XSLT Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Preface

Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) is a powerful technology for transforming XML documents into other useful forms, but it is sometimes considered difficult to learn. Its template-based approach makes it a prime candidate for learning by example, and XSLT examples are often easily repurposed. XSLT 2.0 greatly increases the power and elegance of XSLT but also increases its complexity.

When I first began working with XSLT (and again when learning XSLT 2.0), I longed for a cookbook that would accelerate my productivity by providing ready-made solutions to the challenges I faced. My first experience with such a book was O’Reilly’s Perl Cookbook. This book was more influential to my reluctant learning and ultimate appreciation of Perl than the original camel book (Programming Perl) by Larry Wall. I believe cookbooks are important because most software developers are not satisfied with simply figuring out how to make something work: they are interested in mastering the technology and using the best-known techniques, and they want answers fast. There is no better way to master a subject than by borrowing from those who have already discovered better ways to do things.

Longing for a cookbook soon turned into a desire to write one, especially since I collected several useful recipes—some that were developed by others and some that I created. However, I did not want to write an XSLT book simply packaged in an alternate form; I wanted to provide a useful resource ...