XSLT: eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations Workshop

This comprehensive four-day course develops in-depth knowledge and skills in transforming XML documents using eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations, or XSLT. Students work through extensive hands-on exercises in transformations from XML to plain text, HTML, and XML, with good grounding in XPath along the way. Intermediate and advanced techniques are also covered including variables and parameters, callable templates, sorting and grouping, tail recursion, working with multiple documents, and XSLT extensions. The course teaches XPath and XSLT 1.0 but looks forward to the 2.0 releases of both specifications with pointers about what new features to expect

Learning Objectives

• Write simple and complex queries into XML document content using XPath.
• Harness the built-in template rules to process just the right source information, getting maximum leverage from the XSLT processor.
• Control the exact production of text, HTML and XML elements, and whitespace.
• Use mode and priority to control template matching.
• Use looping and conditional processing to manage output production.
• Declare, bind and reference XSLT variables and parameters.
• Use callable templates to capture common transformations and styling.
• Filter and sort XSLT output.
• Use XSLT keys and other techniques to achieve grouping in transformation output and to derive aggregate information on groups.
• Produce refined transformation output including auto-numbering, formatted numeric output, and aggregate values such as sums and counts.
• Implement more complex processes using tail recursion in callable templates.
• Use the XSLT document function to manage multiple source documents.
• Import and include multiple transform definitions to foster reuse of transformation logic.
• Use XSLT extensions to empower transforms with more sophisticated and reusable logic.