[opencms-dev] discussion on template design -- XML templates deprecated

[Paul D. Bain]

Joe Desbonnet wrote:
> 
> 
> I'm curious if anyone has any ideas on the templating system. I like
> OpenCms, but I'm still a little uncomfortable with this idea of using
> JSP to construct templates. I must confess I am still not up to speed
> on the details of OpenCms, so my thoughts on this are likely to change
> as I get more familiar witht the software.
> 
> Has XSLT been considered as an alternative to the JSP approach? Or
> perhaps the entire templating engine could be made modular so that
> various mechanisms could be utilized (Velocity, JSP, XSLT etc) ?

Joe,

	Old versions of OpenCms used something similar to that which you have 
proposed, to wit, XML templates. The last production version of OpenCms 
to use such templates as the preferred approach was version 4.6, which 
was replaced by version 5.0 in May, 2003. With the release of version 
6.0, XML templates (in OpenCms) will become deprecated and available 
only with a special jar file. Why did the OpenCms developers abandon XML 
templates? Because they were awkward to use and more difficult to learn 
than the current JSP templates.

	You may use a template engine such as Velocity with OpenCms. See the 
Velocity module by Matt Butcher. Furthermore, there may have been some 
discussion of XSLT tools on this list some time ago (but not with 
respect to templating) -- search the email archives.

--Paul Bain