Using XML + XSLT to include content

XSL is a language that can transform XML into XHTML, a language that can filter and sort XML data, a language that can define parts of a XML document, a language that can format XML data based on the data value, like displaying negative numbers in red, and a language that can output XML data to different devices, like screen, paper, or voice.

Part 1: Start with your XML Document

We want to transform the following XML document ("cdcatalog.xml") into XHTML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<catalog>
 <cd>
 <title>Empire Burlesque</title>
 <artist>Bob Dylan</artist>
 <country>USA</country>
 <company>Columbia</company>
 <price>10.90</price>
 <year>1985</year>
 </cd>
 <cd>
 <title>Happy Birthday</title>
 <artist>Weird Al Yankovic</artist>
 <country>USA</country>
 <company>Scotti Brothers</company>
 <price>0.99</price>
 <year>1983</year>
 </cd>
</catalog>

Part 2: Create an XSL Style Sheet

Now we can create an XSL Style Sheet ("cdcatalog.xsl") with a transformation template:

<?xml   version="1.0"   encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet   version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template  match="/">
<html>
<body>
<h2>My  CD Collection</h2>
<table>
<tr>
<th>Title</th>
<th>Artist</th>
</tr>
<xsl:for-each select="catalog/cd">
<tr>
<td><xsl:value-of select="title"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="artist"/></td>
</tr>
</xsl:for-each>
</table>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Part 3: Link the XSL Style Sheet to the XML Document

Finally, add an XSL Style Sheet reference to your XML document ("cdcatalog.xml"):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="cdcatalog.xsl"?>
<catalog>
 <cd>
 <title>Empire Burlesque</title>
 <artist>Bob Dylan</artist>
 <country>USA</country>
 <company>Columbia</company>
 <price>10.90</price>
 <year>1985</year>
 </cd>
 <cd>
 <title>Happy Birthday</title>
 <artist>Weird Al Yankovic</artist>
 <country>USA</country>
 <company>Scotti Brothers</company>
 <price>0.99</price>
 <year>1983</year>
 </cd>
</catalog>

If you have an XSL compliant browser it will transform your XML into XHTML.

Internet Explorer and Firefox should render the XML into XHTML locally with no issues; with Chrome and Safari, you will need to upload the both the XML data and the XSL to a web server to view the formatted XML.