XSL companion, The

XSL companion, The

by Neil Bradley
Released September 2000
Publisher(s): Pearson Business
ISBN: 9780201674873

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Book description

A concise, comprehensive and accessible guide to the scope, strengths and limitations of the XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language) family of stylesheet standards for XML, this book explains the practical ways in which XSL can be utilized for formatting and manipulating information held in the hugely popular XML data format.

The huge expansion in usage of XML created the need for a powerful standard for formatting and transforming XML documents - the XSL standard, which developed into the family of three specific standards exaimned in detail in this book. XSL enables the further expansion of XML technology into new domains of content management, audience targeted presentation and distributed document processing.

If you are a current or potential XML user looking for just one reference to get you up to speed on styling and manipulating your XML documents with clarity, comprehensive coverage and precision, then this book will be your essential and constant companion.

This book covers in detail the family of three separate stylesheet which make up XSL:
•Xpath locates specific information within XML Documents
•XSLT transforms XML documents into other data formats
•XSL embeds formatting information in XML documents

Together these form a powerful array of tools that allow you to control and optimize the formatting of your XML documents, and thus deliver content and information in a dynamic and flexible way.



0201674874B04062001

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. Preface
  3. Using this book
    1. Book structure
    2. Style conventions
  4. Overview
    1. Stylesheets
    2. The XSL standards
    3. XSL/XSLT processors
    4. Why XSL?
    5. Stylesheet example
  5. Templates
    1. Template concepts
    2. Values of elements and attributes
    3. Breaking well-formed constraints
    4. XSL format output
    5. XML transformation output
  6. Stylesheets
    1. Using stylesheets
    2. The Stylesheet element
    3. Fragmented stylesheets
    4. Embedded stylesheets
    5. Stylesheet contents
    6. Output formats
    7. Space preservation
  7. HTML output
    1. Pseudo HTML output
    2. True HTML output
  8. Contextual formatting
    1. XML structures
    2. Expressions
    3. Alternative elements
    4. Simple location contexts
    5. Advanced context
    6. Attribute contexts
    7. Priorities
  9. Expressions in attributes
    1. Template markup
    2. Copy-through attributes
    3. Element content to attribute
    4. Child element to attribute
  10. Choices
    1. Introduction
    2. If conditions
    3. Multiple choices
  11. Sorting
    1. Simple element sorting
    2. Correct ordering
    3. Ordering options
    4. Selective sorting
    5. Multiple sort criteria
  12. Numbering
    1. HTML numbering
    2. Simple numbering
    3. Expression values
    4. Elements to count
    5. Multipart numbering
    6. Document-wide numbering
    7. Advanced formatting options
  13. Reorganizing material
    1. Information reuse
    2. Context-specific formatting (modes)
    3. Moving information
    4. Accessing remote documents
  14. XML output
    1. XML output format
    2. Elements
    3. Attributes
    4. Text
    5. Comments
    6. Processing instructions
    7. Copying source structures
  15. Identifiers and links
    1. XML IDs
    2. Keys
    3. Hypertext links
  16. Text format
    1. Non-XML output
    2. Text output mode
    3. Line-ending issues
  17. Namespaces
    1. Namespaces in stylesheets
    2. Namespaces in input documents
    3. Namespaces in output documents
    4. Outputting stylesheets (aliases)
  18. Productivity features
    1. Variables
    2. Attribute sets
    3. Named templates
    4. Single-template short-cut
    5. Direct processing
    6. Messages
  19. XSL
    1. Background
    2. XSL instructions
    3. Templates and content
    4. Pages
    5. Page sequences
    6. Page regions
    7. Content
    8. Blocks
    9. Lines
    10. In-line objects
    11. Object positioning
    12. Out-of-line objects
    13. Neutral objects
    14. Whitespace and line feeds
    15. Aural styles
  20. HTML 4.0
    1. HTML
    2. HTML versions
    3. Basic document structure
    4. Differences from XML
    5. Text blocks
    6. Basic hypertext links
    7. Common attributes
    8. Headings and Divisions
    9. Lists
    10. In-line elements
    11. Formatted text
    12. Images
    13. Tables
    14. Descriptive markup
    15. Styles and scripts
    16. Frames
    17. Elements and attributes list
  21. CSS
    1. Background
    2. Format primer
    3. CSS versus XSL/XSLT
    4. Relevance to XSLT and XSL
    5. Rule constructions
    6. Properties
  22. Expressions
    1. The XPath standard
    2. Expressions in attributes
    3. Patterns
    4. Location paths
    5. Expressions
    6. Data types and functions
    7. Operators
    8. Predicate filters
    9. XSLT extensions
  23. DTD Analysis
    1. Introduction
    2. Elements to style
    3. Hierarchical context
    4. Required and sequential context
    5. Block and in-line elements
    6. Attributes
    7. DTD construction features
  24. XSLT DTD
    1. Introduction
    2. Top-level elements
    3. Templates
    4. Template instructions
    5. Instruction constructs
    6. Result elements
  25. XSLT extensions
    1. Extension functions
    2. Extension elements
    3. Forward compatibility

Product information

  • Title: XSL companion, The
  • Author(s): Neil Bradley
  • Release date: September 2000
  • Publisher(s): Pearson Business
  • ISBN: 9780201674873