[Zope] DTML reformulated as XML

[Pavlos Christoforou]

On Tue, 15 Jun 1999, Jacobs,David B. wrote:

> architecture and I'm glad what I consider one of its weakest links is
> getting some attention.

Agreed it is the weakest link

> 
> If you have looked at the XMLC product that the Enhydra project has
> incorporated (www.enhydra.org) It provides some clues as to how it might be
> implemented.  Basically the XMLC is a HTML compiler that compiles HTML/XML
> to Java Document Object Model classes that can then be manipulated
> dynamically to add active content.
> 

But Zope already does that and more but in reverse ... ie the object model
of Zope can be considered/used as a Document Object Model. You build you
hierarchy of objects and then you use DTML to produce the output, either
in HTML, XML or whatever. The reverse is only possible if all the info is
accessible in the document ie full blown XMl, but do we really want to
write xml for web publishing right now? In any case what you are asking is
not that difficult. I have already build an external method in the past
that it would take an XML doc parse it and create a hierarchy of
Folders/DTMl Documents with appropriate properties. Then you can
manibulate the DOM through the Web using Zope and output it back in HTMl
or XML. 

Regards

Pavlos