XSLT Module

This XQuery Module contains functions and variables to perform XSL transformations.

By default, this module uses Java’s XSLT 1.0 Xalan implementation to transform documents. XSLT 3.0 is used if the Saxon XSLT Processor is found in the class path (e.g. by placing the library files in the lib/custom directory). A specific transformer can be specified by assigning a classpath to the system property javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory with the -D flag on the command line, or directly in Java:

System.setProperty(
  "javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory",
  "org.custom.xslt.TransformerFactoryImpl");

Context ctx = new Context();
String result = new XQuery("xslt:transform('...', '...')").execute(ctx);
...
ctx.close();

Conventions

All functions and errors in this module are assigned to the http://basex.org/modules/xslt namespace, which is statically bound to the xslt prefix.

Functions

xslt:processor

Signature	xslt:processor() as xs:string
Summary	Returns the name of the applied XSLT processor ("Java", "Saxon EE", "Saxon PE", "Saxon HE"). If a system property was assigned that points to an existing implementation other than Saxon, the classpath is returned instead.

xslt:version

Signature	xslt:version() as xs:string
Summary	Returns the supported XSLT version ("1.0", "3.0"). An empty string is returned if a classpath in the system property points to an existing implementation other than Saxon.

xslt:transform

Signature	xslt:transform( $input as item(), $stylesheet as item(), $arguments as map(*)? := map { }, $options as map(*)? := map { } ) as node()
Summary	Transforms the document specified by $input, using the XSLT template specified by $stylesheet, and returns the result as node. $input and $stylesheet can be specified as xs:string, containing the stylesheet URI, xs:string, containing the document in its string representation, or node(), containing the document itself. XML Catalog files will be considered when resolving URIs. Variables can be bound to a stylesheet via $arguments (only strings are supported when using XSLT 3.0 and Saxon). The following $options are available: cache: cache XSLT transformer (speeds up repeated transformations, but increases memory consumption)
Error	error: an error occurred during the transformation process.

xslt:transform-text

Signature	xslt:transform-text( $input as item(), $stylesheet as item(), $arguments as map(*)? := map { }, $options as map(*)? := map { } ) as xs:string
Summary	Transforms the document specified by $input, using the XSLT template specified by $stylesheet, and returns the result as string. The semantics of $params and $options is the same as for xslt:transform.
Error	error: an error occurred during the transformation process.

xslt:transform-report

Signature

xslt:transform-report( $input as item(), $stylesheet as item(), $arguments as map(*)? := map { }, $options as map(*)? := map { } ) as xs:string

Summary

Transforms the document specified by $input, using the XSLT template specified by $stylesheet, and returns a map with the following keys: result: The transformation result: One or more document nodes, or (if the result cannot be converted to XML) an item of type xs:untypedAtomic. messages: Informational output generated by xsl:message elements: A sequence of arrays. The arrays consist of XML elements, or (for those messages that cannot be converted to XML) items of type xs:untypedAtomic. The semantics of $params and $options is the same as for xslt:transform. For the moment, messages can only be returned with recent versions of Saxon. error (optional): An error string, which would be raised as an error by the other functions of this module.

Examples

Example 1: XSL transformation, with XML and XSL supplied as nodes

Query:

(: Outputs the result as html. :)
declare option output:method 'html';

let $in :=
  <books>
    <book>
      <title>XSLT Programmer’s Reference</title> 
      <author>Michael H. Kay</author> 
    </book>
    <book>
      <title>XSLT</title> 
      <author>Doug Tidwell</author> 
      <author>Simon St. Laurent</author>
      <author>Robert Romano</author>
    </book>
  </books>
let $style :=
  <xsl:stylesheet version='3.0' xmlns:xsl='http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform'>
  <xsl:output method='xml'/>
    <xsl:template match="/">
<html>
  <body>
    <div>
      <xsl:for-each select='books/book'>
      • <b><xsl:apply-templates select='title'/></b>: <xsl:value-of select='author'/><br/>
      </xsl:for-each>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>
    </xsl:template>
  </xsl:stylesheet>

return xslt:transform($in, $style)

Result:

<html>
  <body>
    <div>
      • <b>XSLT Programmer’s Reference</b>: Michael H. Kay<br>
      • <b>XSLT</b>: Doug Tidwell<br>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Example 2: Textual XSL transformation

Query:

xslt:transform-text(<dummy/>, 'basic.xslt')

basic.xslt

<xsl:stylesheet version='1.0' xmlns:xsl='http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform'>
  <xsl:template match="/">123</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Result:

123

Example 3: XSL transformation with variable assignment

Query:

let $in := <dummy/>
let $style := doc('variable.xsl')
return xslt:transform($in, $style, map { "v": 1 })

variable.xsl

<xsl:stylesheet version='1.0'
    xmlns:xsl='http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform'>
  <xsl:param name='v'/>
    <xsl:template match='/'>
      <v><xsl:value-of select='$v'/></v>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Result:

<v>1</v>
<v>1</v>

Example 4: XSL transformation, yielding a result and info messages

Query:

xslt:transform-report(
  <_/>,
  <xsl:transform version='2.0' xmlns:xsl='http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform'>
    <xsl:template match='/'>
      <xsl:message><msg>START...</msg></xsl:message>
      <xml>123</xml>
      <xsl:message select='4, 5, "...END"'/>
    </xsl:template>
  </xsl:transform>
)

Result:

map {
  "messages": ([<msg>START...</msg>], ["4 5 ...END"]),
  "result": <xml>123</xml>
}

Errors

Code	Description
error	An error occurred during the transformation process.

Changelog

Version 9.7

• Added: xslt:transform-report

Version 9.2

• Updated: Support for XML Catalog files added.

Version 9.0

• Updated: xslt:transform, xslt:transform-text: $options argument added.
• Updated: error codes updated; errors now use the module namespace

Version 7.6

• Added: xslt:transform-text
• Updated: xslt:transform returned error code

Version 7.3

• Updated: $xslt:processor → xslt:processor, $xslt:version → xslt:version