Creating Dynamic ASP.NET Server Controls Using XML

One of the advantages of the XML/XSLT combination is the ability to separate content from presentation -- however, the release of ASP.NET changes this picture somewhat. ASP.NET provides server controls that have advanced functionality such as state management, input validation, and data binding. In order to use this functionality, you need to create the controls on the server in a design--time phase or at runtime from code. The place of XML/XSLT technology in the ASP.NET model is not obvious, as the server controls generate their own HTML. The flexibility of XML/XLST can be combined with the power of ASP.NET server controls by using XSLT to generate the server controls dynamically, thus leveraging the best of both worlds. To illustrate this, author Erick Thompson leads you through the creation of an example application -- a custom survey system in which an XML document defines the structure of a web survey.