1. Abstract
"Practical Transformation Using XSLT and XPath" overviews the entire scope of the Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) 1.0 http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt, XSLT 2.0 http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt20, the XML Path Language (XPath) 1.0 http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath and XPath 2.0 http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath20 W3C Recommendations, used for transforming structured information (e.g. XML to XML, XML to HTML, XML to XSL-FO, XML to text, etc.). The objectives of the course are to understand the role and utility of the Recommendations, to overview all the constructs of the Recommendations (the five-day delivery covers every element, every attribute, and every function), to design and develop XSLT scripts, and to efficiently navigate the available documentation and resources. The relationship of XSLT to XSL is explained, though details of XSL Formatting Object semantics are not included.
This hands-on course combines the use of lectures and exercises to convey the material. For the practical exercises, attendees are invited to bring a personal computer (with a USB port) and their own XSLT environment or they can use public-domain XSLT software that will be made available for a Java-based environment.
2. Length
This course runs in either a one-day or five-day format. The one day is more of an introduction with exercises than a comprehensive tutorial as it is not long enough to cover every construct. The five-day format covers everything and is the recommended length. Time is allocated on the XSLT and XPath perspectives of XML syntax and more exercise time.
This is an intensive class running 7 to 9 hours per day including the exercises, with homework assigned each night. In markets where English may not be a strong language with students (e.g. China, Japan, etc.) or simultaneous or consecutive translation is needed, please double the number of elapsed days: the syllabus half-day segments will each be taught over a full day at the students' pace. This also leaves extra time for questions of clarification regarding language and the descriptions of the exercise solutions.
Note that the training video version of this material is a recording of an earlier edition of this full five-day syllabus, including all exercises that were in place at the time.
3. Expected Audience
This course is aimed at people needing to understand both conceptual and practical aspects of the XSLT and XPath languages and the available tools.
4. Prerequisites - Is this the right class for you?
Attendees must have a working technical knowledge of XML concepts and the syntax of angle brackets, as these are not covered explicitly in the course. Time is allocated in the five-day delivery to accommodate additional questions from attendees regarding XML syntax, in the perspective of XSLT and XPath.
To participate in the hands-on exercises, attendees must have either an XSLT-equipped or a Java-equipped personal computer. Copies of the exercise materials are available on USB sticks at the course. Complete solutions are provided to research in place of attendees deriving the exercise solutions on their own.
Attendees must have a firm knowledge of the operating system environment as there is no time for coaching from the instructor regarding the command-line environments of today's operating systems.
To get the maximum benefit from this material, please be prepared to work hard. Some exercises are assigned as homework for the next day.
If you come to class with problems to solve, you will get more from the material and exercises than trying to learn the concepts in the abstract.
This is an exhaustive (and some students tell us "exhausting") and comprehensive class for both beginners and experts. For a different approach to the same material, you may wish to consider the Mulberry Technology suite of XML classes.
5. Synopsis
For many people, all that is needed to "get over the hump" of understanding the apparently complex concepts of the Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) and the XML Path Language (XPath) is instruction in the basics upon which these standards are built and exercise of the theory.
"Practical Transformation Using XSLT and XPath" successfully equips the attendee with an understanding of the major components of these Recommendations, and practice in the skills required to use XSLT and XPath with publicly available tools. These skills can then be used after the course for self-study of any revisions to this standard and any formatting facets that cannot be covered in such a short course time.
When designing our XML vocabularies to represent our information, we should not be constraining our structures to the presented form we anticipate. We should be constraining our structures to the inherent relationships of information considering the ways we plan to author and maintain our information for the long haul and for many and varied purposes and presentations. This is the commonly-felt shortfall of capturing our information in HTML or, if we are printing information, in either a proprietary printing application or a static print appearance.
XPath and XSLT give us the ability to, respectively, address our structured information in XML and express the desired transformation of our information into new and varied arrangements. Perhaps these arrangements are necessary because of different technologies such as web browsers, hand-held devices, and print engines. Perhaps these arrangements are necessary because the target audiences for our information differ and we need to either subset or emphasize or rearrange our information into the target uses that make our information the easiest to consume for each of our many and varied users.
XPath is an expression language based on an abstract node-based representation of our structured XML information. XSLT is a declarative language, yet powerful enough to be Turing-complete, where we represent the result of the transformation of our information in a way that a processor can engage whatever algorithms are required to produce the final desired vocabulary and structure.
Using XSLT and XPath frees us to focus our XML creation processes on the nature of our information, while at the same time frees us to meet existing and future requirements for different uses of our information.
Many people find that the recommendations themselves are difficult to read and understand, while others find the documents outright scary. The curriculum covers the entire suite of functionality in the recommendations in order to understand how to be productive using tools in a production environment. A number of resources that are publicly available over the Internet are briefly overviewed so that the attendee can determine which materials are important to obtain and use.
The hands-on exercises help cement XSLT and XPath concepts by leading the attendee to resolve basic, often initially frustrating, obstacles under the supervision of the instructor and collaboration with fellow students. Exercises cover important concepts with simple objectives. Attendees are invited to research completed exercise solutions without needing to derive the solutions on their own.
During the course the exercises are timed to cover breaks so that students can choose to balance work time with break time should extra exercise time be required, thus reducing the chance of delaying the progress of the course material.
6. Hands-on exercises
Sample complete answers to all exercises are available to attendees. All exercises produce HTML for use in a browser to check results, though the principles taught in the course cover all possible result tree syntax serializations.
The following exercises are included in the five-day course:
- the setup and invocation of XSLT processors
- the XPath data model
- writing XPath expressions for addressing nodes of a document tree
- the differences in push- and pull-oriented stylesheets
- XML source tree traversal
- using called templates and user-defined functions
- XSLT stylesheet management techniques
- XSLT numbering facilities
- using number functions
- using string functions
- building a table of contents
- using date functions
- advanced XSLT features
- sorting and grouping XML information into reports
7. Deliveries
7.1. One-day Delivery Syllabus
00:00 Course Introduction
Instructor/Student Expectations
Module 1: XSL Transformations and the XML Path Language
Module 2: Getting Started with XSLT and XPath
Exercise: Setup
01:30 Break
00:00 Module 3: XPath Data Model
Exercise: XPath
01:30 Lunch
00:00 Module 4: XSLT Processing Model
Module 5: The XSLT Transformation Environment
Exercise: A Simple Document
01:30 Break
00:00 Module 6: XSLT Stylesheet Management
Module 7: XSLT Instructions
Module 8: XPath and XSLT Expressions and Advanced
Techniques
Module 9: Sorting and Grouping
Annex A: XML to HTML Transformation Techniques
Annex B: XSL Formatting Semantics Introduction
Annex C: Element, Grammar, Function and Object
Quick References
Annex D: Sample Tool Information
Question/Answer
01:30 End of Day
7.2. Five-day Delivery/Video Syllabus
7.2.1. Day 1 of 5
Course Introduction
Instructor/Student Expectations
Module 1: The context of XSLT and XPath
Module 2: Getting Started with XSLT and XPath
Exercise: Setup
Module 3: XPath Data Model
Exercise: XPath Data Model
End of Day
7.2.2. Day 2 of 5
Day 1 Questions
Module 3: XPath Data Model (cont.)
Exercise: XPath Expressions
Module 4: Processing Model
Exercise: Source Tree Traversal
End of Day
7.2.3. Day 3 of 5
Day 1 and 2 Questions
Module 5: Transformation Environment
Exercise: A Simple Document
Module 6: Stylesheet and data management
Exercise: Called templates and user-defined functions
Exercise: Stylesheet management
Exercise: Data management
End of Day
7.2.4. Day 4 of 5
Day 1 through 3 Questions
Module 7: Data type expressions and functions
Exercise: Using number functions
Exercise: Using string functions
Exercise: Building a table of contents
Exercise: Using date functions
Exercise: Number Representation
Module 8: Constructing the result tree
Exercise: Number Representation
End of Day
7.2.5. Day 5 of 5
Day 1 through 4 Questions
Module 9: Sorting and Grouping
Exercise: Sorting and Grouping
Annex A: XML to HTML Transformation Techniques
Annex B: XSL Formatting Semantics Introduction
Annex C: Element, Grammar, Function and Keyword
Quick References
Annex D: Sample Tool Information
Question/Answer
End of Day
8. Outcomes
At the end of the five-day course, attendees will be able to:
- understand the role and the scope of XSLT and XPath in XML document processing
- be aware of every element, every attribute, and every function of XSLT 1.0 and 2.0 and XPath 1.0 and 2.0
- write XPath expressions for source tree nodes and other data types
- write push- and pull-oriented XSLT stylesheets
- manage stylesheet fragments and understand issues of stylesheet maintenance
- sort and group information
- navigate the formal Recommendation documents
9. Public testimonials
Some publicly posted testimonials regarding the earlier XSLT/XPath 1.0 version of this course:
- By Simon St. Laurent, O'Reilly Network:
- Practical Transformation Using XSLT/XPath:
- Practical Formatting Using XSL-FO:
- By Rob Stote, Whitehill Technologies, Inc:
SOFTWRIGHTS
LTD.
