Implementing PT Application XML Features

The Performance Tracking (PT) application uses XML to implement features in the following ways:

• The PT application's menu bar is built dynamically with each HTTP request using an XSL transformation of an XML file that contains strings for menu names and items. For more information, see Implementing the Menu Bar.
• The PT application's forms are built by inserting data from XML files into specified locations in a set of files that become the application's HTML pages. This approach allows you to adapt the application quickly for use in different user settings (called arenas), such as a corporate training center or a school system, and the languages each arena includes. The BDG refers to this technique as the XML merge.
• The PT application presents data in its HTML pages using the XML Data Source Object (DSO). The topics under Retrieving Data discuss the implementation of the XML DSO in the PT Admin application.