Platform Independent UI Objects Table of Contents

XSL Beans are a unique technology for developing UI's that exploits XML and XSL, and that provides a number of benefits, chief of which are: • Media independence XSL Beans are media independent, meaning that they can be used in Java, Dynamic HTML, or even standard GUI environments. • Standards−based XSL Beans rely upon, and exploit, XML and related standards, providing an open UI framework. • Intelligent data XSL Beans rely upon, and take advantage of, intelligent data. In particular, well−designed XML instances make it easy to bring sophisticated application behavior to documents in a transparent manner. • Documents as applications using XSL Beans, any document can be brought to life as an application, bringing new dimensions of reuse to ostensibly static data. • Reusability a direct effect of the above two points is that XSL Beans can be reused easily, in new ways. XSL Beans could lead to entirely new ways of approaching old problems, such as forms handling. • Instance syntax independent a number of different XML instances can result in ostensibly the same UI, resulting in maximum flexibility in data representation. • Human legible, human editable a direct result of the above is that XSL Bean instance data can be understood, and edited by people with little skill beyond that required for authoring XML documents. This brings application development within the realm of document authors (programming for the masses). • Ease of use in combination with a UI builder, XSL Beans can be easy to use. More importantly, they can be easy to use even without a UI builder. • Flexibility XSL Beans are entirely data−driven, meaning that components can change the data format, or the way the data format is interpreted, easily, at any time. XML Beans could play a significant role in many areas, and could revolutionize the document−centric application arena. This paper describes the thoughts leading to the XSL Bean concept, and the XSL Bean concept in detail. The primary purpose of this document is to provide a background to development groups that might be producing cross−platform UI's (in particular, WWW−based UI's) or UI builder applications that could benefit from XSL Bean technology. The paper explains the XSL Bean concept at a fairly high level. There is a companion paper discussing development environments using XSL Beans, which also discusses some parts of XSL Beans in more detail. . . . . Platform Independent UI Objects Bringing XSL Beans to the World