Extensible Markup Language (XML) enables the PT application to implement a number of user interfaces on top of the same database and middle-tier components. Most discussions of HTML and XML draw the distinction between the them in this way: HTML presents data while XML describes data. The PT application blurs this distinction by treating as data the text that defines user interface elements. This text includes labels for text boxes, list boxes, buttons, and other controls, as well as mouseover text and application error messages.
Using XML in this way allowed the LitWare design team to create an application that can be used in a number of arenas and a number of locales. With relatively simple changes to a few files, organizations can deploy the application as a performance tracking application for a corporate training center or a school. After you have created the XML file that contains the data for implementing these arenas, you can substitute text strings in different languages, which allows you to deploy a localized user interface without coding new HTML pages. See Understanding and Deploying Arenas for information about creating a second arena for the PT application.
The PT application also includes a national language support (NLS) component, a reusable COM wrapper for a number of functions from the national language support API (NLSAPI). These functions format locale-specific data such as dates and times for the locale of the browser that requests them.
For XML-based features, the PT application uses the XML technologies built into Microsoft® Internet Explorer version 5 and later. For information about these technologies, see Internet Explorer and XML.
The PT application uses XML to make a Windows® DNA application even more nimble. Windows DNA emphasizes reusable and replaceable components; the PT application user interface is just as modular. Most of the application's user interface is built dynamically using techniques this scenario describes in detail. If you want to implement the application in another language for an arena, you need to write or change only a single XML file. (Creating and deploying a second arena is more complicated; however, once the arena exists, adding additional languages for it is relatively easy.)
The PT Admin application presents an English, German, or Japanese user interface depending on the language settings of the browser that requests it.
The following topics discuss issues to consider when designing an application based on XML technologies:
The following topics describe the design of the XML-based features of the application:
For information about application requirements related to localization, see Planning the Globalized PT Application and Designing the Globalized PT Application.