XSLT eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations

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XSLTeXtensible Stylesheet Language
Transformations

• Naveed Arshad

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Agenda

• What is XSL, XSLT and Xpath
• Advantages of XSLT
• XSLT Architecture
• XSLT Processing Model
• An Example of XSLT
• Current State of XSLT
• References

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What is XSL, XSLT and Xpath?

• Started of with XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet
  Language)
• For XML TRANSFORMATION and FORMATING
• XSLT for TRANSFORMATIONS and XSL for the rest

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What is XSL, XSLT and Xpath? (contd)

• Significant overlap in
• Expression Syntax of XSLT
• Linking one document to the another using
  XPointer
• Two committees joined hands to make it one
  language
• XPATH
• Example
• ltxslvalue-of select"sum(//book/_at_price) div
  count(//book)"/gt

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Advantages of XSLT

• Transformation from
• XML document to another XML document
• XML document to an HTML document
• XML document to any text form -)

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XSLT Architecture

• Source Tree as Input
• Result Tree as Output
• XSLT processor takes two inputs
• XSL style sheet
• XML Document as Source Tree

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XSLT Processing Model

• Input in form of a tree thus inherently a
• Recursive Process
• Checks for template when a new item is
  encountered
• Transform source nodes into result nodes
• Rearranges the items based on style sheet

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XSLT Example

• XML to XML
• Takes one XML document as Source Tree
• Apply templates using XSLT stylesheet
• Transforms it into another XML document as a
  Result Tree

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Input XML DOCUMENT (Source Tree) lt?xml
version"1.0" encoding"utf-8" standalone"yes"?gt
ltCataloggt ltBookgt ltTitlegtDesigning Distributed
Applicationslt/Titlegt ltAuthorsgt ltAuthorgtStephen
Mohrlt/Authorgt lt/Authorsgt ltPubDategtMay
1999lt/PubDategt ltISBNgt1-861002-27-0lt/ISBNgt
ltPricegt49.99lt/Pricegt lt/Bookgt
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ltBookgt ltTitlegtProfessional ASP 3.0lt/Titlegt
ltAuthorsgt ltAuthorgtAlex Homerlt/Authorgt
ltAuthorgtBrian Francislt/Authorgt ltAuthorgtDavid
Sussmanlt/Authorgt lt/Authorsgt ltPubDategtOctober
1999lt/PubDategt ltISBNgt1-861002-61-0lt/ISBNgt
ltPricegt59.99lt/Pricegt lt/Bookgt lt/Cataloggt
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XSLT Stylesheet lt?xml version"1.0"
encoding"utf-8" standalone"yes"?gt
ltxslstylesheet version"1.0" xmlnsxsl"http//ww
w.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"gt ltxsltemplate
match"/"gt ltxslapply-templates/gt
lt/xsltemplategt ltxsltemplate match"Catalog"gt
ltBooksgt ltxslapply-templates/gt lt/Booksgt
lt/xsltemplategt
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ltxsltemplate match"Book"gt ltBookgt
ltxslvalue-of select"Title"/gt, ltxslvalue-of
select"PubDate"/gt lt/Bookgt lt/xsltemplategt
lt/xslstylesheetgt
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Output XML Document (Result Tree) lt?xml
version"1.0" encoding"utf-8"?gt ltBooksgt
ltBookgt Designing Distributed Applications,
May1999 lt/Bookgt ltBookgt Professional ASP 3.0,
October 1999 lt/Bookgt lt/Booksgt
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XSLT Processors
Processor Average Score
Napa 0.4 21.80
MSXML 3 40.60
SUN XSLTC Beta 4 51.08
XT 64.24
Saxon 6.0.1 73.44
Resin 1.2b3 90.62
Xalan Java 2.0.D07 103.92
Sabletron 0.44 116.30
Oracle Java V2 2.0.9 122.88
Xalan C 0.40 202.55
Xalan Java 1.2.2 212.54
Source http//www.tfi-technology.com/xml/xslbench
.html
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What about CSS and CSS2

• CSS lacks the ability to format the ouput
• Rule of thumb
• CSS is used at the Client End
• XSLT is used on the Server End

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Current Status of XSLT

• As of Sep 12th, 2001
• XSLT 1.0 is part of the XML family
  Recommendations
• XSLT 1.1 working draft is released on
• Aug 23rd 2002
• will be the basis of XSLT 2.0

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References

• XSLT Programmers Reference
• http//www.topxml.com/xsl/articles/xslt_what_about
  /
• XSLT Quick Referance
• http//www.mulberrytech.com/quickref/XSLTquickref.
  pdf
• XSLT Specifications
• http//www.w3.org/Style/XSL/
• XSLT News and Resrources
• http//www.ibiblio.org/xml/