Chapter 22. XML and XSLT

In this chapter, we're going to take a look at using JavaScript with XML and XSLT. You're probably familiar with XML, Extensible Markup Language , at least in name . In XML, you can create your own markup tags, such as <PERSON> or <PHONE_NUMBER> . You may not be so familiar with XSLT, Extensible Style Sheet Language Transformations , however. Using XSLT, you can transform XML documents into other formats such as HTML or plain textor other HTML documents with a different organization. We'll take a look at both in this chapter.

Note that although the Netscape Navigator can work with XML to some extent, the Internet Explorer already lets you handle both XML and XSLT using JavaScript in an advanced way, so this chapter is only going to be applicable to Internet Explorer.

The in-depth details of both XML and XSLT are beyond the scope of this bookthere just isn't space in a book on JavaScript to discuss all the ins and outs of XML and XSLT. Even if you're completely unfamiliar with these topics, however, you can probably catch the gist of what's going on just by reading this chapteralthough the details, such as how to construct an XML Document Type Definition (DTD), will still be elusive . Both XML and XSLT are standardized by the W3C, and you can check out the W3C recommendations for XML at www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml and XSLT at www.w3.org/TR/xslt20.

Tip

For more information on XML, see New Rider's Inside XML . For more information on XSLT, see New Rider's Inside XSLT .