Java Layer can integrate all functional systems.
- Data layer : a XML Information Server, integrating all Data Sources.
Indeed writing XSL is still a programmer task. But by using this technique your system will gain in flexibility. You should be able to revamp your website by just exchanging the XSL. This is certainly the case for portals like jetspeed http://java.apache.org/jetspeed/
JF
J-F Declercq
Software AG Belgium
+32-2.777.03.28