Web Architecture: 2005
After going through the process of another Web site design, I decided to sit back and think about my ultimate Web architecture. The result was a pretty simple idea separated into a few steps:
- Semantic XML – Start out with data that has semantic value to it. Leave out any thought of formatting, just describe what should be on the page, not how it should be displayed.
- XSLT – Using the semantic data, transform it into semantically significant HTML, using tags like
<h1/>,<strong/>,<em/>, and<p/>. Some<div/>,<ol/>,<ul/>, etc., tags can be used to logically group sets of data. - Semantic HTML + CSS – the final presentation is then formatted into a visually pleasing format using CSS.
It all seems so simple, but why is it that so many sites are content with laying things out in tables and losing all semantic value of the data that is the real focus of the site?
Disclaimer: Any viewpoints and opinions expressed in this article are those of Nicholas C. Zakas and do not, in any way, reflect those of my employer, my colleagues, Wrox Publishing, O'Reilly Publishing, or anyone else. I speak only for myself, not for them.
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3 Comments
not that i disagree, but don't you feel that the general direction of the web is moving more towards web standards and tableless markup? also, is it safe to be using xml and xsl-t yet? this is not a smart-ass comment, just one of curiosity. i didn't think that all browsers could safely handle xml and xsl-t.
william doyle on September 4th, 2005 at 10:37 pm
Yes, the Web is moving towards standards and tableless markup, hence the Semantic HTML + CSS in the last step.
And yes, it is safe to be using XML and XSLT. You don't need to do the transformation using XSLT on the client, you can also do it on the server (which is my preferred method due to browser support and compatibility issues).
Nicholas C. Zakas on September 5th, 2005 at 12:02 pm
i see now… that's cool about the xsl-t on the server-side. i wasn't aware as i am just starting to get into xml/xsl-t for any serious development.
another question… since you are a javascript guru…
when doing OO javascripting if you have a sntactical construct like follows, what does it mean (i saw this somewhere and had no clue)
SI.Debug = {
debug : false,
e : null,
count : 0,
…
i had never seen anything with colons in it before and it didn't make sense to me, so i thought i would ask…
william doyle on September 6th, 2005 at 4:51 am
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