Today was the last day of my XML Training class. We covered a number of topics today. Most of them only provided an introduction to the topic. One such topic was XSL Formatting Objects (XSL-FO). This technology is used for presentation of XML data similar to what HTML does.The most popular use of XML-FO is to generate PDF output from XML documents. This is actually a multi step process. First the XML and XSL run through a processor generating the XSL-FO code. Then a formatter takes the XSL-FO and produces the PDF output document.
One implementation of XSL-FO is the Apache FOP. Its best feature is that it is free. However it does not implement all of the XSL-FO standard. At the other end of the spectrum is RendexX XEP. It is the most advanced XSL-FO implementation. However it is also the most expensive, costing thousands of dollars.
My instructor did point out that XSL Formatting Objects is not very popular. It is used by government organizations to produce things such as tax forms. It is also used in the financial community. My instructor said that at one class, New York banks were recruiting class members to work for them doing XSL-FO work. They had high paying clients that needed financial documents generated by XSL-FO.
There is a whole follow-up class that teaches more of XSLT and XSL-FO. So we did not go deep into the subject. I will post some more on the other topics we covered today such as web services, SOA, SOAP, WSDL, and XML Security. Be sure to tune in.
