Roxen
Roxen Internet Software is a leading European software development company, providing cutting edge editorial and content management software.
XML - The future of content storage
XML stands for Extensible Markup Language and is the next generation format for data storage and exchange. It's a web standard that brings a number of advantages:
Platform independence
Regardless of computer hardware, operating systems and communications protocols the XML format is designed to be universally understood.- Extensible
It's a document format where the structure can be defined by any groups of users. For example, you can define your own XML document models that are appropriate for storing address books, travel expenses, meeting protocols, inventory lists or anything that you can think of.
In certain fields of business there are document models which have been agreed upon by a number of companies and organizations. As long as you know the document model they use you can also interpret data stored and transmitted using that model. - Maintainable
XML files are plain text files that people can read and write without extra tools. However, they are also structured in a way ideal for computers to process the data.
Transform XML using XSLT stylesheets
Web browsers do not normally understand XML directly, and those that do may not have the knowledge to interpret the document model that you have selected for your data. In other words, XML must be converted into something else before a web page can be rendered.
This conversion is done in a process called transformation where your XML markup is replaced by traditional HTML markup. The transformation takes place in Roxen CMS by applying one or more stylesheets to the XML data using XSLT - Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations - a web standard that defines a syntax for describing the transformations.
Efficient reuse of your data
The real beauty of XSLT is that by applying different stylesheets you can reuse the same XML data for a number of different purposes. This lets you keep structure and appearance separated from content and give you total freedom in updating the web site.
For instance, if you have your address book saved as an XML file you can create one XSLT stylesheet that displays each entry in a separate web page, a second one that creates an alphabetical index sorted by last name, and a third one that combines all entries in one page styled for printing. In the same way your web pages can be rendered for web browsers, PDAs, mobile phones, set-top boxes and other devices while keeping content stored in just one format.
XML and XSLT in Roxen CMS
Roxen CMS provides strong support for XML and XSLT with a number of innovations that bring additional power and flexibility:
- XML syntax repair
A built-in XML parser with an integrated syntax checker that not only highlights syntax errors but also repairs them. The syntax repair functionality makes it possible to apply XSLT stylesheets to legacy HTML content which in itself isn't XML compatible. - Intelligent stylesheet selection
By using a hierarchical stylesheet selection feature you can easily customize the appearance of different sections of your web site without unnecessary duplication of stylesheet code. - Point-and-click configuration
Stylesheets can be configured via a friendly graphical user interface which gives quick access to layout parameters such as fonts and colors. - Metadata access
Build stylesheets that not only processes XML content but also Roxen CMS metadata such as document names, titles, keywords, storage locations, multilingual properties and more.
