Learning XSLT

Chapter 13. Working with Multiple Documents

This chapter explains how to use the include, import , and apply-imports elements, which work with stylesheets, and how to use the document( ) function, which works with source documents. These elements provide features that help you work with multiple stylesheets and source documents as modules so that they can be integrated or reused.

With the include element, you can integrate one or more external stylesheets within another stylesheet, as if they were all just one stylesheet. If you import external stylesheets into a stylesheet with the import element, certain rules go into effect, namely that templates are invoked based on the order in which they appear. This feature is called import precedence . You can override these precedence rules, however, by using the apply-imports element.

You can read about include and import in Sections 2.6.1 and 2.6.2 of XSLT specification; apply-imports is discussed in Section 5.6 of that specification.

You can also work with more than one source document by using the document( ) function. This means that you can transform nodes from more than one source document at a time. Earlier examples in this book have used document( ), but this chapter covers it in greater detail. The document( ) function is fully documented in Section 12.1 of the XSLT spec.

Including Stylesheets

XSLT allows you to use and manage stylesheets in a modular way with the include element. This means that you aren’t limited to storing ...