 | Level: Intermediate Brian L Brinker (blbrink@us.ibm.com), Senior IT Specialist, IBM
10 Oct 2006 When an application needs to share data with another system, it is often necessary to transform an XML document into another XML format, governed by a differing XML Schema or Document Type Definition (DTD). When the app is required to share or display XML data to a user, the XML document might be transformed into HTML, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), VoiceXML, plain text, or any of a large number of human-readable formats. This tutorial deals with XML transformations, and is the fourth in a series of five tutorials that you can use to help prepare for the IBM certification Test 142, XML and Related Technologies.
In this tutorial
This series of five tutorials helps you prepare to take the IBM certification Test 142, XML and Related Technologies, to attain the IBM Certified Solution Developer - XML and Related Technologies certification. This certification identifies an intermediate-level developer who designs and implements applications that make use of XML and related technologies such as XML Schema, Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT), and XPath. This developer has a strong understanding of XML fundamentals; has knowledge of XML concepts and related technologies; understands how data relates to XML, in particular with issues associated with information modeling, XML processing, XML rendering, and Web services; has a thorough knowledge of core XML-related World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendations; and is familiar with well-known, best practices. This tutorial is the fourth in the "XML and Related Technologies certification prep" series and focuses on XML transformations. It details how to surface data within XML documents in any number of ways. It assumes and builds upon the groundwork laid in Part 3, which focused on XML processing, and also in Part 2, which discussed validation of XML through DTD and XML Schema. Without this foundation, XML transformations would not be possible.
Objectives - Understand how to use XSLT to transform XML
- Be able to do string and math operations and to search and traverse XML with XPath
- Know how to visually format XML with CSS
Prerequisites
This tutorial is written for developers who have a background in programming or scripting and who understand basic computer-science models and data structures. Programmers and scripters with a basic understanding of XML and whose skills and experience are at a beginning to intermediate level should have a general familiarity with data types, including arrays, graphs, and trees in particular. You should be familiar with the following XML-related, computer-science concepts: tree traversal, iteration and recursion, and reuse of data. You should also be familiar with Internet standards and concepts, such as Web browser, client-server, documenting, formatting, e-commerce, and Web applications.
Although this tutorial begins with the basics of the technologies discussed, it is not intended to be a comprehensive reference. However, if studied well, this tutorial, combined with the references in this tutorial's Resources, will provide sufficient breadth and depth to master the transformation aspects of the XML certification exam.
System requirements
You will need JavaScript enabled in your browser. As with Part 3 of this series, you need a Linux® or Microsoft® Windows® box with at least 50MB of free disk space and administrative access to install software. This tutorial uses, but does not require: Please note that XSLT documents are XML and are therefore capable of being edited with any text editor, such as Microsoft Notepad or Vim. It is useful, however, if your editor has the ability to assist you in making your documents well-formed; XMLSpy can do this and much more. CSS documents are not well-formed, so please use whatever text editor you prefer for these.
Duration
2 hours
Formats html, pdf
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