Pluggable architecture

Sidewinder makes it easy to add support for other mark-up languages, as well as for other renderers--and even allows renderers to be switched at run-time. The current release supports both Gecko and Internet Explorer, making for a powerful testing environment.

Adding languages

Sidewinder supports the addition of processors that handle non-core mark-up languages, such as XForms, SVG and MathML.

XForms

XForms functionality can be added with the formsPlayer XForms processor from x-port.net.

If you have Sidewinder and formsPlayer installed, you can check that they are working by pointing Internet Explorer at the XForms samples on the Mozilla site, which are delivered as application/xhtml+xml. Sidewinder will be opened in embedded mode, with the XForms rendered correctly.

(The calculator, Flickr and tax forms work pretty much as in Mozilla, but there is a problem with how Sidewinder interprets the insurance form.)

SVG

SVG functionality can be added with the Adobe SVG Viewer.

MathML

MathML functionality can be added with MathPlayer from Design Science.

Switchable renderers

The Sidewinder architecture supports renderers built using a cascaded rendering approach. This means that documents received in one language can be rendered using another language, and a cascade renderer will manage any language mappings that are needed.

The current release of Sidewinder is geared towards XHTML 1.1. If Internet Explorer is selected as the renderer then the document will be converted to HTML 4.01. However, if Gecko has been selected, the document will be left intact.

(Gecko functionality is currently obtained by using the Gecko ActiveX control, which must be installed.)

If Sidewinder detects a renderer that it can use (currently Internet Explorer and the Gecko ActiveX control) then a corresponding menu option will be created on the Rendering menu:

The rendering menu in standalone mode, showing IE and Gecko options.

The Rendering menu is also available when Sidewinder is running in embedded mode within Internet Explorer:

The rendering menu in embedded mode, showing IE and Gecko options.

You can switch between renderers as you like--no page reloads will take place since Sidewinder manages the source document. And since Sidewinder also manages the navigation, you can navigate in one renderer, switch renderers, and then continue navigating in another--a major boon for testing.