Server-Side GSL Scripting

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Xitami
Version 2.5b6

Server-Side GSL Scripting

GSL is the iMatix code generation language. You can use GSL to do fast server-side scripting, using an approach similar server-side includes (SSI). GSL supports many commands including XML-driven output.

Server-side GSL scripting is similar to XML processing, but the GSL script invoked directly (e.g. http://hostname/somefile.gsl) instead indirectly through an XML file. GSL files must have the extension '.gsl'.

Why use GSL Scripts?

For many cases, GSL scripting is faster and simpler than SSI or CGI. A GSL script can load and manipulate arbitrarily-complex XML data, and convert this into usable HTML using a simple but powerful template language. GSL is several years ahead of similar approaches like XSLT (the XML Stylesheet Language Transformation language), and works today directly from your Xitami web server.

Predefined Attributes

As well as the standard attributes (date, time, filename, script), the GSL script can access all the environment variables normally passed to a CGI program, such as REMOTE_USER. These are defined as attributes of the root item, as well as 'argument' items attached to the root item.

Passing Arguments to The GSL Script

You can pass arguments to the the GSL script by using the query string syntax:

http://xx.xx.xx.xx/myfile.xml?arg=value;arg=value;...

All arguments passed in the query string are defined as attributes of the XML root item.