State of FMS and XML/XSLT

[Joost Miltenburg]

L.S.,

I read that XML/XSLT were being deprecated after FMS11 for custom web publishing... What does this mean for me ?
We have a connection with a website that pulls data from our FM system. To create the correct xml format we are using xslt to do the transformation.

 

Will this stop working when we go to fms-server 13 ?
 

[Wim Decorte]

It's still there in 13.  And you should be safe for the future,  XML is not being deprecated.

[comment]

It's still there in 13.  And you should be safe for the future,  XML is not being deprecated.

 

Are you sure about this, Wim? It is my (admittedly limited) understanding that the XSLT API for Custom Web Publishing has been removed starting from v.12. I believe it means you can no longer specify a custom XSLT stylesheet when requesting XML data from the server.

[bruceR]

Yes; I think you're referring to this:

 

http://help.filemaker.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/7701/kw/xml%20deprecated/

[Wim Decorte]

Are you sure about this, Wim?

 

I was talking only about the XML part.  From the OP's description they can just request the raw xml and apply XSLT on their end.  Or parse the raw XML any other way.

[Joost Miltenburg]

So from what you are saying only xml requests will work. Applying an xslt to give the remote system the data in the format they need is a no go. They will have to do the translation themselves ( which unfortunately is not an option as this is an automated system ) ?

 

How do you suggest I proceed ? I'd hate to go back to csv-files ( the horror ! )

[Wim Decorte]

Currently: at what point is the XSLT applied?  Right there in the request to FMS?  Or somewhat later in the process?  

 

I would think that just adding a step to the automation would solve the issue, but we'd have to know a lot more details about the system that receives the data and how the request currently is automated.

[Joost Miltenburg]

It happens the way described in this article / pdf.

 

http://www.filemaker.com/downloads/documentation/fms10_cwp_xslt_en.pdf

 

So I am looking for an alternative...

[Wim Decorte]

The system that pulls data: can it be tweaked to pull just the xml and then apply the XSLT itself, or parse the XML data in another way?

What is the other system?

[Joost Miltenburg]

I don't know if the other system can do the translation, i'll have to find out.

 

It is an website that offers courses on a variety of subjects ; it resells our courses and thus pulls data from our FM server.

[beverly]

If you have an XSLT that must be applied, you *can* use PHP, request the XML from FMS (via custom web publishing) and apply the XSLT. What you get depends on the output in the XSLT (text, html, or xml).

 

clarified:

   * deprecated is the XSLT web publishing (directly), the Site Assistant(s) - both for XSLT and PHP, the export of FMPDSORESULT grammar

   * NOT deprecated is XML import/export with or without stylesheet (XSLT), several XML grammars for use with web publishing (using the API or not)

 

HTH!

[comment]

and apply the XSLT.

 

I am curious (and I suspect so is the OP) how one would go about that in practice.

[beverly]

Hey Comment! In PHP http://us2.php.net/manual/en/book.xsl.php (which is a sub category under http://us2.php.net/manual/en/refs.xml.php )

 

Just saying, if there is an XSLT that must be used, FMP does export and import with XML & XSLT. PHP does too (FM web published). I haven't tested this with the PHP plug-in http://www.scodigo.com/products/smartpill-php - so perhaps an FM+plugin??

 

Beverly

[comment]

Yeah well ... I think if you're gonna move to PHP, then use PHP and forget about XSLT altogether. The question here is about a website that currently works with XML/XSLT CWP (not exporting). And I am afraid the answer to the question is that there is no way for this to continue working in version 12 and up. Unless someone knows of a way to create a pipeline - perhaps through Google Apps or Yahoo Pipes? - between the site and the FM server.

[Joost Miltenburg]

Finally got into contact with the guys who do the other side of the equation.

 

It appears that I can have my own web page and just paste the contents of my xlst into a form they have there. The site will apply the xslt for me. Sure, there is only room for one xslt, so I need to do a bit of work, but I can probably consolidate into one query and one xslt.

 

   * NOT deprecated is XML import/export with or without stylesheet (XSLT), several XML grammars for use with web publishing (using the API or not)

 

 

This is initiated from the FMserver side, isn't it ? 

 

My situation is the other website querying my fmserver and I need to reply in a certain xml-dialect ( other than xml-result )

[comment]

It appears that I can have my own web page and just paste the contents of my xlst into a form they have there. The site will apply the xslt for me.

 

Can you explain how that works? What do they have installed there that provides this functionality?