Critical for converting XML documents, and extremely versatile, the XSLT language nevertheless has complexities that can be daunting. The XSLT Cookbook is a collection of hundreds of solutions to problems that Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) developers regularly face. The recipes range from simple string-manipulation and mathematical processing to more complex topics like extending XSLT, testing and debugging XSLT stylesheets, and graphics creation with SVG. Recipes can be run directly or tweaked to fit your particular application's needs more precisely.

Each recipe walks through a problem and a solution, with explanations of the choices made and techniques used in creating that solution, and many recipes include alternate solutions and explore issues like convenience and performance. Topics covered include:

• String manipulation

• Mathematical processing

• Date and time handling

• Interactions between calendar systems

• Selecting content in source documents

• Efficient tree-manipulation

• Conversions from XML to plain text

• Tweaking XML documents with stylesheets

• Using XSLT to query XML documents

• Generating HTML with XSLT

• Creating charts and graphs with SVG and XSLT

• Generating C and XSLT code using XSLT

• Processing Visio documents in XSLT

• Working with XML Topic Maps (XTM)

• Using XSLT to create SOAP documentation from WSDL

• Extending XSLT with additional functions

• Embedding XSLT in other processing

• Testing and debugging XSLT stylesheets

• Creating generic XSLT processors which work on many XML vocabularies

The XSLT Cookbook provides an ideal companion both for developers still figuring out XSLT's template-based approach who want to learn by example, and for developers who know XSLT and want a collection of quickly reusable recipes. XSLT frequently offers a number of ways to perform a transformation, and the best solution may not always be the most straightforward. The recipes in this Cookbook demonstrate and explain XSLT's template-based logic, a frequent stumbling block for developers new to XSLT. Among the variety of XSLT books now available, none has the explicit solution-oriented approach of this Cookbook.