Paloose XML Processor

Description

Paloose is a simplified version of Cocoon using PHP5. The original was a simple server working with Apache
to allow a Cocoon environment to be used with PHP5. There are very few ISPs who will
support Java/Tomcat for web sites which Cocoon requires, other than as a very
expensive “professional” addition. Almost all will support PHP5 (sorry, Paloose does not use PHP4) and I have
been using Paloose for some time now and have always found it a good substitute for Cocoon in
all but the most complex sites. Paloose may also encourage others to start using XML and XSL
without having to use extra bits such as Tomcat, Jetty or a full Cocoon installation.

Please note that the technology underlying Paloose does not make it suitable for very large sites. If you
need performance then upgrade to Cocoon — the extra expense of an updated server account
will probably be unnoticeable in the overall cost of
a large site anyway. However, having the ability to try out XML and XSL ideas in a PHP environment with a
subset of Cocoon is very useful.

The Paloose client plugin for WordPress allows the latter to interrogate XML based file systems and integrate them with
normal WordPress pages. There also some non-XML transforms (for example GEDCOM) and it is fairly easy to write
your own extensions to Paloose. The client and server versions of Paloose are identical with only the
wrapper code within the plugin being different.

For more information, visit the Paloose project page. All comments appreciated.

Usage Manual

Briefly you insert a template tag of the form

<?php echo paloose( <page_required>, <query_string> ); ?>

However you need to understand what Paloose will do with this before you start.
Consult the Paloose documentation here
and especially the Paloose WordPress Example.

Installation

Upload the Paloose plugin to your blog, activate it, then configure it via the Settings Menu in the Dashboard.

FAQ

More FAQs can be found on the Paloose Site..

What facilities do you intend to add to Paloose?

This is quite a difficult question as I have limited time and am not trying to do a complete Cocoon
implementation in PHP5 — a pointless exercise anyway. Now that I have added a simple (limited) data caching scheme to the
pipeline all of what I intended to add is complete. I am gradually refining the code and improving the documentation and
comments. I am happy to look at anything that users suggest —
just EMAIL me at hsfr@hsfr.org.uk.

Can I use the Paloose logo on my site?

Yes please. I suggest the following “Powered by Paloose”
logo or the “Powered by Paloose (small)” small logo.
Scale it as you feel fit.

What systems will it run on?

Basically any system that will run PHP5. Currently the list is Mac OS-X, Linux, and other similar Unix systems. I also know of
a system based on Apache 2.0/PHP5 on Windows Server 2003.

How can I improve the performance of Paloose?

Assuming that you are already using the caching system and want more speed, it is possible, but at the expense of a little
effort (and possible obscurity), to tailor the Paloose code and your own sitemaps and XSL. The implications and method are
described here in more detail.

What about caching in Paloose?

I have done considerable work on various ways of caching within Paloose and versions after 1.3.0 use pipeline data caching on
certain generators and transformers. I confess that I am in a quandry over this as the gains from using a cache seem to be
minimal and not really worth the effort except in some key cases —
see my caching discussion for more on this. It is not the end of the story, but more
performance increases will probably come from elsewhere.

Help! Why am I getting “Class ‘XsltProcessor’ not found” errors

99% of the time this shows that you are running PHP5 without the XML/XSL support that there should be. Try recompiling PHP5
with the following configuration parameters included:

--with-xml --with-libxml-dir=<dir path> --with-xsl

Help! Why am I getting “Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘=’, expecting ‘(‘ in

/../../paloose/lib/Paloose.php on line xx” errors

This means you are still running PHP4. You need to run PHP5. Speak to your ISP to provide PHP5. The other reason may be that
your .htaccess file has not been set properly to use PHP5.

Reviews

Contributors & Developers

Changelog

1.0.1b7

• Paloose system (1.5.2b5) update.

1.0.1b6

• Paloose system (1.5.0b3) update to remove spurious logging output in SourceWritingTransformer

1.0.1b5

• Cured bug in Paloose system (1.5.0b2) that stopped request parameters being recognised

1.0.1b4

• Naming problem with plugin from earlier local version
• Included Paloose system which did not happen in earliuer versions

1.0.1b3

• More minor admin changes

1.0.1b2

• Minor admin changes

1.0.1b1

• Changed the calling function to support new Version 1.5.0 of Paloose First release. Note that Earlier versions of
  the plugin (1.0.0) will only work with Version 1.4.x of Paloose. This change was required to allow Paloose to work
  with multi-calls on a single page with Joomla!

1.0.0

• First release.