XSL Transformations (XSLT)

XSL Transformations (XSLT) is a declarative XML-based language used for the transformation of XML documents into other XML documents. The original document is not changed; rather, a new document is created based on the content of an existing one.[2] The new document may be serialized (output) by the processor in standard XML syntax or in another format, such as HTML or plain text.[3] XSLT is often used to convert XML data into HTML or XHTML documents for display as a web page: the transformation may happen dynamically either on the client or on the server, or it may be done as part of the publishing process. It is also used to create printed output, typically by transforming the original XML into XSL Formatting Objects, which can then be converted to PDF. XSLT is also used to translate XML messages between different XML schemas, or to make changes to documents within the scope of a single schema, for example by removing the parts of a message that are not needed.

Figure01

Overview

Diagram of the basic elements and process flow of Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations. The XSLT processing model involves:

· one or more XML source documents;

· one or more XSLT stylesheet modules;

· the XSLT template processing engine (the processor); and

· one or more result documents.

The XSLT processor ordinarily takes two input documents—an XML source document, and an XSLT style sheet—and produces an output document. The XSLT stylesheet contains a collection of template rules: instructions and other directives that guide the processor in the production of the output document.