The book covers XSLT and Xpath (as a part of XSLT), as these topics have everything to do with processing XML. It will also cover XML from an XSLT processing and design point of view. Other XML technologies will not be discussed as superset of XSLT, most notably XSL. XSL Formatting Objects alone is enough material for an entire book. Apart from that, XSLT and Xpath form the processing/programming section of the entire XSL specification. This book presents an overview of XSLT and guides readers through transforming their first XML data. In this book you will also learn:
Selecting Data-Stylesheets and Xpath Basics;
Inserting text and elements in output;
Copying elements from the source and inserting text;
Conditional processing basics and expressions;
Modularizing stylesheets;
Understanding, creating, and using templates;
Controlling output, as well as creating more advanced output;
Using multi-file stylesheets, variables, and parameters;
Working with numbers, strings, multiple XML sources, and namespaces;
Selecting data based upon keys;
Recursion;
Creating computational stylesheets;
Working with parses;
Designing XML and XSLT applications;
Extending XSLT.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Great way to learn XSLT
The book is easy to understand. There are plenty of examples and the exercise help reinforce what you learnt. The two negatives are: it's not XSLT 2.0 and the printing and binding of the book is poor. It is still a good way to learn XSLT. It would be great to have a study group guide.
Rating: - Great Book for Beginners
If you know absolutely nothing about XSLT, this is the book for you. Very straightforward. I got through the first week (7 chapters) in about a day. You could easily read and understand most of the content in this book in less than a few days. Great for anyone wanting to pick up the language quickly. For advanced users, this is probably not your book.
Rating: - Fantastic Examples
Some PROs and CONs...
Pros:
Topic flows very well. Author was able to explain each topic without asking reader to refer to upcoming forward chapters. Best part of this book are the examples. They are relevant and short and sweet enough to understand. Best of all, there are lots of examples. The author doesn't just slap them on the page and tell you to figure it out yourself. The author walks the reader thru them.
Cons:
Some areas reads like a technical manual.. ... Read More
Rating: - Excellent place to start
This book works. It does, however, assume that you have a meaningful level of computer proficiency. This is probably a safe assumption for anyone intending to go spelunking in XML files and performing transformations on same.
To complete the book's lessons, you'll need to download and install one of the free XSLT parsing engines listed in the book. Alternatively, I used the jEdit free text browser and its associated XSLT plugin to run the examples.
- Excellent place to start
