Transforming XML using XSLT Style Sheets — A 2-day course

 Open Public Course Closed In-House Course

Synopsis

XML has rapidly become a de-facto standard for exchanging data between applications and organisations. The growth of XML has led to the emergence of XPath and XSLT as standard ways of accessing and transforming content in an XML document.

XPath and XSLT are a natural combination. XPath is a declarative language that allows content to be located in an XML document. XSLT style sheets define template rules, using XPath expressions to locate XML content, and then transform the selected data into another form.

This course explores the XPath language in detail, showing how to locate XML content by value, position, and type. It then shows how to use XSLT to transform XML documents into a different dialect of XML, HTML, or a text format such as EDI files. The course also shows how to filter unwanted data, and how to generate new XML content from scratch.

The course is based on the latest World Wide Web Consortium standards for XPath and XSLT.

This course is a mixture of instructor-led tuition with separate practical sessions for each chapter designed to help reinforce the techniques covered in the lecture material. It has a high practical content. Delegates will write and apply many different style sheets during the practical sessions, to explore the full range of capabilities available in XPath and XSLT.

Course Ojbectives

After completing this course, delegates will be able to:

• locate content in an XML document using XPath
• write XSLT style sheets to transform XML documents
• apply XSLT style sheets statically or dynamically to XML documents
• generate new XML content using XSLT
• perform repetition and conditional logic in an XSLT style sheet
• sort documents, and control textual and numeric output
• define and use named templates
• parameterise template rules and style sheets
• coordinate multiple XML documents using style sheets
• reuse, customise, and extend XSLT style sheets

Suitable For

Designers, architects, and developers who need to manipulate and transform XML documents using XPath and XSLT.

Prerequisites

Delegates must have a good working knowledge of XML, which can be obtained by working on at least one XML project or by attending QA's Building XML-Based Applications course or the Java and XML Development Workshop. Familiarity with a scripting language (JavaScript or VBScript) would also be beneficial, along with an awareness of Internet and intranet technologies.

Publicly scheduled dates, locations, and prices

Contents

XSLT and XPath Introduction

• Recap of XML document structure
• What is XPath?
• What is XSLT?
• Why are XSLT and XPath useful?
• Transforming XML documents using XPath and XSLT
• Generating XML and/or HTML output
• Industry support for XPath and XSLT

Selecting XML Nodes using XPath

• XPath nodes and properties
• Axes, node tests, and predicates
• Location paths and location steps
• Accessing elements and attributes
• Accessing other node types
• Filtering nodes using predicates
• Using XPath operators and functions

Writing and Applying XSLT Style Sheets

• XSLT style sheet structure
• Defining template rules
• Obtaining node values
• Invoking template rules
• Literal result elements
• Applying a style sheet to an XML document
• Applying a style sheet dynamically using DOM

The XSLT Programming Language

• Performing iteration
• Making decisions
• Creating named templates
• Calling named templates
• Defining and using variables
• Defining and using parameters

Fine-Tuning XSLT Output

• Formatting numbers
• Sorting the result tree
• Controlling whitespace
• Character encodings
• Specifying XML, HTML, and plain text output methods

Mapping XML dialects with XSLT

• Creating new XML content with XSLT
• Creating elements
• Creating attributes
• Namespace issues
• Generating and formatting text content
• Creating numeric output
• Creating other XML content

Managing multiple XML documents with XSLT

• Accessing multiple XML documents
• Cross-referencing data using keys
• Accessing XML data with keys
• Generating cross references in XML documents

Producing Scalable Solutions with XSLT

• Including style sheets
• Importing style sheets
• Overriding imported template rules
• Invoking overridden template rules
• Specifying template priorities

The Way Ahead

• Extension elements
• Extension functions
• Forwards-compatible processing
• Fallback processing
• The role of XPath in XPointer
• Likely impact of the XML Schema Definition Language (XSLD)