 | Level: Intermediate Chuck White (chuck@tumeric.net), XSLT consultant and Web engineer, Consultant
10 Feb 2004 XSLT is meant to change the form of XML, but you can also use it to perform analysis. In this tutorial, the second in a series, the MindMap team creates a system that enables them to pass parameters that not only determine the properties to analyze but also change the desired criteria using Web-based forms. And because it's all in an XSLT stylesheet, the team can change the algorithm or output without recompiling the application.
Prerequisites
This tutorial is designed for programmers who want to change the criteria of an XSL transformation on the fly by using forms to send parameter values through the XSLT. It keys in on the use of the xsl:param element as you learn how to pass parameters from forms through your stylesheets. You should have a basic understanding of XSLT and XML before you take this tutorial. In other words, if you aren't familiar with what an XSLT parameter does and how it works, you'll find some of this material a little difficult. You'll also see a fairly significant amount of JavaScript, but can probably get by with the most basic understanding of that language. The same holds true for the Document Object Model (DOM), which is the object model used by JavaScript to access XML nodes for manipulation. Other tutorials in this series are:
System requirements
You will need JavaScript enabled in your browser. Install and test the following tools before beginning the tutorial:
- Mozilla 1.2 or higher. Download it from http://www.mozilla.org/.
- A text editor that supports UTF-8 (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html) or an XML editor (http://www.garshol.priv.no/download/xmltools/cat_ix.html#SC_XMLEditors).
- Finally, you'll want to download the files referred to throughout this tutorial (https://www6.software.ibm.com/developerworks/education/x-analys/x-analysfiles.zip). You should download them before starting the tutorial so that you can follow along more easily, because you'll often encounter code fragments taken from longer files and it helps to view those fragments in the context of the overall file.
Duration
Under one hour
Formats html, pdf
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