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Introducing XSL Essentials |
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Extensible Stylesheet Language or XSL is a member of the World Wide Web Consortium's family of Extensible Markup Language (XML) specifications. It is divided into two parts. The first part, XSL Transformations (XSLT), transforms XML documents into new XML, XHTML, HTML, or text documents. XSLT also depends on the XML Path Language or XPath to locate and help process the various parts of XML documents.
The second part is referred to as XSL alone, or, more commonly, XSLFO, short for XSL formatting objects. XSLFO is a language for formatting or styling documents for presentation in a variety of output formats, including Portable Document Format (PDF).
The Book
Michael Fitzgerald's XSL Essentials is driven by working, hands-on examples, and it is based on the assumption that, just as you don't need to know everything about a car to drive one, you don't need to know everything about XSL before you can do something useful with it. It also assumes that you are like most people, anxious to move forward quickly without getting bogged down in the details.
The book is divided into two parts. Part One, "Transforming XML Documents," explores the transformation part of XSL, and comprises Chapters 1 through 9. Part Two, "Formatting XML Documents," provides on overview of the formatting part of XSL and includes Chapters 10 through 12.
Who Is This Book for?
This book is a learn-by-doing book. It is for anybody who needs to start using XSL today. From the first pages of the first chapter, you will be asked to exercise example after example. As you do so, I think you will find a number of stylesheets that you can adapt to your own needs and purposes. The examples in this book are focused on transforming and formatting B2B-related XML documents.
If you have a background in HTML, XHTML, or XML, that will help move you along faster. If you don't have a markup language background, however, don't worry: The introductory material in Chapter 1 will give you a good enough start with XML that you should have little problem following this book or using its examples.
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