Xiguous is an XSLT layer for Xacerbate, oriented towards virtual world applications.
Features
- API for handling Xacerbate events
- Data model and API for handling multi-room virtual worlds
- Command set, argument types and user permissions specified within virtual world description
- Definition of commands on a per-class or per-instance basis
- Integral, flexible client-server protocol for synching client and server states, including self-documenting command API
How it works
Xiguous is a collection of XSL resources that run within the Xacerbate framework. They make extensive use of EXSLT functions. Xiguous assumes a multi-room virtual world structure known as a dominion, and provides an API for managing that structure. The dominion model assumes multiple users within multiple rooms, and allows objects to be placed at dominion, room and user level. The external command set is defined by the application code, and can be defined on a per-class (eg 'all rooms') or per-instance (eg 'this particular object') basis.
Xiguous takes care of type checking and user permissions on the basis of an explicit XML description of the dominion, which is cleaner and far less error-prone than implementing such checks on a per-command basis. Xiguous includes a simple but flexible protocol for informing clients of changes to the dominion, allowing the client to update all, some or none of its data depending on the client's particular needs.
Status
At the time of writing (winter '08), Xiguous is nearing the end of its second major iteration
