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@NogDogMar 22.2006 — #XML is not better than HTML, it's just different. In this specific case, it seems like overkill to me: you have data in a MySQL database, which you want to extract via PHP and store in XML, which is essentially [i]another[/i] database. Then you want to use XSLT to transform it into HTML. This seems like double work (and thus double the chance for mistakes), when you can accomplish the same thing by just extracting from MySQL and going straight to HTML. But, since it's a personal site and as good an opportunity as any to play with new technologies, why not? ?
But theory aside, to go ahead with the XML process, you might need to add this header to your PHP script (before any output is generated):
XSLT or not?
I’m designing a website and I’m trying to make it completely tableless. Right now, I’m doing the following:
MySQL -> HTML (using only div tags) -> Styled using CSS
Basically, I’m using PHP to extract data from a MySQL database and creating pages which only use div tags. Each div tag is then associated with a style in my CSS file, making the site tableless.
I was discussing this with a friend, and he suggested I change the above model to:
MySQL -> XML – > HTML (using only div tags) -> Styled using CSS
He said I should extract the data using PHP from the database, but then create an XML file. Then, I should use XSLT to transform the file into HTML, and use the same styling technique to get the tableless layout.
My question is, does the extra step make sense? I can’t really see any benefit to this, looks to me like it’s just taking an extra step. What do you think?
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@NogDogMar 22.2006 — #XML is not better than HTML, it's just different. In this specific case, it seems like overkill to me: you have data in a MySQL database, which you want to extract via PHP and store in XML, which is essentially [i]another[/i] database. Then you want to use XSLT to transform it into HTML. This seems like double work (and thus double the chance for mistakes), when you can accomplish the same thing by just extracting from MySQL and going straight to HTML. But, since it's a personal site and as good an opportunity as any to play with new technologies, why not? ?But theory aside, to go ahead with the XML process, you might need to add this header to your PHP script (before any output is generated):
[code=php]
header("Content-type: text/xml");
[/code]