Rating:  - Some useful examples
The code examples in the book can be found online. While several of them are quite helpful, this book is by no means an exhaustive reference, nor does it clearly articulate the basics. See the w3schools website for this.
Rating:  - COOKING WITH XSLT!!
Are you a developer? If you are, then this book is for you. Author Sal Mangano, has done an outstanding job of writing a 2nd edition of a book that offers hundreds of solutions to problems that developers regularly face in both versions 1.0 and 2.0.
Mangano, begins by briefly explaining the greater sophistication and complexity of Xpath 2.0. Then, the author shows you that almost anything one wants to do with strings can be done within the confines of XSLT; as well as, how the new features of 2.0 make it that much easier. The author then shows you how to push the limits of XSLT's mathematical capabilities, even though XSLT was not designed to be the next great Fortran replacement. Next, he describes date and time recipes that augment an area standard that XSLT 1.0 currently lacks. The author continues by exploring the problems XSLT was specifically designed to solve. Then, the author presents an overview of XSLT 2.0. Next, he provides recipes that control how text extracted from XML is rendered for layout on the terminal, on the text editor, or for import to programs that require delimited data, such as comma separated values. The author then covers XML transformations. Then, he presents a treasure trove of recipes that demonstrate XSLT as a query language. The author continues by demonstrating solutions to problems that arise when generating web content, including links, tables, frames, forms, and other client-side transformation issues. Then, he describes the transformation of raw data into bar charts, pie charts, line plots, and other graphical components. Next, the author shows you the advantage gained from representing the data that drives code generation in XML and illustrates how XSLT is ideal for writing code generators for C++, Java, and XSLT itself. He also includes some advance uses of XSLT. The author continues by providing extensive coverage of XSLT extensibility using Java and JavaScript. Then, he demonstrates useful techniques that can help you transform misbehaved XSLT programs into functional ones, even if you don't have a nature XSLT debugger handy. Finally, he pushes the XSLT envelope to show how XSLT is far more than just another styling language.
This most excellent book has recipes that range from simple string manipulation and mathematical processing to more complex topics such as extending XSLT, testing and debugging XSLT stylesheets, and creating graphics with SVG. More importantly, the recipes in this book will guide you through many different ways of applying XSLT.
Rating: - Recipes cover all levels of use and provide developers with plenty of real-world examples
Sal Mangano's XSLT Cookbook: Solutions And Examples For XML And XSLT Developers covers all the advanced features of the Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations, a tool for processing XML. It's a daunting tool even for developers, and XSLT Cookbook helps developers with a set of problems and answers which cover all kinds of performance issues, from the basics of creating charts, graphics and generating code to handling data, processing math, and designing. Recipes cover all levels of use and provide developers with plenty of real-world examples.
Rating: - Outstanding Reference For Experienced XSLT Developers
XSLT is one of those technologies that has been around for awhile, but it feels like not enough great references are out there for developers. When this is the case for any technology, any new guide that comes out is a breath of fresh air, because it might be the right tool to turn a regular developer into a SUPER developer. With 'XSLT Cookbook' by Sal Mangano, XML and XSLT programmers finally have a guide that they can really sink their teeth into, with real solutions to everyday problems. Jam packed with over 700 pages of material, this book covers the major important topics that one would expect to read up on: string manipulation, math processing, date/time handling, XML conversions to plain text, querying XML documents with XSLT... the list goes on and on.
If you use XSLT on a regular basis or you have a project that is going to use XSLT and/or XML, you will be hard-pressed to find a better reference out there on the market today for your needs and this text will no doubt present either the solution you are exactly looking for, or provide a basis for achieving the desired solution you are aiming to find.
***** HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECCOMENDATION
Rating: - Lots of "R&D" material here...
[Review of 2nd edition]
One of my favorite development methodologies is "R&D"... "Rob & Duplicate". And an important source of inspiration is often the O'Reilly Cookbook series. For XSLT, you now have an up-to-date wealth of samples to pull from... XSLT Cookbook (2nd Edition) by Sal Mangano.
Contents: XPath; Strings; Numbers and Math; Dates and Times; Selecting and Traversing; Exploiting XSLT 2.0; XML to Text; XML to XML; Querying XML; XML to HTML; XML to SVG; Code Generation; Vertical XSLT Application Recipes; Extending and Embedding XSLT; Testing and Debugging; Generic and Functional Programming; Index
If you've never seen an O'Reilly Cookbook, the concept is pretty simple. Each "recipe" consists of a problem description, a solution, and a discussion of how the solution addresses the issues, along with any observations that can shed light on the situation. These recipes are then grouped together by general problem types so that you can easily find an area that might offer up a quick answer to your particular problem. In this book, Mangano expands upon the 1st edition that covered XSLT 1.0. The 2nd edition now covers the updated XSLT 2.0 standard, and offers up both 1.0 and 2.0 solutions and discussions to many of the problems. As such, you will find value in the material regardless of your particular version usage. So for instance, let's say I have an XML file that needs to be reformatted into a second file to meet some formatting requirement. By checking into the XML to XML file, I'll find solutions on turning attributes into elements, elements to attributes, renaming elements and attributes, and so on. Tutorial books will teach you the syntax for doing stuff like this, but they can't anticipate real-world solutions. Cookbooks assume you already know what you're doing, and they go right to solutions.
Personally, I find a number of uses for books like this. There's the obvious, which is to find an exact (or nearly so) answer to your particular problem. But stepping away from the "immediate" need, there's always the opportunity to read through the recipes and see how others might code a solution. You can learn new coding techniques that way, as well as see features of the language that perhaps you never noticed before. Sort of like having a guru sitting next to you at work...
Assuming you're past the point of beginner, the XSLT Cookbook is probably the second XSLT book that you want to have on your bookshelf. If it helps you solve a couple of problems and save a handful of hours in the process, it'll more than pay for itself...
|
