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Why should I use the ECEn XML Web Templates? They are easy to use: just define your content in terms of the ECEn XML and let the ECEn Web Team
worry about making the web page match the look and feel of the department and the university.
The XML templates aim to let you focus on the content of your web page, meaning you write the content
of your web page, complete with text, pictures, section headings, tables etc., and the ECEn Web Team will turn your XML
document into a web page that matches the look and feel of the Department and the University. You don't have to worry about
making your links a certain color or style, all you have to specify is the link. Same with tables: just specify the table,
and the ECEn Web Team will color and style the table to match the BYU templates. And so on...
Hopefully the XML templates will allow you to concentrate on what you do best, such as explaining your current
research goals, while not having to waste time fighting to make the text a certain size or color.
Easy to use?
Are they easy to use? They're designed to be anyway... XML is easy to write and if you don't want to write a lot of XML you can use Microsoft Word 2003 with our WordML tool to eliminate most of the XML writing.
XML is easy to learn. Have a look at the XML FAQ to get a feel for what XML is and how we use it for the ECEn Dept. In general, ECEn Web XML is easier to write and understand than HTML. All you need to do is write your web pages in ECEn XML, set up a few appropriate files
, and your web pages will match the look and feel of the unverisity and deparment. To get started, have a look at the Howdy, World tutorial or contact the ECEn Web Team for individual attention.
What are my other options?
So, is there any other way? Yes, we do have static HTML templates if you enjoy using Microsoft Front Page or Mozilla Composer,
but we recommend the XML templates.
If you want to find out more about the static templates, contact the ECEn Web Team.
Can I use Microsoft® products to edit my web pages?
Are these templates Windows friendly? Yes! You can easily edit XML and use the ECEn XML web templates on any platform. There are all
kind of free XML editors available for Windows and GNU/Linux alike and, if you prefer, the WordML tool allows you to create most of your web page content in Microsoft Word 2003.
Programs you can use on your Microsoft® Windows machine to edit ECEn XML by hand:
Architag XRay 2 XML Editor -- Simple, lightweight, and free XML editor that you can download and install on your Windows machine.
WordPad -- Simple, basic text editor available on most Windows machines.
Notepad -- Simple, basic text editor available on most Windows machines.
Emacs -- Powerful text editor designed to handle all kinds of text file creation, including XML. If you'd like to customize
your .emacs file for helpful XML syntax highlighting, you might look at this brief guide.
I don't see FrontPage on the list. Why? Microsoft FrontPage and Mozilla (or Netscape) Composer are both WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") HTML editors, not XML editors.
If you are interested in a WYSIWYG-like solution, try out the WordML tool, which allows you to create ECEn XML web pages in Microsoft Word 2003. If you want to use Microsoft FrontPage or Mozilla
Compose, contact the ECEn Web Team to find out more about using the static HTML templates.
The WordML Tool
The WordML tool allows you to use Microsoft Word 2003 to create ECEn XML web pages. Find out more about the WordML Tool.
How do these templates really work?
What goes on behind the scenes? The great thing about the ECEn XML templates is that you don't have to worry about how it all works, but if you're curious, we'll explain.
The set up
Essentially, all the templates do is render your ECEn XML as a
web page that matches the look and feel of the university.
We do this by breaking ECEn Web Pages into two pieces: the ECEn-specific
XML and the script that transforms that XML into the HTML your browser
can understand. Each ECEn XML Web page, therefore, has two important
files associated with it: an XML file and a .phtml file. The .phtml file is the same for every XML web page---it just contains a reference to
the script that transforms the XML into HTML.
Why is it called the .phtml file? .phtml is a common extension for files containing a web scripting
language called PHP that is especially designed to generate HTML.
The ECEn Web Team uses PHP and an XML-transforming language called XSLT to turn its XML language into HTML that peoples' browsers understand.
As you probably already know, the XML file is where you define your unique web page content in ECEn Web XML. It will generally be very different from page to page (unlees the pages themselves are exactly the same :).
How it works
When people want to look at your ECEn XML web page, they point their browser at the .phtml. Their browser passes that request along to the ECEn web server, and the web server runs the PHP
script it to create a web page for them to view, based one the corresponding XML file. You can see what HTML
the PHP script produces by viewing the source of your web page in a web browser. Instead of seeing the one line script which you would see if you looked
at the .phtml file in a text editor, you'll see a whole mess of HTML surrounding your content.
If you really want to know, PHP is only a small part of the processing that takes place to transform your web pages. The ECEn Web Team uses XSLT, or
eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations, to do most of the work to transform your XML into HTML. XSLT is designed for transforming
XML into other stuff, so it's admirably suited to this task.
What about my old-style (PHP) templated pages?
Do I have to switch my old-style (PHP) templated pages? No, but you might want to: there are some great features and advantages to using the XML templates.
Contact the ECEn Web Team to find out more about the ECEn templates in general and why you might want to move your PHP templated pages over to the XML templates.
