Design

This document discusses the approach I use to publish XML content to the Web using a blind automation application called a black box.

Black Box Publishing is a means of using a build process to produce and distribute content. There are already numerous applications that have similar features, such as most Web Development Studios and "Page Maker"-type applications. The goal of Black Box Publishing was to help the non-enterprise Web author deploy XML-based content by providing a one-step build process that would generate indices, transform XML, and distribute the content to a specified location.

Most developers who are familiar with XML probably have their own version of a black box, or are already steeped in XML publication frameworks and have no need for such a tool. The xml black box is an automation process intended to leverage the structured content of XML. Where XML content should scale, the black box should not. It is a straightforward implementation comprised of basic components and configurations, and is a one-step means to publishing XML-based content.

This document describes a few forward-thinking observations: the advantage to separating scripted features from content, a principle of auto-discovery in client-side scripts (Intelligent Abstraction), and an introduction to one method of DHTML development.