Is this possible? 1 XML file supplying content for html and rss feed 1

[tombrew]

Hi guys, thanks for reading.

As the subject sort of explains, I want to be able to control the content of a HTML file and an RSS feed from one XML file.

What I am making is a noticeboard web-page. I want to be able to alter the posts easily and quickly as the person updating the noticeboard (my dad) is not html-literate.

Therefore I want to only edit one file (an XML file preferably) and for these changes to then be reflected on the HTML page.

I am hoping that the XML file I create can also be the XML file that I can use as a RSS feed.

I have made an XML file and attached an XSL style sheet to it , and this does what I want as far as displaying the noticeboard page but.....the XML document is invalid for use as an RSS feed.

By making the XML document valid for syndication, I loose the ability to apply a XSL style sheet to it.

I hope I haven't waffled on too much, but I would really appreciate it if anybody could shed some light on this.

Is what I'm trying to do possible? If not what do you recommend I try instead?

Thanks very much
Tom

 

[JontyMC]

Yes this is possible. Easiest way is to make the RSS file and use XSL to produce the HTML.

Post your files that you having trouble with.

A better solution is to do the transform server-side. Know any server-side programming languages?

Jon

"I don't regret this, but I both rue and lament it.

 

[tombrew]

Thanks for getting back to me Jon,

I've zipped up my XML, XSL and CSS file and stuck them on my webserver here:

http://www.tombrew.co.uk/XML-XSL_files.zip

I don't know much server-side programming but if it meant the solution would be better, I'd be willing to learn...as long as it wasn't too deep....im a designer, code scares me.

Your input is much appreciated

Cheers,

Tom

 

[JontyMC]

Whilst you can use the xml-stylesheet declaration to perform a client-side transform, both IE7 and firefox will display RSS feeds with their custom stylesheets. You can this off in IE, but by default it is on - so server-side is the only real choice.

Create a new text file called "noticeboard.asp" and paste in the following:

<%
set xml = Server.CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
xml.async = false
xml.load(Server.MapPath("noticeboard.xml"))

set xsl = Server.CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
xsl.async = false
xsl.load(Server.MapPath("noticeboard.xsl"))

Response.Write(xml.transformNode(xsl))
%>

To make it work, you'll need to get rid of the entity declarations in the XSL (and replace with appropriate numbered entity eg &#160.

Jon

"I don't regret this, but I both rue and lament it.

 

[tombrew]

Thanks very much, I'll give that a go.

Cheers,

Tom