The Best Use of CSS and Xslt

The W3C has defined two style sheet standards for use with the Web—CSS and XSLT. CSS is the older of the two and is most often used with HTML. Although CSS can be used with XML, XSLT is usually chosen as the style sheet with the greatest potential. Although CSS and XSLT can both be used simultaneously with XML, the preferred style sheet is most often XSLT when just one is used.

An example of a collection that would be nicely accessed through the use of XML and XSLT is that of historical novels. Instead of displaying all the data without a focus on specific relationships, certain combinations are more useful and make this collection more accessible with the use of multiple Web pages—one for each important combination of facts. It may be that “items by author” is important or it may be that collections by time period are important. Either way, just one XML document needs to be maintained while an XSLT style sheet would be designed to produce a different view for each combination requested from the user.

Another scenario where XML and XSLT are excellent tools for accessing specific collections of information is in the format of a book. A book is a highly structured object, which is why XML and XSLT are great candidates for displaying the contents in a variety of ways. Both personal computers and personal electronic devices will soon be displaying XML-encoded books, and the Open eBook Forum has already promulgated a standard method of encoding e-books in XML specifically to provide an easy method for interchanging books across reading devices. An interesting example of collection access in XML with the use of XSLT is when documents converted from handwritten notes are too illegible to determine some of the words. The words that were not specifically known can be marked with an “unclear” tag and XSLT can display these words in a specific color.

Sustainable and long-term collections are currently being constructed with the use of XML that are both cross-searchable and compatible with future technologies. He uses a sand castle analogy to demonstrate his ideas about XML. After the castle has been washed away by future technologies, the data (grain of sand) will still exist. XML is like the shovel and pail that makes rebuilding flexible and easy. Another aspect of Web design that focuses on the subject of access is the CGI directory.

The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a link between the user of the Web site and the server running the Web site. It allows interaction between the Web site and the user by way of forms that collect information. This information is sent to the CGI directory where a script will usually perform a function with the data collected. If a Webmaster wants to make programs run from a Web site, the CGI directory must be the home of the program. These programs can, among other things, calculate the number of hits, monitor Web traffic, set and read cookies, and tabulate information about the browser or operating system.

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