Silverlight is known as a software tool by Microsoft for the purpose of developing ultra powerful, rich internet applications, it's in actual fact much the same in traits and also intentions to Adobe Flash.
Microsoft themselves talk about their service as being a strong development tool for making engaging, interactive user experiences for Web and also mobile apps.
Some of the many features mentioned on their web site incorporates, IIS Smooth Streaming, Pivot Viewer, for visualizing massive amounts of data in a fun and visual way, Sketch Flow, more for sketching out an application and its uses, Deep Zoom, Pixel Shader and over 60 new controls just like charting and new media.
However, as opposed to Flash, Silverlight is a free plugin which is run by the .Net framework, therefore extremely easy and user-friendly to employ with Visual Studio, and it is suitable for a variety of browsers and devices.
In the beginning Microsoft focused upon streaming media etc but since then Silverlight has expanded substantially to feature support for multimedia, graphics and animation.
Silverlight at present also includes support for specific languages and development tools, in fact it is also one of the key development platforms for the Windows phone.
Silverlight additionally employs XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language) to assert user interfaces, because of this it is simple to create Windows sidebar devices and also other fancy apps with neat vector graphics and animations.
It's also possible to write Silverlight apps in any .Net programming languages, meaning that any development tool that can be used in .Net, you may use in Silverlight. Hence Microsoft are pitching Visual Studio as the prefect tool for developers to create and debug Silverlight applications.
Since its introduction in 2007, Microsoft have refreshed Silverlight every year with edition 1 in 2007 and version 5 (the current and up to-date model) introduced in May 2012. The 2012 version (Silverlight 5) can actually be used on Windows and Mac and with Mobile devices running Windows or Symbian.
The below highlights all the editions and provides some background information.
Silverlight 1 was introduced in 2007, it had been comprised of various core features including the UI controls, media playback, DOM integration, interactivity and user input, and graphics and animation.
Silverlight 2 followed soon after in the same year and was similar to version 1 but in addition included a version of the .Net framework which allowed it to run any other programs developed in any .Net language.
Silverlight 3 was unveiled in 2008 as a beta and then officially unveiled in July 2009. This edition included even more controls for example DataGrid and TreeView, DataPager (permitted you to see paginated data), DataForm (for form based applications) along with numerous layout panels.
Silverlight 4 was launched in November 2009 as a beta with the official release in April 2010. This bundled much more characteristics than ever before for example rendering HTML, better localization, support for Google Chrome browser, brand new and enhanced controls and a whole lot. It also came with Silverlight 4 tools for developers, delivering much more development possibilities
Silverlight 5 was launched for download in December 2011. The newest features included 64-bit support, 3D graphics, GPU accelerated video decoding and playback speed controls.
As said before above, Silverlight applications can be written in any .NET programming language. As such, any development tools which may be used with .NET languages can work with Silverlight. When you are making use of Silverlight and XML, you can also make use of an XML Silverlight tool like Liquid XML studio.
Friday, 16 November 2012
Thursday, 8 November 2012
Just What Is Silverlight
Silverlight is a software application created by Microsoft, an effective way to illustrate it to you, will be to liken it to Adobe Flash. Silverlight in characteristics and purpose is much like Adobe Flash.
Microsoft by themselves explain their product as;
“Silverlight is a powerful development tool for creating engaging, interactive user experiences for Web and mobile applications. Silverlight is a free plug-in, powered by the .NET framework and compatible with multiple browsers, devices and operating systems, bringing a new level of interactivity wherever the Web works.”
At first the focus was greatly about producing rich and engaging user experiences through rich media, streaming and animation allowing web programmers to create really engaging and interactive sites, the same as with Flash.
Nevertheless what lots of people are not aware of is how much Silverlight now features a lot more for business application development and just how in fact, Silverlight is currently being frequently used for additional purposes over and above merely engaging content.
The fact is Silverlight is now being utilized within business for data management, CRM and a lot of other business critical operations, in a nutshell, a growing number of business applications are making use of Silverlight to assist business demands.
A business application carries a very precise purpose or goal, and generally assists a corporation to cut costs or time, or simply to enables them to to improve customer satisfaction. Common examples could include CRM applications, time-tracking in addition to expense claim applications, e-commerce and e-tail experiences, purchase request applications, and HR employee management systems.
Users of business software expect rich, functional, and well-performing user interfaces similar to those typically provided by the desktop applications they are familliar with. With the latest business application-focused enhancements to Silverlight, the rich capabilities of its user interface, and the associated tooling provided by Visual Studio and Expression Studio, you can now rapidly create this type of application and enjoy the benefits of Web delivery and deployment.
So just what is Silverlight and also how does it work? As stated above Silverlight is a software application from Microsoft for making appealing content akin to Adobe Flash, however it is even more than Flash and will also be used in business application development.
Silverlight is a completely free software which comes in a browser plug-in format, there isn't a need to download it as an application on your C drive plus its as a result very small and self-contained.
Silverlight might be run in all of the primary browsers including Mozilla, Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera, and Internet Explorer of course, and it is platform independent and operates by displaying a programming framework that is a subset of the .Net Framework.
To install Silverlight you may download it straight from the Microsoft website and download it to your computer as a plug-in. You can think of this plug-in as a scaled down form of the .Net framework as it only has the classes and functionality that's applicable to a Silverlight web client.
Due to this fact, you can actually write real, compiled and managed code that's completed in the context of the client browser itself. Finally, Silverlight employs XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language) to make the user interface.
Silverlight programs may be developed in any .NET programming language. Because of this, any development tools that may be used with .NET languages can function with Silverlight. If you happen to be dealing with Silverlight and XML, you can also readily XML Silverlight tool similar to Liquid XML studio.
Microsoft by themselves explain their product as;
“Silverlight is a powerful development tool for creating engaging, interactive user experiences for Web and mobile applications. Silverlight is a free plug-in, powered by the .NET framework and compatible with multiple browsers, devices and operating systems, bringing a new level of interactivity wherever the Web works.”
At first the focus was greatly about producing rich and engaging user experiences through rich media, streaming and animation allowing web programmers to create really engaging and interactive sites, the same as with Flash.
Nevertheless what lots of people are not aware of is how much Silverlight now features a lot more for business application development and just how in fact, Silverlight is currently being frequently used for additional purposes over and above merely engaging content.
The fact is Silverlight is now being utilized within business for data management, CRM and a lot of other business critical operations, in a nutshell, a growing number of business applications are making use of Silverlight to assist business demands.
A business application carries a very precise purpose or goal, and generally assists a corporation to cut costs or time, or simply to enables them to to improve customer satisfaction. Common examples could include CRM applications, time-tracking in addition to expense claim applications, e-commerce and e-tail experiences, purchase request applications, and HR employee management systems.
Users of business software expect rich, functional, and well-performing user interfaces similar to those typically provided by the desktop applications they are familliar with. With the latest business application-focused enhancements to Silverlight, the rich capabilities of its user interface, and the associated tooling provided by Visual Studio and Expression Studio, you can now rapidly create this type of application and enjoy the benefits of Web delivery and deployment.
So just what is Silverlight and also how does it work? As stated above Silverlight is a software application from Microsoft for making appealing content akin to Adobe Flash, however it is even more than Flash and will also be used in business application development.
Silverlight is a completely free software which comes in a browser plug-in format, there isn't a need to download it as an application on your C drive plus its as a result very small and self-contained.
Silverlight might be run in all of the primary browsers including Mozilla, Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera, and Internet Explorer of course, and it is platform independent and operates by displaying a programming framework that is a subset of the .Net Framework.
To install Silverlight you may download it straight from the Microsoft website and download it to your computer as a plug-in. You can think of this plug-in as a scaled down form of the .Net framework as it only has the classes and functionality that's applicable to a Silverlight web client.
Due to this fact, you can actually write real, compiled and managed code that's completed in the context of the client browser itself. Finally, Silverlight employs XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language) to make the user interface.
Silverlight programs may be developed in any .NET programming language. Because of this, any development tools that may be used with .NET languages can function with Silverlight. If you happen to be dealing with Silverlight and XML, you can also readily XML Silverlight tool similar to Liquid XML studio.
Monday, 15 October 2012
XML Elements And Ways To Develop Them
Elements are also the key building blocks of XML and is also one of several benefits XML provides over other languages. In XML you may create your very own element tags to match your own requirements.
With other languages, like HTML or PHP, you can just use predetermined labels which are particular to that language. In HTML by way of example you are only have body elements within the <body> tag and header elements inside the <head> tag. This is certainly tough and even time intensive and means you need to comprehend the language and syntax as well as where it goes to create web pages.
This is where XML is special, you can make your own personal elements and title these to suit your own purposes, allowing it to be entirely possible for newbie’s to grasp and apply XML.
So what are XML elements? Pretty much elements are names that are assigned to areas of data or information. As an example, let’s say you want to develop a catalogue of all your household items for insurance applications.
You could potentially try to portion items by room after which further sub divide by value etc. In XML the parser will look at the construction compared to names of the elements, in HTML it will be the other way round, the labels will be more significant for the parsing to be successful.
While XML is a lot more focused on structure, versus naming conventions, you'll still have to comply with some fundamental guidelines when creating elements. The first element is considered as the root; the root element consists of all the other elements inside it, similar to a folder contains sub folders and files.
After the root, the following element is called the parent and inside the parent are child elements, not all parent elements have to have child element, it will be at your discretion and is determined by how and just what you want to design your XML for.
The key point to creating a XML file that can be easily parsed is with the organisation, you need to make your elements to make sure they appear sensible from a structural perspective.
For example if you're a constructing a stock list of your products, it might make more sense to have products as your root element and then the categories as the parent and then individual category products as the child elements.
Having a well laid and common sense structure is going to pay off in the long term when you need to handle updates or parsing as all the elements will naturally fit into place.
Along with element structure and naming, its also wise to keep the following easy tips in mind too.
Each and every element tag requires a opening and closing syntax ie <xml> and </xml>, if you forget you will receive an error message whenever you try and validate or parse your xml file.
Be sure you organize your element names intelligently and rationally. Name your tags in a means by which is smart to you.
Root element
Parent element
Child element
Two parent elements for the product stock list could have child tags named ‹product›. In fact, parent names may also be the same.
Product - root element
Item - parent element
Item - parent element
So that’s a rapid and straightforward look at xml and how to write an xml file, to study more advanced material, you can search Google or view this xml tutorial.
With other languages, like HTML or PHP, you can just use predetermined labels which are particular to that language. In HTML by way of example you are only have body elements within the <body> tag and header elements inside the <head> tag. This is certainly tough and even time intensive and means you need to comprehend the language and syntax as well as where it goes to create web pages.
This is where XML is special, you can make your own personal elements and title these to suit your own purposes, allowing it to be entirely possible for newbie’s to grasp and apply XML.
So what are XML elements? Pretty much elements are names that are assigned to areas of data or information. As an example, let’s say you want to develop a catalogue of all your household items for insurance applications.
You could potentially try to portion items by room after which further sub divide by value etc. In XML the parser will look at the construction compared to names of the elements, in HTML it will be the other way round, the labels will be more significant for the parsing to be successful.
While XML is a lot more focused on structure, versus naming conventions, you'll still have to comply with some fundamental guidelines when creating elements. The first element is considered as the root; the root element consists of all the other elements inside it, similar to a folder contains sub folders and files.
After the root, the following element is called the parent and inside the parent are child elements, not all parent elements have to have child element, it will be at your discretion and is determined by how and just what you want to design your XML for.
The key point to creating a XML file that can be easily parsed is with the organisation, you need to make your elements to make sure they appear sensible from a structural perspective.
For example if you're a constructing a stock list of your products, it might make more sense to have products as your root element and then the categories as the parent and then individual category products as the child elements.
Having a well laid and common sense structure is going to pay off in the long term when you need to handle updates or parsing as all the elements will naturally fit into place.
Along with element structure and naming, its also wise to keep the following easy tips in mind too.
Each and every element tag requires a opening and closing syntax ie <xml> and </xml>, if you forget you will receive an error message whenever you try and validate or parse your xml file.
Be sure you organize your element names intelligently and rationally. Name your tags in a means by which is smart to you.
Root element
Parent element
Child element
Two parent elements for the product stock list could have child tags named ‹product›. In fact, parent names may also be the same.
Product - root element
Item - parent element
Item - parent element
So that’s a rapid and straightforward look at xml and how to write an xml file, to study more advanced material, you can search Google or view this xml tutorial.
Wednesday, 3 October 2012
9 Very Important Terminology In XML
In contrast to the popular myth about XML, it's not actually a development language, it is a mark-up language, and as a result, essentially the most least complicated computer language around.
XML is really a non semantic language therefore, you can develop your own element tags and in contrast to other languages there isn't any real complex syntax structures to think about.
Given it isn’t a programming language, XML itself doesn’t really do anything, by design, it’s really a storage container for data and so it only comes up as very simple text on web pages or as a text file.
You can also utilize XML to properly exhibit pages around distinct internet browsers and version types, to do this you have to compose different formatting directions, known as DTD.s or Schemas.
Dealing with XML and building basic files is really rather simple if you can learn the basic principles, below is a glance at 9 of the most well-known XML words that you may run into.
1. XML (Extensible Mark-up Language
As already stated, xml is a markup language that works as a container for the holding of data and allows data and information to be transported and displayed on the online as webpages. Within XML their can also be subsets of languages including XSL which supports in validation and formatting.
2. Element Tags
You may make as well as name your element tags as you desire as well as suit your own specific requirements. Element tags enable you to build a hierarchical syntax and order to your code.
By way of example, let’s say you wished to have a stock list of your stock items for your ecommerce bike shop website, you can use key tag names like product, and also within the product tag element, you can have child elements like men’s bikes, women’s, child bikes etc.
The beauty and simpleness of XML is in its ability to build your own element tags, just be sure you close them.
<product> - element tag
</product> - closing tag
3. Declaration Statement
The declaration statement ought to be at the beginning of your xml file, the aim of the declaration statement is to specify the language, version as well as designate encoding and declare the standalone status of the file, without it the Internet processor will not be able to determine the code.
<xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes">
4. Root Element
The root element, like the title indicates is the very first named tag of every XML file and it's a container for all other elements, consequently it is in the root.
<products> - root element
5. Parent Element
The parent tag retains elements linked to the root, and so within our example of products, the parent would be the associated categories or products.
<products> - parent element
<mens bike> - element tag
6. Child Element
The child element is so called, given it belongs to the parent element and thus, is situated inside it.
<products> - root/parent element
<mens bike> - parent element
<cube bike> - child element
7. Attributes
An attribute is a name or value that sits within the element tag, in our example an attribute could be frame size of the bike or the colour style.
<cube bike size="20"> - cube bike is the element and size is the attribute
8. Comments
Comments will be only viewable in the source and are generally mostly for editors and authors who want to update or customize the xml file, comments are not exposed on a webpage
<!--this is a comment -->
9. Data Strings
A data string will be the complete opposite of a comment in that it is viewable on the webpage, a data string in this context is the equivalent of the description field.
<description> - element tag
Extensive range of cube bikes available. - data string viewable on a webpage
</description> - closing tag
So that’s an easy and easy look at xml and the best way to create an xml file, to study more advanced material, you can search Google or check out this xml tutorial.
XML is really a non semantic language therefore, you can develop your own element tags and in contrast to other languages there isn't any real complex syntax structures to think about.
Given it isn’t a programming language, XML itself doesn’t really do anything, by design, it’s really a storage container for data and so it only comes up as very simple text on web pages or as a text file.
You can also utilize XML to properly exhibit pages around distinct internet browsers and version types, to do this you have to compose different formatting directions, known as DTD.s or Schemas.
Dealing with XML and building basic files is really rather simple if you can learn the basic principles, below is a glance at 9 of the most well-known XML words that you may run into.
1. XML (Extensible Mark-up Language
As already stated, xml is a markup language that works as a container for the holding of data and allows data and information to be transported and displayed on the online as webpages. Within XML their can also be subsets of languages including XSL which supports in validation and formatting.
2. Element Tags
You may make as well as name your element tags as you desire as well as suit your own specific requirements. Element tags enable you to build a hierarchical syntax and order to your code.
By way of example, let’s say you wished to have a stock list of your stock items for your ecommerce bike shop website, you can use key tag names like product, and also within the product tag element, you can have child elements like men’s bikes, women’s, child bikes etc.
The beauty and simpleness of XML is in its ability to build your own element tags, just be sure you close them.
<product> - element tag
</product> - closing tag
3. Declaration Statement
The declaration statement ought to be at the beginning of your xml file, the aim of the declaration statement is to specify the language, version as well as designate encoding and declare the standalone status of the file, without it the Internet processor will not be able to determine the code.
<xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes">
4. Root Element
The root element, like the title indicates is the very first named tag of every XML file and it's a container for all other elements, consequently it is in the root.
<products> - root element
5. Parent Element
The parent tag retains elements linked to the root, and so within our example of products, the parent would be the associated categories or products.
<products> - parent element
<mens bike> - element tag
6. Child Element
The child element is so called, given it belongs to the parent element and thus, is situated inside it.
<products> - root/parent element
<mens bike> - parent element
<cube bike> - child element
7. Attributes
An attribute is a name or value that sits within the element tag, in our example an attribute could be frame size of the bike or the colour style.
<cube bike size="20"> - cube bike is the element and size is the attribute
8. Comments
Comments will be only viewable in the source and are generally mostly for editors and authors who want to update or customize the xml file, comments are not exposed on a webpage
<!--this is a comment -->
9. Data Strings
A data string will be the complete opposite of a comment in that it is viewable on the webpage, a data string in this context is the equivalent of the description field.
<description> - element tag
Extensive range of cube bikes available. - data string viewable on a webpage
</description> - closing tag
So that’s an easy and easy look at xml and the best way to create an xml file, to study more advanced material, you can search Google or check out this xml tutorial.
Friday, 21 September 2012
Going Ahead Of HTML TO XML
HTML is certainly a well-known coding language used by site designers to generate internet pages and not to mention full web sites can be done applying html code alone. HTML is short for Hypertext Markup Language and has been made use of basically since the start of the net, but as the web has evolved, several common html practices also have evolved.
To illustrate, applying tables to design a web page was initially quite normal in the early days of the world-wide-web but as web browsers changed and technology improved, brand new approaches like CSS progressed to allow site designers to build web sites that could be shown in the same way across numerous internet browsers (browser compatibility) and also exactly the same internet browsers but different variants (version compatibility).
A further enlargement came with the development XHTML, an acronym for Extensibe Hypertext Markup Language, a more recent, more versatile version of HTML.
XHTML is part of the family of XML languages even though it is furthermore an extension of HTML, if not more closely relevant to html version 5.0, it is actually developed to perform far more robustly with xml dependent user agents and also properties.
XHTML will also be referred to as an application of XML as it is actually a more prohibitive subset of SGML, which means that unlike html, it is possible to parse xhtml documents by using a common xml tool, similar to an xml parser.
The only requirement is that the xhtml document should be well formed because there are specified xml rules to go by, whereas with html, you simply can't parse it unless you happen to be running a more lenient, html specific parser.
The main variation regarding xml and html is that xml is a markup language, there are no semantics involved and simply no rules as to what exactly could and can't be included, xml merely describes the data. Html conversely has semantic meaning and states how data and text is intended to be viewed.
For example, in html, you can only make use of the head tag to describe the header elements, where as all body components must be contained inside of the body tag, to incorporate a paragraph you have to include it within a paragraph tag, this is precisely what is meant by the term semantics. XML as, I have just mentioned, has absolutely no semantic tags or predetermined meanings, for instance inside an xml document your tags will be able to have any meaning as well as any data, you create your own tags.
Due to all these key differences, xml, unlike html, is not something that a person can look at with the naked eye on any website, instead it sits in the background, or the source code of the internet site, as internet websites grew to become more dynamic entities, not to mention the requirement to consume this data originated via completely different platforms, from tablets, to PCs to smart phones, XML turned out to be a lot more crucial to making certain that this information was ordered, stored and transferred in a dependable and universal approach.
Xhtml satisfied an important objective and was in fact made for a number of purposes. The principal good reason had been to fix the compatibility gap between a client computer and a webpage on a remote computer, a language was needed that could transport and express the meaning of data on a web page to a pc, xhtml filled this need.
The next reason was basically to satisfy the gap for a standard language format which might be properly viewed across various internet browsers and platforms as well as on different screen types, again xhtml satisfied this particular requirement beautifully.
With the huge selection of various gadgets, from smart phones, PCs, laptops, tablets, not to mention distinct internet browsers from Internet Explorer to Mozilla, and variants from IE7 to IE8, it is extremely critical for any would be web designer to migrate from html to xhtml development to permit your websites to display effectively across all platforms and browsers.
To illustrate, applying tables to design a web page was initially quite normal in the early days of the world-wide-web but as web browsers changed and technology improved, brand new approaches like CSS progressed to allow site designers to build web sites that could be shown in the same way across numerous internet browsers (browser compatibility) and also exactly the same internet browsers but different variants (version compatibility).
A further enlargement came with the development XHTML, an acronym for Extensibe Hypertext Markup Language, a more recent, more versatile version of HTML.
XHTML is part of the family of XML languages even though it is furthermore an extension of HTML, if not more closely relevant to html version 5.0, it is actually developed to perform far more robustly with xml dependent user agents and also properties.
XHTML will also be referred to as an application of XML as it is actually a more prohibitive subset of SGML, which means that unlike html, it is possible to parse xhtml documents by using a common xml tool, similar to an xml parser.
The only requirement is that the xhtml document should be well formed because there are specified xml rules to go by, whereas with html, you simply can't parse it unless you happen to be running a more lenient, html specific parser.
The main variation regarding xml and html is that xml is a markup language, there are no semantics involved and simply no rules as to what exactly could and can't be included, xml merely describes the data. Html conversely has semantic meaning and states how data and text is intended to be viewed.
For example, in html, you can only make use of the head tag to describe the header elements, where as all body components must be contained inside of the body tag, to incorporate a paragraph you have to include it within a paragraph tag, this is precisely what is meant by the term semantics. XML as, I have just mentioned, has absolutely no semantic tags or predetermined meanings, for instance inside an xml document your tags will be able to have any meaning as well as any data, you create your own tags.
Due to all these key differences, xml, unlike html, is not something that a person can look at with the naked eye on any website, instead it sits in the background, or the source code of the internet site, as internet websites grew to become more dynamic entities, not to mention the requirement to consume this data originated via completely different platforms, from tablets, to PCs to smart phones, XML turned out to be a lot more crucial to making certain that this information was ordered, stored and transferred in a dependable and universal approach.
Xhtml satisfied an important objective and was in fact made for a number of purposes. The principal good reason had been to fix the compatibility gap between a client computer and a webpage on a remote computer, a language was needed that could transport and express the meaning of data on a web page to a pc, xhtml filled this need.
The next reason was basically to satisfy the gap for a standard language format which might be properly viewed across various internet browsers and platforms as well as on different screen types, again xhtml satisfied this particular requirement beautifully.
With the huge selection of various gadgets, from smart phones, PCs, laptops, tablets, not to mention distinct internet browsers from Internet Explorer to Mozilla, and variants from IE7 to IE8, it is extremely critical for any would be web designer to migrate from html to xhtml development to permit your websites to display effectively across all platforms and browsers.
Thursday, 20 September 2012
Newbies Guide To Employing XSLT
XSLT is short for extensible stylesheet language transformations, and it is an highly flexible and handy technique that claims numerous benefits in particular when applied to tackle the proper troubles.
So that you can get you started, all you need to have is the appropriate overview to the basic principles of XSLT to assist you get started out, and once you do, you surely won’t look back, it will definitely turn into one of the most invaluable tools in your programming tool bet.
And so why might you use XSLT and what can it achieve? In really basic terms, XSLT is a transformation dependent formatter which makes it possible for you to change structured XML documents straight into different output formats, for example into HTML or CSV and so on.
For the purposes of this short article we are going to take a look at the capacity of XSLT to transform or alter XML records into HTML. We are going to employ an XML file to illustrate the attributes of a product (e.g. the Name, Short Description, Long Description, Downloads, Licensing Options, System Requirements, etc.) and also a series of XSLT files to display them.
Right, firstly let’s put together our own very straightforward XML document for a product, and you can develop it up from there. For the time being, all we will cover is the product title, version, and short description. You are able to create more later on should you feel brave enough.
<product code="Spt001">
<title>htmltrans</title>
<version>2.0</version>
<short_desc>
The product spt001 enables transformation of regular text to html and vice versa
</short_desc>
</product>
So that’s our basic XML document all set up, then were ready to operate with XSLT and carry out some basic functions
Now that we have got the basic XML document set up, let me look at what we could do using XSLT.
XSLT, like virtually all other XML-based formats, is pretty fastidious about its structure. Your simple XSLT document appears just like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<xsl:stylesheet
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
<xsl:output method="html" />
<xsl:template match="/">
Rules go in here...
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Well the above illustration is a pretty simple and common xslt file, anyone can see we have declared the XSLT stylesheet and version. In the fourth line we have also told the parser to output the result as HTML.
Observe we also have a xsl:template component declared in the 5th row.
Bear in mind that XSLT is a rules-based language, so in compliance with the principles, the parser will move through the xml file and implement the needed rules(template) to the appropriate elements (the match).
Good, that is it for this article, as said, we dealt with the essentials of XSLT, therefore now you are able to generate your own file and produce the contents of an HTML file.
I really should also point out that one of the main plus points of XSLT is the potential to produce multiple views on the same xml file. For example, a single product.xml file that stores the product information, downloads, screenshots, and more could be utilized for a product summary page, the downloads list, a screenshot gallery, and more.
The key advantage of this procedure is that adding or adjusting a product does definitely not mean any presentation changes--only data ones, which is a sizable gain and indeed time and cost saving for any company.
An XSLT processor (like Liquid XSLT Debugger), will unquestionably parse the input XML record, as well as the XSLT style sheet and also subsequently applying the elements from input XML document, process the rules or instructions which will be within the XSLT style sheet. All through the processing of the XSLT instructions, a structured XML output is produced.
So that you can get you started, all you need to have is the appropriate overview to the basic principles of XSLT to assist you get started out, and once you do, you surely won’t look back, it will definitely turn into one of the most invaluable tools in your programming tool bet.
And so why might you use XSLT and what can it achieve? In really basic terms, XSLT is a transformation dependent formatter which makes it possible for you to change structured XML documents straight into different output formats, for example into HTML or CSV and so on.
For the purposes of this short article we are going to take a look at the capacity of XSLT to transform or alter XML records into HTML. We are going to employ an XML file to illustrate the attributes of a product (e.g. the Name, Short Description, Long Description, Downloads, Licensing Options, System Requirements, etc.) and also a series of XSLT files to display them.
Right, firstly let’s put together our own very straightforward XML document for a product, and you can develop it up from there. For the time being, all we will cover is the product title, version, and short description. You are able to create more later on should you feel brave enough.
<product code="Spt001">
<title>htmltrans</title>
<version>2.0</version>
<short_desc>
The product spt001 enables transformation of regular text to html and vice versa
</short_desc>
</product>
So that’s our basic XML document all set up, then were ready to operate with XSLT and carry out some basic functions
Now that we have got the basic XML document set up, let me look at what we could do using XSLT.
XSLT, like virtually all other XML-based formats, is pretty fastidious about its structure. Your simple XSLT document appears just like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<xsl:stylesheet
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
<xsl:output method="html" />
<xsl:template match="/">
Rules go in here...
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Well the above illustration is a pretty simple and common xslt file, anyone can see we have declared the XSLT stylesheet and version. In the fourth line we have also told the parser to output the result as HTML.
Observe we also have a xsl:template component declared in the 5th row.
Bear in mind that XSLT is a rules-based language, so in compliance with the principles, the parser will move through the xml file and implement the needed rules(template) to the appropriate elements (the match).
Good, that is it for this article, as said, we dealt with the essentials of XSLT, therefore now you are able to generate your own file and produce the contents of an HTML file.
I really should also point out that one of the main plus points of XSLT is the potential to produce multiple views on the same xml file. For example, a single product.xml file that stores the product information, downloads, screenshots, and more could be utilized for a product summary page, the downloads list, a screenshot gallery, and more.
The key advantage of this procedure is that adding or adjusting a product does definitely not mean any presentation changes--only data ones, which is a sizable gain and indeed time and cost saving for any company.
An XSLT processor (like Liquid XSLT Debugger), will unquestionably parse the input XML record, as well as the XSLT style sheet and also subsequently applying the elements from input XML document, process the rules or instructions which will be within the XSLT style sheet. All through the processing of the XSLT instructions, a structured XML output is produced.
Friday, 7 September 2012
An Uncomplicated Explanation Of XSLT
XSLT is an acronym for XML Stylesheet Transformations, the XML element represents Extensible Markup Language.
XML signifies Extensible Markup Language which is, as the name implies, a markup language, XML operates as a general-purpose markup vocabulary that has been the industry-standard method of organizing data files to transport around the world wide web.
XSLT can be described as a programming vocabulary for changing your XML documents into several other document formats for example VB, C or even C#. This is achieved by making use of another programming language, identified as Xpath query language.
XPath is a query language helpful to navigate through elements and attributes within a XML document and also for picking nodes from an XML document. In addition, XPath may be used to estimate values (e.g., strings, numbers, or Boolean values) out of the content of the XML document. without having understanding of XPath, you simply will not be capable of create XSLT documents.
The process of transforming your XML making use of the XPath includes an XSLT processor reading the XML document along with the XSLT style sheet, and then based mostly on the layout directions the processor locates in the XSLT style sheet, it is going to make, or output, a new XML document. In reality, by means of special support for HTML, you can in fact output an HTML document.
The process functions due to the fact the XSLT detects each XML document as a tree structure and so turns one XML tree, into another XML tree. To work, XSLT assumes that there are three documents in use; the source XML document, the XSLT style sheet as well as the altered document.
The actual source document needs to be a well-formed XML document, that is to meaning, it needs to be correct XML, in order for the input to be accepted and the conversion to be successful.
The style sheet contains the transformational guidelines that the processor needs to work with in order to yield the new document out of the source XML document. The final result is a text document that is produced by passing the source document by means of the changes written in the XSLT style sheet.
To sum up, XSLT, the extensible style sheet language for transformations, is a language that offers the process to change and shape XML data. It is used to transform XML documents into another documents, for instance other XML document, HTML document or text document.
An XSLT processor (like Liquid XSLT Debugger), will parse the input XML document, as well as the XSLT style sheet and then utilizing the elements from input XML document, process the rules or guidance that are in the XSLT style sheet. In the course of the processing of the XSLT instructions, a structured XML output is created.
In case you are using .Net, you can in fact, execute this change using a set of techniques known as “Load” and “Transform”, originated from XslTransform class. At first an XslTransform object is instantiated (in development terms, it is any time you make an instance of a variable), in which is the engine to carry out XSLT conversions on XML documents in the .NET structure. The “Load” way of the XslTranform is utilised to load the XSL style sheet from disk.
XML signifies Extensible Markup Language which is, as the name implies, a markup language, XML operates as a general-purpose markup vocabulary that has been the industry-standard method of organizing data files to transport around the world wide web.
XSLT can be described as a programming vocabulary for changing your XML documents into several other document formats for example VB, C or even C#. This is achieved by making use of another programming language, identified as Xpath query language.
XPath is a query language helpful to navigate through elements and attributes within a XML document and also for picking nodes from an XML document. In addition, XPath may be used to estimate values (e.g., strings, numbers, or Boolean values) out of the content of the XML document. without having understanding of XPath, you simply will not be capable of create XSLT documents.
The process of transforming your XML making use of the XPath includes an XSLT processor reading the XML document along with the XSLT style sheet, and then based mostly on the layout directions the processor locates in the XSLT style sheet, it is going to make, or output, a new XML document. In reality, by means of special support for HTML, you can in fact output an HTML document.
The process functions due to the fact the XSLT detects each XML document as a tree structure and so turns one XML tree, into another XML tree. To work, XSLT assumes that there are three documents in use; the source XML document, the XSLT style sheet as well as the altered document.
The actual source document needs to be a well-formed XML document, that is to meaning, it needs to be correct XML, in order for the input to be accepted and the conversion to be successful.
The style sheet contains the transformational guidelines that the processor needs to work with in order to yield the new document out of the source XML document. The final result is a text document that is produced by passing the source document by means of the changes written in the XSLT style sheet.
To sum up, XSLT, the extensible style sheet language for transformations, is a language that offers the process to change and shape XML data. It is used to transform XML documents into another documents, for instance other XML document, HTML document or text document.
An XSLT processor (like Liquid XSLT Debugger), will parse the input XML document, as well as the XSLT style sheet and then utilizing the elements from input XML document, process the rules or guidance that are in the XSLT style sheet. In the course of the processing of the XSLT instructions, a structured XML output is created.
In case you are using .Net, you can in fact, execute this change using a set of techniques known as “Load” and “Transform”, originated from XslTransform class. At first an XslTransform object is instantiated (in development terms, it is any time you make an instance of a variable), in which is the engine to carry out XSLT conversions on XML documents in the .NET structure. The “Load” way of the XslTranform is utilised to load the XSL style sheet from disk.
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