LibraryDeveloper PortalXSL/XSLT

The Altova XML product line includes a complete, standards-conformant implementation of the important new XSLT 2.0 specification from the W3C. This means you can use the industry’s most trusted XML product line to experience the benefits of XSLT 2.0 in your applications today. Follow the links below to learn more about XSL/XSLT technology and Altova tools for working with XSLT 1.0 and 2.0. (Visit the a XPath and XSL:FO Developer Portal pages to learn more about these related technologies.)

XML separates content from presentation by design. XML itself is only responsible for data itself, while other XML-based technologies such as XSL take care of presenting the data. XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language) is a language for creating stylesheets that specify how elements in XML documents should be displayed to the end-user, regardless of the chosen delivery mechanism. The XSL standard includes XPath, XSLT (eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations), and XSL:FO (eXtensible Stylesheet Language Formatting Objects).

XSLT stylesheets transform an XML document into another XML document, an HTML/XHTML Web page, or a simple text file. The XSLT stylesheet specifies how an XSLT processor should create the desired output from an associated XML input document.

There are two versions of XSLT in use today: XSLT 1.0 and XSLT 2.0. The 2.0 version represents a significant upgrade, extending the language with features that increase productivity, improve code quality and reusability, and provide powerful new functions. The features in XSLT 2.0 are designed to make development projects simpler, more efficient, and more productive, allowing you to produce higher-quality applications in less time. You can read an in-depth discussion of the technical benefits of XSLT 2.0 here.

Support for XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 has been updated in full conformance with the standards released by the W3C on January 23, 2007. In addition, XSLT 2.0 support throughout the Altova XML product line now includes schema-awareness, which provides additional mechanisms for error isolation, simplified debugging, and enhanced code performance.

There have been many new updates in XSLT 2.0. To read a detailed account of these changes and how they can increase the power and efficiency of your stylesheet designs, click here.

Full support for XSLT 2.0 is available in XMLSpy® 2008 MapForce® 2008, and StyleVision® 2008.

To facilitate quick, error-free XSLT development, XMLSpy includes full support for XSLT 1.0 and 2.0 editing, visual transformation, debugging, and profiling. Helpful features include context-sensitive entry helpers, an XPath 1.0 / 2.0 builder and analyzer, a powerful XSLT debugger that helps you test and perfect your code line-by-line, and an XSLT profiler that delivers detailed metrics to help you eliminate bottlenecks and optimize your XSLT code quickly and easily.

Effective stylesheet development requires an understanding of XSL elements, the XPath language, and complicated rules-based document processing models, which means that writing stylesheets by hand can be a time-consuming, error-prone task.

Altova StyleVision® 2008 abstracts away the underlying XSL syntax, allowing you to create stylesheets visually using drag-and-drop functionality, which takes considerably less time and reduces the occurrence of errors. In StyleVision® 2008, you can create one graphical design that simultaneously produces standards-conformant XSLT 1.0/2.0 and XSL:FO stylesheets for transforming XML or database data into HTML, RTF, PDF and Word 2007 (OOXML) formats.

Altova MapForce® 2008 also allows you to develop XSLT stylesheets visually. To implement an XML-to-XML transformation using XSLT 1.0 or 2.0, MapForce® 2008 autogenerates standards-conformant XSLT stylesheets based on the mapping and data processing rules that you specify in a graphical mapping design. You can then execute the mapping directly within MapForce or use the generated code to implement the transformation in your own application.

To help you leverage existing legacy content and stylesheets, StyleVision® 2008 includes an HTML importer for converting HTML pages into XML Web sites consisting of an XML instance document, an XSLT stylesheet, and an XML Schema.

AltovaXML™ 2008 is a freely available XML standards processor that includes the Altova XSLT 1.0 engine, XSLT 2.0 engine, XQuery engine, and XML validating parser. Now you can use the same engines found in Altova XMLSpy, MapForce, and StyleVision in your own applications, royalty-free. AltovaXML™ 2008 includes COM, Java, and .NET interfaces and supports command line operations. Learn more and download AltovaXML™ 2008.

In addition to its advanced XML Schema management capabilities, SchemaAgent® 2008 2008 now allows you to visualize and manage relationships between XSLT documents and other files in SchemaAgent.

Altova also offers powerful tools for working with XSL:FO, a complex and powerful W3C standard describing layout for printable document formats like PDF. Learn more here.

The Altova tools for working with XSL and XSLT listed above are available individually or as part of the Altova MissionKit. Get up to 8 software tools for the price of 2 with the Altova® MissionKit™ 2008! The MissionKit bundles Altova's intelligent application development and data management tools to meet the needs of software architects and XML developers.

Download a free 30-day trial of the Altova® MissionKit™ 2008 to bring Altova’s signature flexibility and efficiency to your XSLT development projects.