Chapter 12. Web Content Publishing
Before XML started gaining traction with enterprise Internet developers, one company I worked for wanted a user-friendly Web-based newsletter publishing application. It took two ASP programmers a couple of months to build the database, the display screens, the administrative tools, and such to make the thing work. When the application was done, it was so popular that other groups wanted a customized version to meet their needs. The resulting development effort easily added another six man-months to the entire project.
Because certain features were added for one group whereas other groups had different requirements, the code driving this publishing site turned into a quagmire. Making even the smallest change in one place had unforeseen consequences in other places. Not a bad design per se, just too programmer-intensive to be practical in the long term. The happy ending to the story is that the entire publishing application/database combo was replaced by a much simpler XML-driven solution that can be extended ad infinitum without any programmer involvement at all. As users demand more direct control over Web-site content, XML will become the de facto platform for Web publishing.
Technologies Used: