Current state of client-side XSLT
- by Casey
Last I heard, Blizzard was one of the few companies to put client-side XSLT into practice (2008). Is this still the case in 2011, or are more people now exploring this technique in production?
It seems that modern browsers (IE9, FF4, Chrome) and client processing power are primed to exploit this standard for tangible savings in server CPU power and bandwidth on large scale properties. Am I missing something?
The negative aspects I'm aware of include
* additional rendering time
* additional assets required on uncached page load
* additional layer of complexity
* noticably less developer experience than server-side template techniques
The benefits I perceive include
* distributed template composition (offloaded on the client)
* caching of common template fragments offloaded on the client
* logical separation of document structure and data
* well-documented web standard supported by all modern browsers
Finally, although I know it's impossible to predict the future, I am curious to know opinions on whether or not client-side XSLT's day will come. With interest in HTML5 driving users to upgrade their browsers and developers to explore new techniques, I would say yes. How about you?
Thanks in advance,
Casey