Chapter 3: Extending the Power of XML with XSL

Overview

This chapter covers eXtensible Style Sheets (XSL). The intention is to keep this discussion of XSL very basic, as was done with XML and the XML DOM in previous chapters. The goal is to retain simplicity of presentation of various facets of XML, and to avoid going into enormous detail on these various topics. Once again, the motivation for this approach is to focus on XML and the way XML is used with databases, both specific vendor databases, and the use of XML itself as a native XML database.

This chapter focuses primarily on using XSL templating and filtering, which can be applied to relational databases. Data can be contained within a database in tables or native XML in a database, or outside of a database in XML document form. This chapter touches briefly on using database data directly, but mostly focuses on the use and application of XSL itself. Subsequent chapters will begin in earnest the study of XML documents and relational databases.

In this chapter you learn about:

• What XSL is

• The roots of XSL and where it is now

• Basic XSL syntax, including all elements such as processing instructions, transformations, node creation, data retrieval, and control structures

• Some advanced XSL syntax including functions, methods , and pattern matching

• Combining XSL with the XML DOM