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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