XML navigation tree

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

Hey all,

I'm CC'ing Daniel and Liam here because they are Wise and Knowledgable Men.

So, I've been considering our navigation tree, and how to go about building
it so that it's useful for generating the end-user navigation elements, and
managing the build process of the site. Given that we're looking favourably
at XSLT right now, I'm considering using an XML tree as it can describe the
structure of the site for client-side rendering, and store metadata to help
assist the build process.

Basically I'd like it so whatever's checked in is live, but only by
modifying this tree are you added to the nav system. Subsections can of
course have their own subtrees without having them appear in the nav systems
at all.

Here's an initial idea:

<branch title="Home" href="/">
    <branch title="News" href="news/"></branch>
    <branch title="dotPlan" href="dotplan/"></branch>
    <branch title="Projects" href="projects/">
        <branch title="Accessibility" href="gap/"></branch>
        <branch title="Documentation" href="gdp/">
            <branch title="News" href="news/"></branch>
            <branch title="Status Reports" href="status/"></branch>
            <branch title="Joining" href="joining/"></branch>
            <branch title="Tasks" href="tasks/"></branch>
            <branch title="Resources" href="resources/"></branch>
        </branch>
        <branch title="Packaging" href="gpp/"></branch>
        <branch title="Translation" href="gtp/"></branch>
        <branch title="Usability" href="gup/"></branch>
        <branch title="Webhackers" href="gwh/"></branch>
    </branch>
    <branch title="Sitemap" href="sitemap/"></branch>
</branch>

Other bits and pieces that can be popped in include modification date, DC
metadata, etc. Hopefully we'd be able to get a lot out of this structure,
not just a simple navigation interface. This would be blatted out to the
html client like this:

Home
  News
  dotPlan
  Projects
    Accessibility
    Documentation
      News
      Status Reports
      Joining
      Tasks
      Resources
    Packaging
    Translation
    Usability
    Webhackers
  Sitemap

Is there a 'standard' for doing this? Perhaps someone can suggest a better
schema?

- Jeff

-- 
                    The Unix Way: Everything is a file.                     
                 The Linux Way: Everything is a filesystem.