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and XML A primer for Web design students
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and XML A primer for Web design students
Why PHP and XML?
Aren’t these just passing fad buzzwords to make cyber-snobbish people sound intelligently superior at cocktail parties?
Can’t I just develop all my information in HTML and leave it at that?
If I’m already using HTML on IIS on .NET, why would I want to use PHP and MySQL or XML with XSLT to generate XHTML and XSL-FO to generate PDFs?
Disoriented paranoid state of mind caused by excessive exposure to an overwhelming number of technology acronyms and buzzwords. Easily cured by this presentation.
Acronymophobia (ăk'rə-nĭmă'fōbē-ə) n.
Today, we’ll cover…
1. PHP and MySQL for dynamic web pages
2. XML Overview
3. XML terms and processes
4. XML transformations
5. XML software
6. Impact of XML
1. What is PHP?
Originally “Personal Home Page,” a variant of Perl scripting language.
Open-source language for server-side scripting applications.
Works with variety of relational databases to create dynamic web sites on just about any server platform.
index.html
résumé.html writing.html presentations.html
Web Server
Static Web Pages
index.php
Dynamic Web Pages
Web Server
Template
XHTML
Basic PHP Template
<html>
<body>
<?php echo "Hello World"; ?>
</body>
</html>
PHP Variables
<?php
$txt="Hello World";
echo $txt;
?>
PHP Conditionals
<?php
$d=date("D");
if ($d=="Fri")
echo "Have a nice weekend!";
else
echo "Have a nice day!";
?>
PHP Functions
Similar to JavaScript functions, but more powerful. More than 700 unique functions.
phpinfo( ) function - used for outputting information
phpforms ( ) function - inputting information to database
PHP Form Function
<form action="welcome.php” method="POST">
Enter your name: <input type="text" name="name" />
Enter your age: <input type="text" name="age" />
<input type="submit" />
</form>
PHP Example
English Department reservation system
Built from open-source program called MRBS (Meeting Room Booking System)
http://reserve.engl.iastate.edu/
2. XML overview
XML is a metalanguage, i.e. a language that defines the rules and symbols of another language.
XML is not used on the web, but instead used to define other markup languages, such as XHTML, the replacement of HTML.
Allows us to define markup languages customized to our individual needs instead of relying on pre-existing tags.
Think of XML as….
An indented outline of a very large document. A database table expressed via element tags
within one big flattened text file. A family of technologies that work in tandem to
express information in a variety of ways. The Rosetta Stone of the information age,
allowing you to move information from one context to another through a standardized structure.
XML Example<address type=“home”>
<name>
<first>Lee</first>
<last>Honeycutt</last>
</name>
<street>3938 Christytown Road</street>
<city>Story City</city>
<state>Iowa</state><zip length=“9”>50248-1234</zip>
</address>
Uses of XML
Provides a simpler method of structuring large data sets compared to earlier tagging systems like SGML.
Publishes information to various media formats from a single source.
Serves as a platform-independent lingua franca for sharing hierarchically structured information between various programs.
Embeds links in RSS feeds for news and weblogs.
Impact of XML
Provides greater flexibility in organizing information, but also introduces greater complexity.
Requires greater upfront planning and design of information sets and their rhetorical use.
Separates content from style, which has huge rhetorical implications.
3. Key XML Terms & Processes
Elements - similar to HTML <tags>, but defined by the user instead. They describe, in human language, the data they surround.
Attributes - name and value pairs used to distinguish unique instances of an element.
Entities - shorthand placeholders for information used often within a document
DTDs & Schemas - declared dictionaries of elements that model a document’s content.
XML Example<address type=“home”>
<name>
<first>Lee</first>
<last>Honeycutt</last>
</name>
<street>3938 Christytown Road</street>
<city>Story City</city>
<state>Iowa</state><zip length=“9”>50248-1234</zip>
</address>
Purpose of DTDs & Schemas
Define the set of allowed tags and attributes in the document.
Describe a document’s content model using rules by which tags and data are ordered.
Provide easy model management through references to shortcuts and external files.
Anatomy of a DTD
Entity - shorthand name/value pairs that make XML docs easier to write and parse. Similar to a Word macro. EX: <!ENTITY isu “Iowa State University”>
Elements - define actual markup tags. EX:<!ELEMENT name (first, middle?, last)><!ELEMENT street (#PCDATA)><!ELEMENT city (#PCDATA)>
Entity placed in a document
<!ENTITY isu “Iowa State University”><description>Though its claim to the first
digital computer is debatable, &isu; does have the world’s only six-sided virtual reality facility.</description>
When XML is parsed, &isu; expands to “Iowa State University”
4. Transforming XML
XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language) - special type of XML document that transforms XML data into styled format. Similar to HTML’s Cascading Stylesheets.
XSLT (Transformations) - usually used for transformation to XHTML.
XSL-FO (Formatting Objects) - used for page formats such as PDF and MS Word.
XML Transformations
XML
DTD
XSLT
XSL-FO
XHTML
XSLT stylesheets…
…contain two types of elements:Instructions - describe how nodes of
the XML document will be transformed.Literals - output text, such as XHTML
tags, that appear exactly as they appear in the stylesheet. Act as a template for XML content.
Instructions & Literals
<table width="100%">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><h1>Browse Record</h1></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Database Name: </b><xsl:value-of select="fmrs:datasource/@database"/></td>
</tr>
</table>
XPath
XPath - syntax for describing how nodes of an XML document are processed.
<xsl:apply-templates select=“expression”>
<xsl:for-each select= “expression”>
Conditionals <xsl:if test=“expression”> <xsl:choose>
<xsl:when> <xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:sort selection=“expression”>
5. XML Software
Some applications are moving to XML as their foundation. EX: OpenOffice.
Most database programs have an XML export feature.
XML editors and companion components: Cross Platform - Editix, oXygen, Exchanger Windows - XML Spy, XMetal, and Stylus
6. Impact of XML
Provides greater flexibility in organizing information, but also introduces greater complexity.
Requires greater upfront planning and design of information sets and their rhetorical use.
Separates content from style, which has huge rhetorical implications, just as does the use of CSS.
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