XSLT Foundation

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Course Description ( LXS-11: a 2 day course )

This is a highly practical, introductory-level training course for those who need to be competent with the fundamentals of transforming source data in XML format. It is relevant to application developers whose ultimate goal may be to produce RSS, PDF, SOAP, HTML, XHTML, XML, XSL-FO, SVG or Text output (among others). While the course aims to provide solid foundations in XSLT. It is aimed at developers who will most likely be working with XSLT in a secondary capacity. Those using XSLT in a primary capacity, or who need to work with XSLT in more depth, are urged to consider the three-day version: XSLT Development. On completion, a comprehensive set of course notes, examples, tutor and attendee scripts are provided on a free USB pen drive to take away.

Suggested Prerequisites

Those with a background in programming or scripting work will most readily assimilate the topics it covers. XML experience would be beneficial though is not required.


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XML Basics Reviewed

  • Well Formedness and Well Formedness Checking
  • Unicode Implications and Character Encoding
  • XML Entity References and XSLT
  • Working with Namespaces and Prefixes in XSLT

Introducing XSLT Programming

  • The Role of XSLT - Transformations Explained
  • XSLT: Stylesheets or Programs?
  • Document-centric and Data-centric scenarios
  • Typical transformations: RSS, SOAP, XSL-FO, HTML, CSV, TXT
  • The XSLT Processor
  • Different types of Output: xml, html and text
  • Standalone, Browser and Server XSLT Processing
  • Creating and Editing XSLT
  • The XSLT Root Element, Namespace and Prefix
  • Using xsl:output to specify output type, output encoding and indentation
  • The Root Template and its Importance
  • Some Simple Language Elements (Eg: xsl:value-of, xsl:for-each)
  • XML, XSLT and Whitespace
  • The need for xsl:text
  • Creating and Executing a First XSLT Program (transformation)

XPath Necessities, Flow Control and Sorting

  • Trees Not Tables or Recordsets: New Tools Required
  • The XML Source Document as an XPath Tree
  • The Relationship Between XSLT and XPath
  • The Key to XSLT Success: Understanding the XPath Tree
  • Using XPath Expressions - The Importance of Context
  • Selecting and Extracting Nodes, Elements, Attributes and Text
  • Using XPath Functions
  • Using XPath Predicates to Efficiently Filter Content
  • Flow Control Using xsl:if and xsl:choose
  • Sorting Output

More XSLT Programming

  • Introducing XSLT variables
  • Efficient, Declarative Transformations using XSLT Templates
  • Passing Parameters to Templates
  • Programmatically Creating Attributes and Elements from Source Data

On Site Requirements

Remember, we provide all equipment and software required to deliver a course at your premises. Aside from this, we need a suitably quiet and equipped room with enough work space for each attendee and a whiteboard or flipchart. Most courses involve the use of a PC projector and we bring our own. But either a projector screen, or usually just a clear wall, would be very helpful.

Other Courses to Consider

on site training courses available in:  

  • London
  • , Birmingham
  • , Edinburgh
  • , Manchester
  • , Scotland
  • , Glasgow
  • , Nottingham
  • , Midlands
  • , Bristol
  • , Wales
  • , Cardiff
  • , Dublin
  • , Belfast
  • , Leeds
  • , Liverpool
  • , Sheffield
  • , Reading
  • , Oxford
  • , Cambridge
  • , Southampton
  • , Newcastle
  • , Durham
  • , Warrington.

and across the UK and Ireland

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