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XML Reference Guide

📄 Contents

  1. XML Reference Guide
  2. Overview
  3. What Is XML?
  4. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  5. Books and e-Books
  6. Official Documentation
  7. Table of Contents
  8. The Document Object Model
  9. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  10. Books and e-Books
  11. Official Documentation
  12. DOM and Java
  13. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  14. Books and e-Books
  15. Implementations
  16. DOM and JavaScript
  17. Using a Repeater
  18. Repeaters and XML
  19. Repeater Resources
  20. DOM and .NET
  21. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  22. Books and e-Books
  23. Documentation and Downloads
  24. DOM and C++
  25. DOM and C++ Resources
  26. DOM and Perl
  27. DOM and Perl Resources
  28. DOM and PHP
  29. DOM and PHP Resources
  30. DOM Level 3
  31. DOM Level 3 Core
  32. DOM Level 3 Load and Save
  33. DOM Level 3 XPath
  34. DOM Level 3 Validation
  35. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  36. Books and e-Books
  37. Documentation and Implementations
  38. The Simple API for XML (SAX)
  39. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  40. Books and e-Books
  41. Official Documentation
  42. SAX and Java
  43. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  44. Books and e-Books
  45. SAX and .NET
  46. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  47. SAX and Perl
  48. SAX and Perl Resources
  49. SAX and PHP
  50. SAX and PHP Resources
  51. Validation
  52. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  53. Books and e-Books
  54. Official Documentation
  55. Document Type Definitions (DTDs)
  56. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  57. Books and e-Books
  58. Official Documentation
  59. XML Schemas
  60. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  61. Books and e-Books
  62. Official Documentation
  63. RELAX NG
  64. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  65. Books and e-Books
  66. Official Documentation
  67. Schematron
  68. Official Documentation and Implementations
  69. Validation in Applications
  70. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  71. Books and e-Books
  72. XSL Transformations (XSLT)
  73. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  74. Books and e-Books
  75. Official Documentation
  76. XSLT in Java
  77. Java in XSLT Resources
  78. XSLT and RSS in .NET
  79. XSLT and RSS in .NET Resources
  80. XSL-FO
  81. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  82. Books and e-Books
  83. Official Documentation
  84. XPath
  85. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  86. Books and e-Books
  87. Official Documentation
  88. XML Base
  89. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  90. Official Documentation
  91. XHTML
  92. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  93. Books and e-Books
  94. Official Documentation
  95. XHTML 2.0
  96. Documentation
  97. Cascading Style Sheets
  98. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  99. Books and e-Books
  100. Official Documentation
  101. XUL
  102. XUL References
  103. XML Events
  104. XML Events Resources
  105. XML Data Binding
  106. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  107. Books and e-Books
  108. Specifications
  109. Implementations
  110. XML and Databases
  111. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  112. Books and e-Books
  113. Online Resources
  114. Official Documentation
  115. SQL Server and FOR XML
  116. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  117. Books and e-Books
  118. Documentation and Implementations
  119. Service Oriented Architecture
  120. Web Services
  121. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  122. Books and e-Books
  123. Official Documentation
  124. Creating a Perl Web Service Client
  125. SOAP::Lite
  126. Amazon Web Services
  127. Creating the Movable Type Plug-in
  128. Perl, Amazon, and Movable Type Resources
  129. Apache Axis2
  130. REST
  131. REST Resources
  132. SOAP
  133. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  134. Books and e-Books
  135. Official Documentation
  136. SOAP and Java
  137. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  138. Books and e-Books
  139. Official Documentation
  140. WSDL
  141. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  142. Books and e-Books
  143. Official Documentation
  144. UDDI
  145. UDDI Resources
  146. XML-RPC
  147. XML-RPC in PHP
  148. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  149. Books and e-Books
  150. Official Documentation
  151. Ajax
  152. Asynchronous Javascript
  153. Client-side XSLT
  154. SAJAX and PHP
  155. Ajax Resources
  156. JSON
  157. Ruby on Rails
  158. Creating Objects
  159. Ruby Basics: Arrays and Other Sundry Bits
  160. Ruby Basics: Iterators and Persistence
  161. Starting on the Rails
  162. Rails and Databases
  163. Rails: Ajax and Partials
  164. Rails Resources
  165. Web Services Security
  166. Web Services Security Resources
  167. SAML
  168. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  169. Books and e-Books
  170. Specification and Implementation
  171. XML Digital Signatures
  172. XML Digital Signatures Resources
  173. XML Key Management Services
  174. Resources for XML Key Management Services
  175. Internationalization
  176. Resources
  177. Grid Computing
  178. Grid Resources
  179. Web Services Resource Framework
  180. Web Services Resource Framework Resources
  181. WS-Addressing
  182. WS-Addressing Resources
  183. WS-Notifications
  184. New Languages: XML in Use
  185. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  186. Books and e-Books
  187. Official Documentation
  188. Google Web Toolkit
  189. GWT Basic Interactivity
  190. Google Sitemaps
  191. Google Sitemaps Resources
  192. Accessibility
  193. Web Accessibility
  194. XML Accessibility
  195. Accessibility Resources
  196. The Semantic Web
  197. Defining a New Ontology
  198. OWL: Web Ontology Language
  199. Semantic Web Resources
  200. Google Base
  201. Microformats
  202. StructuredBlogging
  203. Live Clipboard
  204. WML
  205. XHTML-MP
  206. WML Resources
  207. Google Web Services
  208. Google Web Services API
  209. Google Web Services Resources
  210. The Yahoo! Web Services Interface
  211. Yahoo! Web Services and PHP
  212. Yahoo! Web Services Resources
  213. eBay REST API
  214. WordML
  215. WordML Part 2: Lists
  216. WordML Part 3: Tables
  217. WordML Resources
  218. DocBook
  219. Articles
  220. Books and e-Books
  221. Official Documentation and Implementations
  222. XML Query
  223. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  224. Books and e-Books
  225. Official Documentation
  226. XForms
  227. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  228. Books and e-Books
  229. Official Documentation
  230. Resource Description Framework (RDF)
  231. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  232. Books and e-Books
  233. Official Documentation
  234. Topic Maps
  235. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  236. Books and e-Books
  237. Official Documentation, Implementations, and Other Resources
  238. Rich Site Summary (RSS)
  239. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  240. Books and e-Books
  241. Official Documentation
  242. Simple Sharing Extensions (SSE)
  243. Atom
  244. Podcasting
  245. Podcasting Resources
  246. Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
  247. Informit Articles and Sample Chapters
  248. Books and e-Books
  249. Official Documentation
  250. OPML
  251. OPML Resources
  252. Summary
  253. Projects
  254. JavaScript TimeTracker: JSON and PHP
  255. The Javascript Timetracker
  256. Refactoring to Javascript Objects
  257. Creating the Yahoo! Widget
  258. Web Mashup
  259. Google Maps
  260. Indeed Mashup
  261. Mashup Part 3: Putting It All Together
  262. Additional Resources
  263. Frequently Asked Questions About XML
  264. What's XML, and why should I use it?
  265. What's a well-formed document?
  266. What's the difference between XML and HTML?
  267. What's the difference between HTML and XHTML?
  268. Can I use XML in a browser?
  269. Should I use elements or attributes for my document?
  270. What's a namespace?
  271. Where can I get an XML parser?
  272. What's the difference between a well-formed document and a valid document?
  273. What's a validating parser?
  274. Should I use DOM or SAX for my application?
  275. How can I stop a SAX parser before it has parsed the entire document?
  276. 2005 Predictions
  277. 2006 Predictions
  278. Nick's Book Picks

Using XSLT to transform XML into another form has a lot of advantages, not the least of which is flexibility. When you want to change the output, you don't have to go back to the code, you simply have to change the XSLT style sheet. But it's easy to mistake this simplicity for shallowness. XSLT can enable you to do much more than simply reformatting text.

Consider a situation in which not all of the information destined for the final output is in the XML file. How can you incorporate it without complex pre- or post-processing? For example, say we have a file of location information:

<places>
    <place>
        <city>New York</city>
        <state>NY</state>
        <zip>10001</zip>
    </place>
    <place>
        <city>Boston</city>
        <state>MA</state>
        <zip>02134</zip>
     </place>
     <place>
        <city>Denver</city>
        <state>CO</state>
        <zip>80002</zip>
     </place>
</places>

What if we wanted to display not just the city, state, and ZIP code, but also the temperature? And to make things more difficult, what if we wanted the live temperature at the moment of transformation?

One option is to make a call to another application, such as a Java class, from within the stylesheet.

For example, consider this basic style sheet:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" 
       xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

   <xsl:template match="/">
       <html>
           <head><title>Weather</title></head>
           <body>
              <table>
                 <th>City</th><th>State</th><th>ZIP code</th>
                 <th>Current Temp</th>

                 <xsl:apply-templates />
              </table>
           </body>
       </html>
   </xsl:template>

   <xsl:template match="place">
       <tr>
          <td><xsl:value-of select="city"/></td>
          <td><xsl:value-of select="state"/></td>
          <td><xsl:value-of select="zip"/></td>
          <td></td>
       </tr>
   </xsl:template>
	
</xsl:stylesheet>

This stylesheet creates an HTML page that displays the data, but doesn't yet include the actual temperature. To get the actual temperature, we can create a simple Java class:

package com.informit.chase;

public class Weather extends Object {

    public static String getTemp(String zip){
        String returnTemp = "";

        //GET TEMPERATURE HERE

        return returnTemp;
    }

}

I've left out the implementation of the getTemp() method because it's not crucial to the discussion; the temperature could be coming from a web service, a thermometer, or some other source. The important part is that this method returns the temperature based on the ZIP code. Now we just have to integrate it into the style sheet.

To call a Java class from an XSLT style sheet, we first have to let the processor know where to find the code. We can do that by defining a new namespace:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" 
      xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
      xmlns:java="com.informit.chase.Weather"
      exclude-result-prefixes="java">

   <xsl:template match="/">
       <html>
           <head><title>Weather</title></head>
           <body>
...

Here I've defined the java: namespace to represent the com.informit.chase.Weather class. (Note that this class must be on the CLASSPATH when you perform the transformation.) Now I just have to call it from within the stylesheet itself:

...
   <xsl:template match="place">
       <tr>
          <td><xsl:value-of select="city"/></td>
          <td><xsl:value-of select="state"/></td>
          <td><xsl:value-of select="zip"/></td>

          <xsl:variable name="theZip" select="zip"/>
          <xsl:variable name="theTemp" select="java:getTemp($theZip)"/>
          <td><xsl:value-of select="$theTemp"/>></td>
       </tr>
   </xsl:template>
...

First I'm creating a simple variable so I can pass the value of the ZIP code to the method. Next I'm creating a variable and populating it with the results of the method. Note that because the java: namespace represents the class, we just need to note the actual method. Finally, all we need to do is drop the value into the template.

The result is the final page (with spaces added for intelligibility):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<html>
   <head><title>Weather</title></head>
   <body>
      <table><th>City</th><th>State</th><th>ZIP code</th>
             <th>Current Temp</th>
        <tr>
           <td>New York</td><td>NY</td><td>10001</td><td>45</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
           <td>Boston</td><td>MA</td><td>02134</td><td>44</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
           <td>Denver</td><td>CO</td><td>80002</td><td>76</td>
        </tr>
      </table>
   </body>
</html>

Extension methods are completely implementation dependent. For example, MSXML doesn't support Java at all. This version covers calling Java from the XSLT engine built in to Java 1.4. Check the documentation for your XSLT engine to find out how to extend it by calling another application.

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Last Update: November 17, 2020