RE: [xsl] xslt on server-side vs. client-side

[Jeff Beadle <Jbeadle at manh dot com>]

Hey Nathalie,

Some other things to keep in mind:
Pushing the transforming logic to the client is nice for the reasons stated
below, however be aware of the following:
1.  Will you have control over what browsers your clients will use?  If not,
then your xslt development and deployment will need to be browser and
browser version aware.  Granted you'd still have a similar issue with having
to develop browser aware xslt on server, but only for your output ... not
your output and your xslt processing environment.
2.  If you want to incorporate something new, lets say--using I.E. for
example--from the MSXML 4.0 xslt engine, perhaps a new xslt extension.  Can
you control and handle upgrading ALL of those clients?
3.  Is it OK to expose your transforming logic?
4.  Will you ever have the need to deploy to something other than a browser?
... perhaps a PDA, PocketPC or a cell phone.  And trust me, more often than
you expect, I've seen this consideration scoffed at by business analysts and
management only to come back and bite them on the you know what.

anyhow, maybe none of these apply to you ... just thought I'd add some
considerations that I've had to deal with.

-Jeff


-----Original Message-----
From: cutlass [mailto:cutlass@secure0.com]
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2001 5:16 AM
To: xsl-list@lists.mulberrytech.com
Subject: Re: [xsl] xslt on server-side vs. client-side



----- Original Message -----
From: "Nathalie Pult" <s9292251@access.unizh.ch>


> Hi List,
> I already worked with xslt on server-side.
> What are the advantages and disadvantages having operations done on
> client-side?


Hello Nathalie,

Your question is fairly generic, so i will be short.

- Client side processing is desirable as this offloads processing from
server to client, this is especially compelling when all that needs to be
sent to the client is data, as stylesheets will already be cached.

- It would be nice for all major browsers to be in spec for xslt processor,
but unfortunately the only real choice is IE, though the IE xslt processor
is exceptional ( did i say that ? ). Mozilla does have xslt support, but at
the moment it is a bit sketchy but it should be up to spec very soon. When
this occurs client side processing will become more ubiqitous.

- client side processing, in a semantic world, means possibly that the
browser will take in data from a whole range of remote servers, then
aggregating this into a single customised 'view' at the client.

- some of the really neat clientside stuff has been done by Chris Bayes at
www.bayes.co.uk/xml

chow, jim fuller




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