Why choose an XSL-transformation?

Question

For a current project the decision has to be made whether to use XML and an XSL-transformation to produce HTML or to directly use HTML-templates.

I'd be interested in arguments for or against the XSL-approach. I understand that in cases where you have to support many different layouts, an XSL-solution has a lot of advantages, but why would you choose it in those cases where you only have to support one target layout?

Edit: We're talking about Java here.

Answer 1

Please don't use XML/XSLT for web front-ends. I was in projects like this and it's horrible. Often you have to first produce the XML from objects or something similar, which doesn't make sense. A second point is, that there are so many good HTML editors out there for free, but I've found none for XSLT. So editing complex XSLT is no fun. I would recommend to go with HTML templates and a common template engine.

Answer 2

Keep it simple. That's a principle that one gets to appreciate more and more.

Velocity or Freemarker are incredibly flexible and versatile. Your code base will be clear, easily understandable, and it will run much (much) faster than the X monstrosities.

Answer 3

XML + XSLT are really cool. You have the ability to output many types of target formats in the future. But ne aware of embedded HTML in the XML. Firefox XSLT doesn't support "disable-output-escaping". See Bugzilla.

Answer 4

XSLT is a functional programming language and you can use it to create frontends as rich as any templating system. However, you shouldn't — you and your team will go insane.

Both options present the opportunity of transforming objects into a presentation form in a logical sort of way. XSLT is best suited for creating more XML, which might lead you to believe that it's a perfect candidate to use to create XHTML. However, creating XHTML shouldn't be the primary goal — Creating a user experience is. Don't concern yourself with the medium.

Two significant drawbacks to XSLT concern the syntax: Your templates, and the templates that they include, and the templates that those templates include will all be gigantic and verbose. Second, you'll have to do a lot of functional programming, and less-experienced engineers may be confused and terrified when they encounter a recursive template with an accumulating function parameter instead of a simple for loop.

If you're attracted by the beauty of transforming logically-constructed, valid XML entities, consider instead a type-safe templating system that transforms beans instead. Check out Google XML Pages, and create logically-organized, type-safe templates that will be easy for future engineers to pick up and extend.