Yes, it looks like we're all on the same page as far as desired functionality, although I'm not sure about the best way to get there. Past posts imply that you're looking to do the XML transforms server-side, possibly with a servlet. (?)
Can the servlet be written and setup in a generic way? Something like: INPUT = user authentication + xml url + xsl url; OUTPUT = html. Or will it need to be customized for each application? It'd be nice to get it down to one generic server installation package, ideally including all the necessary components.
It's great to off-load the XML/XSL processing from the client, but what advantages does server-side XML/XSL processing have over just parsing out the XML with javascript? Seems to me it requires a significant amount of additional developer expertise (java, XSL, server configuration) without much additional payoff, okay maybe off-loading a bit of javascript processing from the client. Can you confirm whether user authentication via servlet (to return only the data that user should see) is even possible?
Weird idea: Would it make sense (or even be feasible) to offer 3 possible solutions for 3 different scenarios?
- Client-side XML/XSL processing using MSXML object – good choice for well-defined/controlled clients, no server configuration required.
- Server-side XML/XSL processing using java servlet – good for low-end, poorly controlled clients, requires some server config.
- Client-side javascript parsing (no XSL) – requires a little more client processing power than #2, good for poorly defined clients, no server config.
Of course we'd want to develop generically, using common components between the 3 approaches, where possible.
Is there a spec or even some dev dbs we can start building upon? I really want to help with this if you've got room for one more.