XML Transformations

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XML Transformations

• Eugenia Fernandez
• IUPUI

2
Stylesheet Technologies

• Browser-based Presentation
• HTML
• Cascading Stylesheets
• Programming-based Transformation
• Simple API for XML (SAX)
• Document Object Model (DOM)
• Declarative-based Transformation
• XSL Transformations (XSLT)
• Pagination-based Presentation
• XSL Formatting Objects (XSLFO)
• Document Style and Semantics Specifications
  Language (DSSSL)

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XSL XSLT and XSLFO

• XSL Extensible Stylesheet Language
• XSLT XSL Transformations
• vocabulary for transforming XML instances into
  other vocabularies
• XSLFO XSL Formatting Objects
• vocabulary for paginated formatting of
  information
• Technically, XSL XSLFO but more commonly used as

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XSLT Stylesheets DTDs

• Independent of any DTD
• XSLT processor can process well-formed XML
  documents without a DTD
• one stylesheet can process multiple instances of
  a DTD
• different stylesheets can process a given XML
  document to produce different results

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XSLT Processing
Result
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Simple API for XML (SAX)

• stream-oriented, platform- and language-independen
  t specification of functions that allow programs
  to process XML
• SAX Principles
• document is ordered series of events
• XML processor generates events
• application writes handlers for each event
• Plus/Minus
• fast transformation
• - programming needed
• - changes in document require changes in program

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Document Object Model (DOM)

• tree-oriented, platform- and language-neutral
  programming interface
• DOM principles
• implements transformation by code
• models objects for XML and HTML
• standard interface for manipulating the objects

8
Sources

• XML and Stylesheets, G. Ken Holman,
  presentation at XML One Conference, Chicago, IL,
  May, 2001.