Thoughts on XSL/XSLT

[pHaT-aNt_]

Now, im sure I read somewhere that 2.2 was originally gonna include some XSLT functionality, or at least support it in some way. Was there ever any development on this?

I say thing, because obviously I think this would be a major step forward in the templating of phpBB, I'd like to think you guys agree =)

Also, do you have any ideas why the XSLT functions in PHP still aren't enabled by Default?

PS, im new to using the actual development forums, but I've been using phpBB a while, one of the great openSource projects around, we all thank you for the time and effort =)

[psoTFX]

No, 2.2 was never going to utilise XSLT in default form ... yes it, combined with the complete use of XML could be extremely "powerful" but as you note ... in PHP 4 XSLT functions are not typically the norm on hosted services.

[pHaT-aNt_]

Yeah, thats the problems I've been finding, as there not enabled by default, not many hosts will use them, especially when running the control panels like Plesk, cPanel etc. =/

I guess i misread that somewhere then, nevermind - I guess there is only one more thing to ask, Would you guys be looking to use XSL in future versions if they were enabled by default?

[zarathoustra]

phpbb could output XML for structuring forum's content. it would be good to have an XML standard like a BBML that forums could use instead of XHTML. In a first time, phpbb could use an xsl file to transform it into XHTML either on server side with PHP or client side using the XSL support in browser if it is not enabled on server side (actually i'm not convinced xsl tranforming on server side would be whishable). I guess removing the template code would also lighten phpbb, and speed it up a bit. In a second time, if the language were well designed and accepted by several bulletin boards, it could become a w3c standard and be implemented directly in browsers. I think there would a lot of advantages for everyone in reaching such a state, developers who would manage simpler code, admins who would use a simple and well accepted standard for templates, and users who could use forums through both a an XHTML interface and directly through an application, in the end.

[psoTFX]

I agree, as I said in my post, XML + XSLT would yield a powerful system. However till we can be sure of "relatively" standardised support both server side and/or client side it's not something I personally think is quite ready for "primetime". I'd certainly be interested though to see phpBB involved in this in the medium term.