Java and XML

XSP

XSP stands for Extensible Server Pages, and is perhaps the most important development coming out of the Cocoon project. Certainly you, Constant Reader, are familiar with Java Server Pages ( JSP). JSP (in a nutshell) allow tags and inline Java code to be inserted into an otherwise normal HTML page, and then when the JSP page is requested, the resulting code is executed and the results are inserted right into the output HTML.^[12] This has taken the Java and ASP worlds by storm, ostensibly simplifying server-side Java programming and allowing a separation of output and logic. However, there are still some significant problems. First, JSP does not really provide a separation of content and presentation. This is the same problem we have been talking about time and time again; changes to a banner, the color of a font, and text sizes require the JSP (with the inline Java and JavaBean references) to be modified. It also mingles content (pure data) with presentation in the same way static HTML does. Second, there is no ability to transform the JSP into any other format, or use it across applications, because the JSP specification is designed primarily for delivery of output.

XSP remedies both these problems. First, XSP is, at its heart, simply XML. Take a look at the sample XSP page in Example 9.7.

Example 9-7. Sample XSP Page

<?xml version="1.0"?> <?cocoon-process type="xsp"?> <?cocoon-process type="xslt"?> <?xml-stylesheet href="myStylesheet.xsl" type="text/xsl"?> <xsp:page language="java" ...