Level: Introductory Nicholas Chase (ibmquestions@nicholaschase.com), Freelance writer, Backstop Media
23 Jan 2007 The need to transform XML is so common that Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) is considered one of the basic XML specifications. This tutorial explains how to create XSLT stylesheets. It also covers the basics of XPath, which enables you to select specific parts of an XML document. Finally, it gives you a look at some of the more advanced capabilities that XSLT offers.
In this tutorial
This tutorial is for developers who want to use Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) to transform the XML data into other forms without the need for to program in Java™ or other languages.
Objectives - The basics of XSLT
- Using simple templates
- Propagating data
- Controlling spaces
- The basics of XPath
- XPath functions
- Looping and conditional statements
- Extending XSLT
- XSLT variables
Prerequisites
This tutorial assumes that you're familiar with XML, but does not get into any of the esoteric aspects of the language, so a basic understanding is sufficient. Except for small section on extensions, you will not need to have any particular programming language under your belt. Even then, the concepts are straightforward and apply to any programming language, as long as it is supported by the processor.
System requirements
You will need JavaScript enabled in your browser. Download Apache Xalan and add the included JAR files to your classpath to follow the tutorial examples.
Duration
1 hour
Formats html, pdf
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