XSLT Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for XML and XSLT Developers

by Sal Mangano

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 The XSLT Cookbook provides an ideal companion both for developers still figuring out XSLT's template-based approach 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.

Genres: Programming, Software, Technology, Computers

450 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was much better than the first time I read this when I was just starting to learn XSLT. Some of the solutions in the cookbook are to problems that are better solved by writing extension functions in Java (for example, XSLT has no concept of dates, so it's advantageous to use Java instead of trying to reinvent the wheel in an extremely awkward way). The "template tagging" concept was one I had run across some time ago, but this time around I happened to have a practical problem that it solved pretty well. It's effective for decoupling multiple shared stylesheets, so you can organize things better and not have a cluster of included stylesheets be an all or nothing proposition. Basically, there are a lot of good concepts here that I didn't fully appreciate on my first read through.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for tips and tricks for complex problems. Definitely requires a healthy knowledge of XSL before diving in.

[Darcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great set of examples to study/learn from once you already know the basics to XPath 2.0 and XSLT 2.0.