Posting Data Islands

[Hunter, David]

Actually, on the project I'm working on right now data islands have been
exactly what we were looking for.  (Before, when we were using IE4, we
hacked up the same thing by using a hidden div.)  I'm afraid it would take a
huge email to explain WHY we love data islands so much, but suffice it to
say that sometimes it's helpful to have some information embedded in the
page that your application can read.

As for the *syntax* of that data island, I don't really have a preference
one way or the other.  So if it was

<xml id="myXMLIsland">
<blah/>
</xml>

or if it was

<object type="text/xml" id="myXMLIsland">
<blah/>
</object>

either one would be fine for me.  I'd prefer not to have to use the data
attribute, though, and link to a separate XML file.

David Hunter
david.hunter at mediaserv.com
MediaServ Information Architects
http://www.MediaServ.com

-----Original Message-----
From: David Megginson [mailto:david at megginson.com]
Sent: Monday, June 07, 1999 10:43 AM
To: XML development
Subject: RE: Posting Data Islands


Matthew Sergeant (EML) writes:

 > Am I the only person that has come to the conclusion that XML Data
 > Islands are a really bad idea?

I have heard almost no one suggest that they are a good one.

Arguments range from "Microsoft is pushing them so hard that we have
to do something" to "Let's ignore them and they'll go away", but never
(yet) "Wow -- this is the solution I've been waiting for!".

 > I hope MS see it the same way, and deprecate them in favour of
 > namespaces instead.

Or, better yet,

  <object type="text/xml" data="purchase-order.xml" />

(That way, legacy browsers don't have to bother downloading XML they
cannot use, and one XML object can be shared among multiple Web
pages.)

Is anyone else but MS using these?


All the best,


David

-- 
David Megginson                 david at megginson.com
           http://www.megginson.com/

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