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Q258294: HOWTO: Offload XSL Transformations to Clients’ Browsers

Article: Q258294
Product(s): Internet Information Server
Version(s): winnt:; :2.0,2.5,2.6,3.0,3.0 SP1,4.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbInternet kbie500 kbXML kbGrpDSMDAC kbDSupport kbIIS kbie501 kbMSXML200
Last Modified: 12-OCT-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Internet Information Server 
- Microsoft XML, versions 2.0, 2.5, 2.6, 3.0, 3.0 SP1, 4.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

It is possible to offload XSL processing from the server to the client. Doing so
distributes the load, which helps to relieve the server from having to process
the formatting of an XML document.

MORE INFORMATION
================

The following example demonstrates how to load an XSL and XML document into the
clients' memory and then it uses the XSL to transform the XML.

1. First, copy the following code into a file named Sample.htm, and then save
  the file to a WebServer in a location accessible from the Web:

  <HTML>
  <HEAD>
  <TITLE>Clientside XSL Processing Sample</TITLE>
  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="VBScript">
  	dim xslDoc, xmlDoc

  Use the Version dependent PROGID 'MSXML2.DOMDocument.4.0 if you wish to use the DOMDocument object that ships with MSXML 4.0.	

  	Sub Init()
  		set xslDoc = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
  		set xmlDoc = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
  		xslDoc.Async = False
  		xmlDoc.Async = False
  		xslDoc.Load "http://<YourServerName>/Sample.xsl"
  		xmlDoc.Load "http://<YourServerName>/Sample.xml"
  		Data.innerHTML = xmlDoc.transformNode(xslDoc)	
  	End Sub
  </SCRIPT>
  </HEAD>
  <BODY ONLOAD="Init">
  <CENTER><H1>Clientside XSL Processing Sample</H1></CENTER>
  <DIV ID="Data">
  </DIV>
  </BODY>
  </HTML>

2. Modify the page so that the address of the Sample.xml and Sample.xsl files is
  the same as the location of your server.

3. Insert the following XML code into a blank XML document and save it to the
  same location as the Sample.xml file:

  <?xml version="1.0"?>
  <CUSTOMERS>
     <CUSTOMER>
        <CustomerID>
           ALFKI
        </CustomerID>
        <CompanyName>
           Alfreds Futterkiste
        </CompanyName>
        <ContactName>
           Maria Anderson
        </ContactName>
        <Country>
           Germany
        </Country>
     </CUSTOMER>
     <CUSTOMER>
        <CustomerID>
           ANATR
        </CustomerID>
        <CompanyName>
           Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados
        </CompanyName>
        <ContactName>
           Ana Trujillo
        </ContactName>
        <Country>
           Mexico
        </Country>
     </CUSTOMER>
  </CUSTOMERS>

4. If using an MSXML version earlier than 3.0, then insert the following XSL
  code into a blank XSL document and save it to the same location as the
  Sample.xsl file.

  <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">   
     <xsl:template match="/Books"> 
             <HTML>
             <BODY>
             <TABLE BORDER="2">
               <TR>
                 <TD>Title</TD>
                 <TD>Author</TD>
               </TR>
               <xsl:for-each select="Book">
                 <TR>
                   <TD><xsl:value-of select="Title"/></TD>
                   <TD><xsl:value-of select="Author"/></TD>
                 </TR>
               </xsl:for-each>
             </TABLE>     
             </BODY>
       </HTML>    
       </xsl:template>     
     </xsl:stylesheet>

5. Browse to the Sample.htm page.

This page loads into the browser, and then downloads the data for the XML and XSL
pages. It then uses the XSL document to transform the XML document into HTML. It
displays this output on the page by using the innerHTML property of the DIV tag
on the HTML page.

Additional query words:

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbInternet kbie500 kbXML kbGrpDSMDAC kbDSupport kbIIS kbie501 kbMSXML200 
Technology        : kbiisSearch kbAudDeveloper kbMSXMLSearch kbMSXML200 kbMSXML250 kbMSXML260 kbMSXML300 kbMSXML300SP1 kbMSXML400
Version           : winnt:; :2.0,2.5,2.6,3.0,3.0 SP1,4.0
Issue type        : kbhowto

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