ZTML
Template Markup Language
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ztml was a project started by ztml.com, a company that was established in March 2001 as a company to host small websites with personalized support, and a team was then organized to develop a system that would support web hosting and support. A project named PDB (personal database management system) was given to the team for development. Later the name was changed to TML (template markup language) reflecting the features of this final system design.
TML was a project in which to create a set of simple to use tools to maintain small or personal websites. The basic design was to be a system where the dynamic contents would be stored in databases which must be readily available and at low cost, and the contents which must be easily processed with software that would not be difficult to program. All these functions must be accessible by the users simply using a web browser.
After much analysis and research, the team decided to use DB_File to handle the small databases, and for the larger databases with relational capability MySQL would be used. Both of these databases were free and easy to install.
For the creation of websites, our research showed that it would require languages such as HTML and CGI. Having only C language experience at the time, the team spent the early part of the development learning other languages. This resulted in the final design of TML running on a browser and using PERL and Javascript to process the data stored in DB_File and MySQL.
At the end of that year, Most of the functions needed for the system have been developed and tested. The results showed that the system was functioning as designed. To demonstrate the feature of this system to the public, a module (ZCAL) that can be used to create a calendar system was released early part of year 2002.
When ztml.com was first established, there was a team who responsible for promoting TML when it is ready for public use. Because of the difficulty environment for new hosting business at the time, web-hosting venture was dropped and that team was later dissolved. Now that TML is ready for public use but without anyone in the group who has the expertise in promoting it, I decided to release it free of charge.
Additional functions were added in 2003, such as handling polling/survey, FAQ's, and message board. During the course of ztml development some of functions in ztml were included simply as experimental but were left in place, and now the overall structure of the system may need cleaning or perhaps a rewrite.
However, as I read some reports suggested that much of the current web development are now using PHP, so instead of further development of ztml using Perl, I decided to make this a project to porting ztml from Perl to PHP. I also would like to share this development effect with the open source development community so I submitted and received approval from SourceForge. Please contact me if you like to participate or help me with this venture.
-Tom
