XSLT Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for XML and XSLT Developers

Critical for converting XML documents, and extremely versatile, the XSLT language nevertheless has complexities that can be daunting. The "XSLT Cookbook" is a collection of hundreds of solutions to problems that Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) developers regularly face. The recipes range from simple string-manipulation and mathematical processing to more complex topics like extending XSLT, testing and debugging XSLT stylesheets, and graphics creation with SVG. Recipes can be run directly or tweaked to fit your particular application's needs more precisely.

Each recipe walks through a problem and a solution, with explanations of the choices made and techniques used in creating that solution, and many recipes include alternate solutions and explore issues like convenience and performance. Topics covered include:

String manipulation

Mathematical processing

Date and time handling

Interactions between calendar systems

Selecting content in source documents

Efficient tree-manipulation

Conversions from XML to plain text

Tweaking XML documents with stylesheets

Using XSLT to query XML documents

Generating HTML with XSLT

Creating charts and graphs with SVG and XSLT

Generating C and XSLT code using XSLT

Processing Visio documents in XSLT

Working with XML Topic Maps (XTM)

Using XSLT to create SOAP documentation from WSDL

Extending XSLT with additional functions

Embedding XSLT in other processing

Testing and debugging XSLT stylesheets

Creating generic XSLT processors which work on many XML vocabularies

The "XSLT Cookbook" provides an ideal companion both for developers still figuring out XSLT's template-basedapproach who want to learn by example, and for developers who know XSLT and want a collection of quickly reusable recipes. XSLT frequently offers a number of ways to perform a transformation, and the best solution may not always be the most straightforward. The recipes in this Cookbook demonstrate and explain XSLT's template-based logic, a frequent stumbling block for developers new to XSLT. Among the variety of XSLT books now available, none has the explicit solution-oriented approach of this Cookbook.