Question 1: I need to get info from a database... I would like this information in XML so I can process it with XSLT and use that in the browser. The current plan is to use a server side scripting language (PHP) to generate the XML file. My question is, is there an easier way to do this? Do SQL servers have modules/methods to go directly to XML output... (not really XSLT question, but this next one is..)

Question 2: I would like to keep the SQL queries as simple as possible and add the processing of the database results to XSLT files... (for the sorting / filtering through XPATH) ... my question is, how can I pass parameters from my AJAX load script directly to the XSLT file? Would I again need to generate the XSLT file through server side script?


Example:

goal: loadandtranslate("file.xml","file2.xsl?sort=artist ");
expected: loadandtranslate("file.xml","file2.php?sort=artist ");

or do you think it would just be most efficient to generate the XML file instead of the XSLT file?

so...

loadandtranslate("file.php?filterby=someconstraint ","file2.xsl");

any advice is appreciated

I have done did found the answer to #2... XSLTProcessor.setParameter()

The main databases have such as SQL Server and Oracle have methods for returning XML directly from queries. Otherwise you can create your own by looping through the returned records and building an in memory DOM or using string manipulation depending on the complexity and re-usability you find and need. There's coverage of this in Beginning XML, 4th edition.

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Joe (Microsoft MVP - XML)