Dynamically updating xml files 1

[blended]

I was told that one of the great things about xml is that it can be updated via ASP and you wouldn't have to upload a new xml file to the server everytime you want to change something. Now, this kind of thing is not my strong suit. I am a web artist/tech head with very firm beliefs about visual content and information as being crucial to web development (i.e., a good looking page makes the information on it more impressive/valid etc...). Hence, I use flash for all of my web productions (where appropriate) due to it's graphical aspects. I have been able to apply xml very successfully to Flash. Now, I need to figure out how my client can update xml files without having to get into the server. ASP apparently can do this, but I've been consistently using UNIX servers (and I'm told ASP is a no go on these. Is that true?). Essentially, what do I need to delve into to create a password protected page so my client can update an xml database (and plain text files, for that matter)?

Blended

 

[palbano]

Blended,

> ASP apparently can do this, but I've been consistently using UNIX
> servers (and I'm told ASP is a no go on these. Is that true?).

Not entirely. It is true the Microsoft IIS and the MS ASP scripting engines will not run on Unix. There is an ASP clone called ChiliSoft (

http://www.chilisoft.com)

that you might look into.

There are other server side processing solutions that are available on Unix as well, such as, Perl, Python, Java Servlets and JSP to name a few.

The oldest and most widely supported server side processing technique is CGI (Common Gateway Interface) and is available on most Web servers and most platforms. It quickly fell from favor for two main reasons.

1) Each request of a CGI applications resource spawns a new process on the server. This severely limits scalability of CGI applications.

2) Simplified and Rapid development. Most early CGI applications were written in C and/or C++ as this is what was widely available and supported. Use of scripting languages generates a wider base of developers and a shorter development cycle.

For your stated problem issue (2) is still a possible concern that you may wish to consider. However issue (1) should not be a concern since there should not be a high volume of traffic for the applications you describe.

Hope this helps
-pete

 

[blended]

Thanks, Pete,

Are there any tutorials available dealing xml updating through cgi/perl available? If so, I would love to know about them.

Jonathan

 

[palbano]

Johathen,

I don't know much about Perl. XML files are just 'files', so you update them the same way you would update any file. The only difference is if you use some XML package that would read/write the file for you and you just interface with the package API.

Good luck
-pete

 

[Miros]

If you just want a how-to-write-Perl book, I recommend Perl in a Nutshell (O'Reilly Nutshell series).

I'm looking for a library/source code that will read and write xml under Perl too.

 

[gingerbitsjock]

I'm developing e-learning content. For future use of XML based learning content management systems I want to start implementing XML with flash in dynamic courseware. So, at this early stage I plan to use ASP to generate XML from a database, which will be read by (and possibly returned by) Flash.

I want to know, does this sound feasable? Are there any problems I should be aware of before I dive in too far?

Cheers.

 

[danfood]

There are some tutorials on

http://www.XML101.com

http://www.xml101.com/articles/michael/htmlxml/

that give details of how to create/update etc. XML files using ASP.

This might be a good starting point.

Dan

 

[gingerbitsjock]

Cheers danfood,
got me started fine style.