Michael Kay: do everything using XML-based processing languages(XSLT and

["Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>]

Michael Kay wrote:

> The best answer is to do everything using XML-based 
> processing languages (XSLT and XQuery) rather than 
> spending 75% of your programming effort converting 
> your data between one type system and another.

I like this recommendation! 

Question: Can I stick completely to the XML family when doing exchanges between the visible Web and the invisible Web? Here's a scenario to illustrate what I mean:

There is an XHTML document containing a form. It is displayed in a browser and a user fills in the form - name, address, telephone, etc. The user then presses the form's submit button. The form data is POSTed to a Web server.......

---- transitioning from the visible Web to the invisible Web ----

......... Normally what would happen next is the Web server kicks off, say, Java code which consumes the POST data and then the Java code kicks off an XSLT stylesheet, passing it the POST data as parameters. But that is going from: 

    XML to Java to XML 

(specifically, XHTML to Java to XSLT). I'd like to eliminate the intermediate Java code (i.e. language with a different type system than XML) and stick completely to the XML family (per Michael Kay's recommendation).


......... I'd like the Web server to directly kick off an XSLT stylesheet, passing it the POST data as parameters. The XML document to be processed by the XSLT stylesheet is either already known to the stylesheet, or is determined from the parameters. The output from the XSLT processing is another XHTML document, which is handed to the Web server, which is delivered to the user. 

---- transitioning from the invisible Web to the visible Web ----

The interplay between the visible Web and invisible Web is entirely within the XML family.

Can this be done today? If so, how?

/Roger