A system for updating a domain model and generating a formatted output is disclosed. The system comprises a template driven emitter which processes a template file. The template file comprises directives which direct extraction of data from a source data model into a target data model. The template file also comprises directives for manipulating the DOM tree of the data model. The template driven emitter generates a DOM tree for the source data model and a DOM tree for the template file. The template driven emitter utilizes the DOM tree to navigate the data model and extract data as specified according to the directives in the template file. The template file is written as a text file and expressed in XML.