Add a little style to your XML document with XSL - a Working Example

If XML provides the ability to format document content, XSL provides the ability to define how the formatted XML content is presented. However, XSL is off to a slow start in the W3C standardization process and it may be months before an official "XSL" recommendation is issued. However, when a company or companies provide a proposal they occasionally provide working examples, tools, utilities, or a prototype product to demonstrate the technology submitted with the proposal. Microsoft has provided both a command line tool, msxsl.exe, and an ActiveX control, and ArborText has provided a tool called the "XML Styler", both of which demonstrate the use of XSL.

This article uses the Microsoft command line tool to provide working examples of some of the key elements of the initial XSL proposal, demonstrated with msxsl.exe. Note that the generated output has been tested with Netscape Navigator 4.05 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 on Windows 95.

• Index
• The Necessity of XSL
• What is XSL?
• Defining an XSL Rule
• Adding Parental Patterns to the XSL Rule
• The Root Rule
• Wildcards
• The CSS Styles
• Resources
• About the Author

The Necessity of XSL