Server-side and client-side activity

When you have developed and deployed the pieces the XML Web DataWindow needs, here is what happens when a user requests the URL for a page containing the DataWindow.

Server-side activity

Server-side code is used to invoke the Web DataWindow generator. During the generation process:

  1. Using the default XHTML export template or a custom template you created, an XHTML rendering of the DataWindow is generated in a Document Object Model (DOM) tree.

  2. A CSS style sheet is generated in a DOM tree with the style information for the DataWindow elements.

    Generating as many of the style rules in CSS as possible (including all absolute positions) can increase page download speed because the stylesheet is downloaded only once and cached.

  3. Client-side JavaScript files are generated for instantiating the control object and the array of row elements.

    You can improve performance by generating most of this client-side JavaScript in static files. For information about how you create and deploy the static JavaScript files, see “Using JavaScript caching for Web DataWindow methods”.

  4. A reverse transformation of the XHTML DOM tree to XML (DataWindow content) and XSLT (DataWindow layout) occurs.

    XSLT also creates the structural layout of the page, saving bandwidth. Server processing is also reduced by offloading work to the client.

  5. A small amount of JavaScript is generated to perform explicit transformation on the client side to render in the browser a fully functional DataWindow in XHTML.

Client-side activity

When a user accesses a Web page containing the XML Web DataWindow, the client browser:

  1. Downloads the source XML file (DataWindow content for the page) and the XSLT stylesheet, which is cached locally.

  2. Performs the transformation using the built-in Microsoft or Netscape XSLT processor.

  3. Outputs the XHTML result into a <DIV> section on the page.

  4. Downloads, caches, and applies the CSS stylesheet for display in the browser.

  5. Downloads and caches JavaScript files.

  6. Regenerates and downloads the XML file and JavaScript row objects file for the updated DataWindow page after a specified action by the user (HTTP Get/HTTP response).