Headings: XML vs. XSL

[james at xmlTree.com]

John

> In general, is it better to code headings into XML or to handle them
> with XSL?  For instance, I want my output to look like:

With respect, I don't think that your problem is unique or new to xml/xsl.

For example, if you build an "old-fashioned" 2 tier client server application with Visual
Basic and SQL Server, do you store the labels for the controls on the forms in the
database, or hard code them on the form?

The decision depends upon whether the label / heading is likely to vary over time.  If so,
then storing the date without the associated meaning "Effective Date" is meaningless, and
you need to also store the heading in the xml.

If, on the other hand, the value of <POLICY-EFFECTIVE-HEADING> will always be "Effective
Date:" then you could make this explicit in the design of the document
i.e. <POLICY-EFFECTIVE-DATE>July 1, 1999</POLICY-EFFECTIVE-DATE>

Best regards,
James Carlyle

james at xmltree.com
www.xmltree.com - directory of XML content on the web


xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev at ic.ac.uk
Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/ and on CD-ROM/ISBN 981-02-3594-1
To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo at ic.ac.uk the following message;
(un)subscribe xml-dev
To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo at ic.ac.uk the following message;
subscribe xml-dev-digest
List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa at ic.ac.uk)