Seperate data content from UI

[Mr Flibble]

I have data in XML. I need to be able to present the data in a web page
which may be charts, tables and other such like controls. I need to be
able to modify the appearance of this page simply and quickly (a
requirement being a two day turnaround). Ultimately I need a page where
the user can control the layout themselves, but this is not an immediate
requirement. Also, it may be that they need to control not just the
appearance but functionality and behaviour(which may be a seperate
issue?). Now I'm new to this kind of thing, since I dont usually work
on the GUI side of things but this particular project is all about the
GUI. So what I'm asking for is some ideas not solutions :-) I've
thought it may be possible to do this sort of thing with cascading
stylesheets?? But that wouldn't allow me to change the behaviour of
controls on the form (though it certainly would be a start no?). Also
what about XUL? (or is that really going in the wrong direction) Is
there anything I can do specifically ASP-orientated that would make my
task easier, or am I really posing an HTML question? Perhaps it's even
a case of writing XSL to transform the XML so that it outputs HTML, and
the behaviour of the controls could be dependent on the XML they are given?

Ideas greatly appreciated :-)

[Tasos Vogiatzoglou]

There are a two issues here. You need the ability to change
"appearence" but also you may need the ability to change
"functionality".

Design-wise, I would go with something similar to MVC. That way you
have a pretty good separation.

Implementation-wise I would go with ASP.NET 2 with Skins and
Personalization (as long as they are ready, I don't see the reason to
create my own) as long as you develop using ASP.NET 2.

If you don't, CSS is a good candidate for styling/markup separation but
quite difficult for changing behavior. There you should rely on sth
like different views on the MVC model.

XUL is supported only by FireFox right now, so I don't know if you want
to go to this direction.

Check Personalization and Skins in ASP.NET 2. I think you 'll find the
answers to these questions.

Regards,
Tasos

[Mr Flibble]

* Tasos Vogiatzoglou wrote:

There are a two issues here. You need the ability to change
"appearence" but also you may need the ability to change
"functionality".

Design-wise, I would go with something similar to MVC. That way you
have a pretty good separation.

Implementation-wise I would go with ASP.NET 2 with Skins and
Personalization (as long as they are ready, I don't see the reason to
create my own) as long as you develop using ASP.NET 2.

If you don't, CSS is a good candidate for styling/markup separation but
quite difficult for changing behavior. There you should rely on sth
like different views on the MVC model.

XUL is supported only by FireFox right now, so I don't know if you want
to go to this direction.

Check Personalization and Skins in ASP.NET 2. I think you 'll find the
answers to these questions.

Regards,
Tasos

Many thanks for putting me in the right direction, I shall go find
Google :-)