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 Posted by Carl on 10/12/05 21:15 
petermichaux@yahoo.com wrote: 
> I am going to be very interested in this thread! 
>  
> I have been trying to develop a good application framework for a new 
> web application: a sourceforge project called OSCommerce-XSL which is 
> intended to be a  professional version of osCommerce. The goal is to 
> use PHP to query an SQL database. The PHP produces XML for XSL to 
> transform into XHTML. This transformation occurs server side. Optional 
> Javascript validation of form inputs. Mandatory PHP validation of form 
> inputs. 
>  
 
Having recently started the planning stage of a project very similar to  
yours, I am also quite interested in this subject. More in the  
consolidation aspect of it than in the 'guideline' aspect. 
 
> So far I have divided the application into the following tiers 
> View: XSL layer to produce XHTML from XML 
> Controller: PHP takes URI requests. Validates form input. Produces the 
> outgoing XML and passes it to the View layer once at the very end. 
> Model-business layer: a purely PHP layer. No XML related function. No 
> SQL or PEAR. 
> Model-data layer: This layer exists to separate the SQL from the rest 
> of the application 
>  
> About DB abstraction. With all the SQL dialects this really possible 
> when queries get complicated? I use PEAR DB but if someone wanted to 
> change from MySQL they might have to edit many of my SQL statements for 
> the new dialect. 
>  
 
IMO, the database abstraction _code_ should be handled in a fashion  
similar to i18n, meaning that just as you would present text to a client  
depending on the currently defined language context, the text(code)  
presented to the DB should depend on the selected database context. 
 
> Form Validation. Which tool kits are available and good? Currently I am 
> using a PHP class pattern I designed for each form that can validate 
> input and produce output. I am reasonably happy with what I have 
> designed but I'm sure it could be better. 
 
What exactly do you mean by a 'PHP class pattern'? Are you using one  
'class' to handle all of your forms, or applying a pattern to each of  
your forms. 
 
> Templating. I've tried Smarty but the XML/XSL combination seems much 
> more powerful. With XML/XSL I like that the application flow is through 
> the PHP control layer with only conversion using the View layer at the 
> very end when serving the page to the client. With Smarty the 
> application flows through the various template files and calls the PHP 
> as needed. 
 
Agreed! 
 
>  
> I haven't seen the MOJAVI project before and will spend some time on 
> their website. 
>  
> If you are looking for a sample application to discuss I would gladly 
> volunteer mine since I am at the right stage of development to do this 
> kind of discussion. 
>  
> Peter 
>
 
  
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