[plug] [OT] XSTL .vs. PHP .vs. ???

[Sham Chukoury]

Tim, I doubt anyone can recommend whether you should use XSLT or PHP or
something else, for your project. You haven't provided enough info with
respect to 1) what 'interactive' means, in 'interactive zoo', 2) the
kind of data transformations you're attempting to do, using
XSLT/PHP/whatever, 3) what sort of 'dynamic' data your final production
is likely to have (besides the animal/zoo data in XML files).

Therefore, I can't tell you what you should use - I can only point you
to information resources related to your query:
- http://www.w3schools.com/xsl/xsl_languages.asp - Nice intro to XSL(T),
with examples. Covers your questions about variables and xsl:if.
- http://www.gingerall.com/charlie/ga/xml/p_sab.xml - Sablotron XSL
processor (with support for PHP & Perl). Supports javascript, however
this feature's not enabled in, for example, the Debian build.

As for the separate XML files vs one big XML file issue, only you can
make that decision, since you're designing the system. And yes, as Onno
pointed out, you should design the overall system, before figuring out
how to store data. (e.g. in your design, instead of mentioning XML file,
XSL file, and XSLT processor, simply have things like 'data store',
'data processor', etc)

IMO, XML + XSL can be rather convenient, when handling data that needs
to be mapped onto some other XML schema, or published as (X)HTML. (makes
it easy to present various data through certain XSL templates, instead
of generating lots and lots of static HTML files) Basic XSL itself is
rather easy to grasp. However, *don't* use these data formats and tools
for the wrong reasons! Always look for a solution as simple as the
problem. :P

Good luck
§:)