Paloose XML Processor

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.