XSLT: Working with XML and HTML: Amazon.co.uk: Khun Yee Fung: Books

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XML is fast becoming the standard for structuring documents for web-based information exchange. However, for XML documents to be displayed on a web browser, they must be "transformed" -- into XSL documents on the client side, or HTML documents on the server side. XSLT, recently finalized by the W3C, is a lightweight language designed specifically for this purpose -- but reliable XSLT documentation has been extremely scarce. This is the first practical, comprehensive XSLT tutorial and reference based on the final standards -- which changed significantly from earlier drafts. Understand XSLT's tree-based view of the document; then master the features of XSLT that allow you to transform XML documents from one document type to another; to HTML documents; or to text documents. Review the specifications that are tightly linked with XSLT, including XML namespaces and XPath; then walk through a series of practical examples and a detailed case study demonstrating the creation of a robust XSLT application. The book includes a detailed reference to XSLT and XPath elements and functions, as well as a CD-ROM containing all code, plus exclusive software enabling the reader to explore XSLT's most challenging feature, expressions. For all Web developers, site administrators, and others working with XML, XSL, or XSLT.

From the Back Cover

Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) is a versatile language used to transform XML documents into other formats, such as HTML for display on the Web, WML for display on WAP devices, or plain text. With the emergence of XML as the standard for information exchange, XSLT has become an essential language for all Web developers. XSLT: Working with XML and HTML is a comprehensive tutorial and reference to XSLT, covering the recently finalized World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard. This book will help you master XSLT features and XPath expressions. While it's focus is on using XSLT to transform XML to HTML, the fundamentals you learn can be applied to all other kinds of XSLT transformations. Looking deeper into the language, this book explains XSLT's tree-based view of the XML document. It covers paths, the transformation process, the XSLT control elements, how the output document is constructed, and how to use XSLT extensions. Specific topics discussed include:

XML and XSLT fundamentals
Converting an XML document to a tree
XPath expressions and context node
Matching templates and current node
Control elements in XSLT
Constructing the result tree and output document
XSLT idioms and tips for effective use

A complete case study using XML and XSLT to publish a Web site illustrates all the major concepts and techniques in the book. In addition, the CD-ROM provides the code for all the examples in the books, as well as the case study.

0201711036B07092001

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Some items not so "obvious"; ref. examples too complex. 14 May 2001

By Paul van Bemmelen

Format:Paperback

The structure of the book (example chapter, XPATH chapter, stylesheet chapter, reference section) is okay, but the quality of the chapters needs improving.

The chapter introducing the books example uses not so obvious xsl syntax, that is not sufficiently explained. Later chapters that explain individual xsl syntax constructs, sometimes only skip the surface. I was particularly upset by the remark "you can almost guess how the xsl:choose works" (or similar); the text didn't delve into it any further!

I feel the reference chapter contains examples that are too complex: an example supposed to explain one xsl construct, also contains a large number of other xsl constructs; you won't be able to understand the one construct if you don't already understand the other constructs. Also, the reference chapter is not very elaborate, omitting the finer details of a particular construct (e.g. multiple consecutive xsl:for elements are said to be handled "all at the same time").

For an introductory text, I find I have to browse to later chapters all the time. As a reference, it's not complete enough. For a good XSLT reference I advise to buy another book.

Note: Any quotes or names of chapters mentioned above, are likely to contain errors, because I don't have the book on me at this moment...

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Great but a little bit hard to read 10 April 2001

By A Customer

This is a great book, the only problem I had with it was the style. It looks to me as a real USA book, and I'm from The Neterlands and I'm not used to this kind of style. I like my book with clear white paper and the paper of this book looks like recycle paper, and the fonts they used.. well I think that they can better use another one. But it's not about the style but about the information and I think this is the only good book about XSLT.

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Amazon.com: 13 reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

Well written & organized, great learning tool 26 Feb 2001

By WILLIAM D BRADFORD - Published on Amazon.com

Just to put my two cents in perspective: As an untrained wanna-be hacker, I'm always getting in over my head with programming languages. I know just enough about scripting and XML to get into trouble. The problem with most books for me is that somewhere they assume that I understand something I don't, with the result that I inevitably hit a rather hard wall.

No such problem (so far with) with this book. For my purposes, it's one of the most successful programming books I've used. I think it works because:

- The author has focused on XML-HTML transformation of web documents, using a simple, non-Microsoft-centric approach. This is exactly what I want to do with my web site. Most books on XSLT try to cover everything, from B2B data to Braille to WAP.

- Don't let the name fool you - this guy writes more clearly than most authors with Anglo surnames. He's a joy to read.

Serious programmers should note that this is not about server-based enterprise solutions. It's a low tech approach for the rest of us.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

Excellent book for beginners, but with lots of mistakes 2 April 2001

By M. S. Gartner - Published on Amazon.com

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The only reason I didn't give the book five stars was the incredible number of mistakes in it. I have been studying XSLT for some time now and bought this book to fill out my knowledge and to evaluate it for use by my team of web developers. Khun Yee Fung's approach is much cleaner in many ways from the "XSLT Programmer's Reference." His method of showing how the transformation nodes get copied into the result tree before processing is very enlightening. His writing style is generally clean and his examples are very carefully expanded from simple to complex.

If you are looking for a reference guide then this book is not "it." If you are knowledgeable about XML and are just starting to learn about XSLT, this book will get you up and running quickly. Make sure you take the coding examples with salt, as they and the text contain many mistakes. There are cases where the XSLT programs don't exactly match the example XML. There are cases where the XSLT is missing an important piece (or is subtly wrong). In nearly all cases careful reading of the text should bring you to the proper code, regardless of the examples.

I have not studied the code on the included CD to see if the mistakes from the text are reproduced there. Often with a technical book the CD is produced much later in the development cycle so the mistakes may have been caught. If this is so, the web site for the book doesn't mention it.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

Extremely helpful 6 Mar 2001

By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com

I could not have gotten through my project without this book. I had a basic understanding of simple location paths but when my project became complex I was stuck until I got this book. This book fully explained location paths in a manner which I could understand. Highly recommended. I also bought Michael Kay's XSLT Programmer's Reference but Fung's book really explains how the XSLT processor works. Kay's book is still good for quick lookup and reference. I'm glad I have both but if I had to choose just one I would choose Fung's because I hadn't found the information anywhere else.

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XSLT: Working with XML and HTML [Paperback]

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