XML Based UIs

Question

What is the best/recommended generate UIs based on XML parameters?

Objective is:

• Adding new objects/parameters to UI should easy and fast without disturbing the other elements.

The UI is currently built and rendered using JSP/Servlets.

Answer 1

Have you taken a look at XAML? I think you can learn a thing or to by studying XAML and WPF/Silverlight applications.

They way that they use a declarative syntax for UI is rather nice and it's a working concept. You're talking about Java related stuff but I think you can learn something new by looking at what Microsoft did with XAML and why they did it like that.

When it comes to XML I'm a bit thorn between shorter, prettier syntax like Haml and verbose XSLT. If I had the option of choosing freely I'd go with something like Haml for HTML UI rendering because in the end you accomplish more with less and it makes the whole UI code a lot easier to read (fewer lines of code, less clutter).

Answer 2

XForms is a standard for creating web interfaces using XML. It replaces standard HTML forms with XForms and offers a clear separation between the presentation and the model layer. Although it's been around for a while it hadn't really caught up. Browsers do not support it and you'd need an XForms engine.

Since you are using JSP/Servlets have a look at Orbeon XForms engine. It is the most mature XForms technology and it integrates nicely with JSP pages.