XSLT: Mastering XML Transformations

by Doug Tidwell

Overview

After years of anticipation and delay, the W3C finally released the XSLT 2.0 standard in January 2007. The revised edition of this classic book offers practical, real-world examples that demonstrate how you can apply XSLT stylesheets to XML data using either the new specification, or the older XSLT 1.0 standard.

XSLT is a critical language for converting XML documents into other formats, such as HTML code or a PDF file. With XSLT, you get a thorough understanding of XSLT and XPath and their relationship to other web standards, along with recommendations for a honed toolkit in an open platform-neutral, standards-based environment. This book:

• Covers the XSLT basics, including simple stylesheets and methods for setting up transformation engines
• Walks you through the many parts of XSLT, particularly XSLT's template-based approach to transformations
• Applies both XSLT 1.0 and 2.0 solutions to the same problems, helping you decide which version of XSLT is more appropriate for your project
• Includes profuse examples that complement both the tutorial and the reference material

The new edition of XSLT has been updated thoroughly to explain XSLT 2.0's many dependencies, notably XML Schema and XPath 2.0. Want to find out how the 2.0 specification improves on the old? This book will explain.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449391126
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	06/26/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	990
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Doug Tidwell is a senior programmer at IBM. He has more than a sixth of a century of programming experience, and has been working with markup languages for more than a decade. He was a speaker at the first XML conference in 1997, and has taught XML classes around the world. His job as a Cyber Evangelist is to look busy and to help people use new technologies to solve problems. Using a pair of zircon-encrusted tweezers, he holds a master's degree in computer science from Vanderbilt University and a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Georgia. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife, cooking teacher Sheri Castle (see her web site at http://www.sheri-inc.com) and their daughter Lily.

Table of Contents

Preface     xi
Getting Started     1
The Design of XSLT     1
XML Basics     4
Installing XSLT Processors     20
Summary     24
The Obligatory Hello World Example     25
Goals of This Chapter     25
Transforming Hello World     25
How a Stylesheet Is Processed     27
Stylesheet Structure     30
Sample Gallery     36
Summary     44
XPath: A Syntax for Describing Needles and Haystacks     45
The XPath Data Model     46
Location Paths     55
Attribute Value Templates     66
Datatypes     67
XPath Operators     71
[2.0] Comments in XPath Expressions     102
[2.0] Types of XSLT 2.0 Processors     104
The XPath View of an XML Document     104
Summary     112
Creating Output     113
Goals of This Chapter     113
Generating Text     113
Numbering Things     118
Formatting Decimal Numbers     127
[2.0] Formatting Dates and Times     130
Using [left angle bracket]xsl:copy[right angle bracket] and[left angle bracket]xsl:copy-of[right angle bracket]     132
Dealing with Whitespace     139
Summary     144
Branching and Control Elements     145
Goals of This Chapter     145
Branching Elements of XSLT     145
Invoking Templates by Name     151
Parameters     152
Variables     167
Using Recursion to Do Most Anything     169
A Stylesheet That Emulates a for Loop     174
Summary     179
Creating Links and Cross-References     181
Using the XML ID, IDREF, and IDREFS Datatypes     181
XSLT's Key Facility     194
Generating Links in Unstructured Documents     198
Summary     204
Sorting and Grouping Elements     205
Sorting Data with [left angle bracket]xsl:sort[right angle bracket]     205
[2.0] The [left angle bracket]xsl:perform-sort[right angle bracket] Element     215
Grouping Nodes     219
[2.0] New Grouping Syntax in XSLT 2.0     228
Summary     243
Combining Documents     245
The document() Function     245
The document() Function and Sorting     254
Implementing Lookup Tables     254
Grouping Across Multiple Documents     257
[2.0] Using XSLT 2.0 to Simplify Things     260
[2.0] The doc() and doc-available() Functions     269
[2.0] The collection() Function     271
[2.0] The unparsed-text() and unparsed-text-available() Functions     272
Summary     275
Extending XSLT     277
The XSLT Extension Mechanism     277
[2.0] Creating New Functions with [left angle bracket]xsl:function[right angle bracket]     279
Example: Generating Multiple Output Files     281
Creating Custom Collations     287
Generating Hidden Word Graphics     293
Example: Generating an SVG Pie Chart     303
Writing Extensions in Other Languages     326
Using Extension Functions from the EXSLT Library     330
Accessing a Database with an Extension Element     333
Creating a Photo Album with an Extension Element     339
Summary     360
XSLT Reference     361
XPath Reference     545
XSLT, XPath, and XQuery Function Reference     563
XML Schema Overview     871
[2.0] Regular Expressions     897
XSLT Formatting Codes      919
XSLT 2.0 Migration Guide     925
Glossary     933
Index     943