Conventions Used in This Book

Snippets of XSLT code are scattered throughout the book and are often used to introduce you to a feature of the markup language. They appear in the chapters like this:

<xsl:stylesheet
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
version="1.0">
<xsl:template match="id">
<h1><xsl:apply-templates/></h1>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

If you type these stylesheets by hand, pay close attention and type the text exactly as shown to ensure that the stylesheet transforms properly. Generally, spaces dont matter much, although depending on where they are, they could change the look of the output from a transformation. However, case sensitivity is important for any XML or XSLT element. I use lowercase text in all the examples, so I recommend getting used to typing lowercase to avoid confusion or problems down the line.

If XSLT element names or instructions appear within the regular text, they look like this .

    

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Icons Used in This Book

 Tip   Tips draw attention to key points that can save you time and effort.

 Remember   Pay close attention to this icon; it highlights something thats important to your understanding of XSLT or how to use it.

 Warning   Heed the Warning icon because it can save you from the pitfalls of XSLT pain and agony.

 Technical Stuff   Technical Stuff is the techno-mumbo-jumbo thats interesting but probably only for geeks . So, reading these sections can provide useful information, but feel free to skip them.

    

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Chapter 1: Introducing the X-Team

In This Chapter

A s a sports fan, I enjoy watching all kinds of team sports, whether football, basketball , baseball, or an Olympic team competition. Ive noticed that regardless of the sport, great teams have two things in common. First, they have very talented individuals on them. Second, they function well as a team; I find hardly anything more thrilling in sports than seeing a squad of talented athletes working together cohesively. (Of course, it goes without saying that the most exciting part of sports is the Im going to Disneyworld commercials!)

Although this book focuses on eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations, or XSLT, youll quickly discover that XSLT is an important component of a closely related set of technologies that I affectionately call the X-Team. This Dream X-Team consists of: XML, XSL, XSLT, and XPath. (For the techies out there, thats shorthand for eXtensible Markup Language, eXtensible Stylesheet Language, XSL Transformations, and XML Path Language.) Each of these technologies is powerful, but each gets its true strength through interrelationships. So, although I concentrate much of the attention in this book on XSLT, never think of it as something independent of its teammates.

As you start your XSLT journey, I begin by introducing you to the X-Team members , each of which has a separate but intertwined responsibility.

    

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