XML Data Island Alternative?
I don't know if this is even possible, but I'm looking for a cross-browser way to:
a) Load an object in the browser with data from the server (XML or JSON are fine) in hierarchical format (e.g. customer with associated orders and order lines)
b) Have the object automatically update input fields on the web page with values from that data
c) Allow the user to change the data, including adding or deleting orders and order lines
d) When they're done, have the object contain the updated data and be able to provide a string (again, XML or JSON) to send back to the server
I've seen this done with XML data islands, but from what I read a) they only work in IE and b) they may not even work in IE for that much longer.
I've read that XML/XSLT is a good solution, but it looks as if you essentially have to build your entire web page in your XSLT file, and then that gets put in the browser as one big unit. Ideally, I'd like to have a page where elements that are updated by the "data object" are interspersed among elements that aren't, and that may have other characteristics that don't play well in an XSLT environment.
If this is a dumb question, please let me know -- I'm pretty new to this sort of web development. Should I maybe be looking at one of the frameworks? Thank you very much for any advice you can give!
a) Load an object in the browser with data from the server (XML or JSON are fine) in hierarchical format (e.g. customer with associated orders and order lines)
b) Have the object automatically update input fields on the web page with values from that data
c) Allow the user to change the data, including adding or deleting orders and order lines
d) When they're done, have the object contain the updated data and be able to provide a string (again, XML or JSON) to send back to the server
I've seen this done with XML data islands, but from what I read a) they only work in IE and b) they may not even work in IE for that much longer.
I've read that XML/XSLT is a good solution, but it looks as if you essentially have to build your entire web page in your XSLT file, and then that gets put in the browser as one big unit. Ideally, I'd like to have a page where elements that are updated by the "data object" are interspersed among elements that aren't, and that may have other characteristics that don't play well in an XSLT environment.
If this is a dumb question, please let me know -- I'm pretty new to this sort of web development. Should I maybe be looking at one of the frameworks? Thank you very much for any advice you can give!
Topic Participants
mnaughton
Kevin Boudloche
Dave Methvin