Re: PennAve - a dynamic gallery for F-Spot

[Patrick Wagstrom <wagspat iit edu>]

> I'll certainly be using it then. I haven't looked at the code (and I
> won't have time to for at least a few more weeks) but the ability to
> change the template of the HTML without getting too deep into the
> python would be nice. In BrilliantPhoto (my old photo management
> program from my windows days) the HTML templates were stored in a
> seperate, editable files. That would be welcome in PennAve if it is
> not already done so.

In order to maximize flexibility, PennAve outputs only XML, this is
transformed on the client side to HTML using a set of XSLT style sheets.
The HTML is then styled using cascading style sheets.  This serves a
couple of purposes:
1. it means PennAve is completely ignorant of the presentation of it's
content.   Thus, using some new XSLT sheets you can completely change
the look and functionality of the site. 
2. it ends up cutting down on the bandwidth needs.  The HTML is usually
quite a bit larger than the XML output.  Client side transformation
means that the browser will cache the XML file and save bandwidth.
3. allows for the possibility of other tools interacting.  It's a whole
lot easier to parse XML than HTML.

Anyway, thanks for your interest.  I probably won't mention PennAve a
lot more on the list, not trying to monopolize it or anything like that.

Thanks for your interest!

--Patrick