xml doubts

You have asked two very broad questions that I feel cannot be answered with any great detail. What I will attempt to do is address each question in general hoping it will give you some ideas of further paths to follow.

Formatting XML to the web client can be done several ways once the XML is loaded onto the Document Object Model (DOM). Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is used to format a document on a client only, whether it is XML or HTML or whatever. This approach may not be the best but CSS is mature and stable and W3C has been working on the standards for a lot longer than the other methods. XSL may better to use because of its power to transform and format XML on the client or on the server. Yet other methods like using ADODB's methodsto create recordsets from XML allow you to code and format as you would normally do with ASP/ADO.

Let?s break security down into two parts: secure transactions between client and server and user authorization to perform a certain function on yoursite. Using a strong encryption (at least 128-bit key) to secure communication is always recommended especially when transmitting personal information. Generally getting a SSL certificate for the server enables this option. User security can either be simple, like enabling the challenge/response login for you site in IIS, or complex, fully coded login and rights handling functions that are built into your web application.

This really only scratches the surface. If you want some further information on these two subjects, e-mail me and I can provide you with some resources. Hope this helps.