Microsoft XML 2.5 SDK

XSL Developer's Guide

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Working Draft for XSL divides the language into two main parts: a transformation language for XML documents, and an XML vocabulary for formatting semantics. Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5 supports a subset of the transformation part of the Extensible Stylesheet Language (December 18th Working Draft). Microsoft plans to update this technology to match the final W3C recommendation for XSL. XSL Working Draft Conformance Notes details the differences between the Internet Explorer 5 implementation and the December draft.

XSL transformations address some common needs in XML:

• Enabling display: The XSL transformation language enables display of XML by transforming XML into grammar and structure suitable for display—for instance, into HTML or the XSL Formatting Objects language.
  
  
• Direct browsing of XML files: Internet Explorer 5 can apply XSL style sheets that produce HTML, allowing direct browsing of the XML files.
  
  
• Content delivery to downlevel browsers: XSL transformations can be executed on the server to provide HTML documents for downlevel browsers.
  
  
• Schema Translation: The transformation process is independent of any particular output grammar and can be used for translating XML data from one schema to another.
  
  
• Converting XML through querying, sorting, and filtering: The transformation can be used for general-purpose transformations within a single grammar, including filtering, sorting, and summarizing data.

The XSL Developer's Guide covers these topics:

• XSL Working Draft Conformance Notes
  
  
• Getting Started with XSL
  • Creating and Populating an HTML Template
    
    
  • Authoring Well-Formed HTML
    
    
  • Accessing and Outputting Attributes
    
    
  • Sorting XML
    
    
  • Conditional Templates
• Browsing XML Documents in Internet Explorer 5
  • XML and Style Sheets

    Using the Default Style Sheet as a Debugging Aid

  • Choosing Between CSS and XSL
    
    
  • How to Write a CSS Style Sheet for Browsing XML

    Using Namespaces with CSS

    Using the HTML Namespace

  • Browsing XML Using XSL Style Sheets

    Accessing the XML and XSL Documents from Script

    Serving Up XML

    Declaring the XML MIME Type in an Active Server Page

• Using the XSL Processor
  • Transforming the Contents of XML Data Islands Using XSL
    
    
  • Using XSL in an Active Server Page
    
    
  • Getting the Results of an XSL Transformation as a New DOM Document
    
    
  • Detecting and Handling XSL Errors
    
    
  • Parameterizing a Style Sheet
    
    
  • Using the Default XSL Style Sheet in Your Application
• XSL Patterns
  • Introduction to the Syntax of XSL Patterns
    
    
  • How XSL Defines the Context for XSL Pattern Queries

    Select Patterns

    Test Patterns

    Match Patterns

  • How the DOM Defines the Context for XSL Pattern Queries
    
    
  • Placing a List of Items into a Grid with the context() Method
    
    
  • Creating a Comma-Separated List of Items with the context() Method
• Advanced XSL Features
  • Handling Documents and Irregular Data
    
    
  • Authoring Match Patterns
    
    
  • Debugging a Style Sheet

    No Output At All

    Expected Template Is Not Being Used

    No Results from Select Pattern

    Elements with the XSL Namespace Appear in Output

    Highlighting Elements Not Handled by a Template

  • Simulating Built-in Templates
    
    
  • Scoping Templates
    
    
  • Translating Between Schemas
    
    
  • Filtering XML
    
    
  • Copying Entire Subtrees
    
    
  • Generating More Sophisticated XML Output

    Using XSL as the Default Namespace

  • Controlling White Space
• Extending XSL
  • Calling Script During Transformation

    Additional Functions Available to Script

  • Influencing Transformations Through Script
    
    
  • Selecting the Scripting Language
    
    
  • Formatting of Data Types Using Script
    
    
  • Calculating Totals Using Script
    
    
  • Generating Item Numbers Using Script
    
    
  • Generating Links Using Script
    
    
  • Generating Dynamic HTML

    Interactions Between xsl:script and SCRIPT

• XML Samples

Reference documentation:

• XSL Elements
  
  
• XSL Patterns