120 CHAPTER (Web hosting servers) 4 CLIENT-SIDE XML You can
120 CHAPTER 4 CLIENT-SIDE XML You can implement this type of architecture either by building your own framework or by relying on existing tools. Some of the existing tools include Apache AxKit: http://www.axkit.org/ Apache Cocoon Project: http://cocoon.apache.org/ PolarLake Integration Suite: http://www.polarlake.com/en/html/products/ integration/index.shtml Visual Net Server: http://www.visualnetserver.com/ In addition, web servers such as Adobe (formerly Macromedia) ColdFusion (http:// www.macromedia.com/software/coldfusion/) and Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) (http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsServer2003/iis/default.mspx) offer good XML application tools. Serving XML to Client-Side Code In this approach, the browser receives the XML content as data embedded within the client- side code. You can use this approach to build dynamic pages that don t have to make a round-trip to the server for additional processing. The application makes XML data available to client-side code by Loading XML into a DOM variable using the browser s proprietary DOM load method. Using the XMLHTTP Request objects in IE, Mozilla, and Opera. This option is the core technology behind an approach called Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) that you ll learn about in Chapter 9. Using XML-aware client-side development tools such as Flash. Working with XML data islands. Serving XML directly to the client reduces the number of round-trips to the server. Without XML, the application would have to make a call to the server each time to request new content, which has the potential to slow down the user experience. Summary In this chapter, you ve examined the XML support available in current versions of the major browsers. You ve seen the different ways that you can process XML in a web browser, including some advanced functionality offered by IE. I ve also shown you three different approaches to using XML in web applications. Chapters 5 to 10 examine how to implement the areas that you ve examined in this chapter. Chapter 5 looks at styling XML documents with CSS, and Chapters 6 and 7 cover XSLT in detail. Chapter 8 looks more closely at scripting in the browser, while Chapter 9 examines one browser scripting approach, called Ajax. In Chapter 10, I ll introduce you to Flash as an alternative method for working with XML.
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