After much work I have finally managed to release a version of ARF (Alternative Rendering Framework for SharePoint) for everyone to use. This version have been in development for a long time and is currently being used on four of my projects. It is open source and you are free to use the current version however you wish. You can download ARF from my companies website and there is also a quick start guide to help you on your way.
If you are familiar with the CKS:EBE then you will be at home with most of the concepts of ARF, in that it has numerous controls which produce XML and then XSLT is used to render the XML. However the EBE is ARF's little brother, with much less functionality and features when compared to ARF.
Installed as a feature
You have full control over which features of ARF you use. If you just want an easy way to produce a calendar view using XSL then just use that. You can use as little or as much as you like on your current site, without affecting its current operation.
ARF is a feature you can activate on your site collection, adding a list, a document library and column. All of these are there to support some of the functionality of ARF. If you are not using the functionality then they can be safely deleted.
ARF does not take over your site, instead it is a set of components which help with building your SharePoint site. ARF was initially designed to help with accessible SharePoint websites, but is also useful in other scenarios including XHTML compatibility.
Over 30 controls
ARF contains over 30 controls for you to use and it is entirely possible that you could develop a complete publishing site, conforming to XHTML and accessible without having to write a single line of code.
Controls include...
Compatibility Panel - Ensuring the HTML produced by its child controls are XHTML compliant
SiteQuery - Allow you to develop complex queries to list content
QSVisibility Panel - Allowing you to show and hide content based upon query string values
Calendar View - Allowing to to show calendar entries in your chosen format
Contact Form - Creating a contact form without writing any code
Sample XSL is included with ARF, giving you a quick start to creating your own XSL files.
Not just MOSS
You can use the vast majority of ARF controls in WSS as my companies website proves. This means that you can use ARF to create a lightweight publishing environment using just WSS.
Full Source Code
The full source code is released with ARF, providing you with the ability to see how things are done, debug when you need to or modify its behavior.
Sample Site Soon
We are currently creating a sample accessible publishing site using ARF. This we will provide as an exported site from SharePoint. This will allow you to see some samples and documentation of ARF on your own system.
I'll let you know when this is available for download.