XSLT

Perhaps. With XSLT 2nd Edition, this behemoth of a book tops out at over 950+ page, 600 of them a reference on XSLT itself. The 9 chapters earlier do plenty to discuss what XSLT is, how it's used, and how to use it. If you need to use XSLT at your job or just want to learn more about it, you have come to the right place, just don't expect a quick read, this one will take a while to get through but it's worth the journey. ***** RECOMMENDED

Doug Tidwell knows his stuff, loves his stuff, and is eager to share his stuff with you. His stuff is xml, but his authoritative and well-written new book, XSLT, Second Edition, focuses on the eXtensible Stylesheet Language for Transformations. If you're reading this, you probably already know that transformations are the means by which xml files can be converted from one format to another and sliced, diced, sorted, ordered, linked, and/or combined with other xml files along the way. Or maybe you don't already know that but you've heard that XSLT is a mysterious force with the power to convert xml data into html or pdf or scalable vector graphic format or other formats. Either way, Tidwell's book will help you grasp and exploit the power of xml transformations. Previous exposure to xml concepts will save you time and help you to get the most out of the book, but don't worry if you're a newbie, because Tidwell provides a concise description of xml basics near the front of the book. And don't worry if you lack specialized tools for processing XSLT files: Tidwell thoughtfully provides download links and installation instructions for four popular XSLT processors (Xalan, Saxon, Microsoft XSLT Processor, and the Altova XSLT engine). Nearly 600 pages of the book are devoted to appendixes filled with reference materials (about which, more later), but don't be misled by that fact. Tidwell knows that reference materials are useless without orientation and understanding, and the first 300 pages of the book provide exactly that. Tidwell also knows that your time is valuable, and so he starts you off easy but FAST. In less than 45 pages, he covers the basics and walks you through a "Hello World" example. If you're new to XML or XSLT, the scales will fall from your eyes as you breeze through these pages. From there, Tidwell devotes the next 100 pages to the two main activities of transformation: 1) teasing precise bodies of data from source files and 2)generating output in the desired format. By the time you get that far, you realize that you're in very good hands. Tidwell builds your comfort level and your confidence as he goes along. He holds back the really gnarly stuff until last: branching and control elements, links and cross-references and, finally, sorting, grouping, and combining data. It's a very well organized approach, and the 300+ pages of orientation are exactly what you need in order to benefit from the reference materials in the appendixes. And what about those reference materials? More fantastic stuff: The XSLT reference covers all the elements defined in the XSLT specification; the XPath reference covers key aspects of the XPath specification; other appendixes cover XSLT, XPath, and XQuery functions, XML Schemas, regular expressions, XSLT formatting codes, and migration from XSLT 1.0 to 2.0. (But NOTE: Changes brought about by XSLT 2.0 are discussed throughout the book, not limited to a single appendix entry.) Even if you're a Jedi M

XSLT can be hard to grasp for people (like me) coming from traditional procedural programming, Doug Tidwell is well aware of this issue and try pretty well to address it in the book. I especially appreciated that the author, unlike many other XSLT adopters, doesn't pretend to use XSLT to solve each and every problem, instead it provide good advices and a good amount of common sense on why and where XSLT can be a good choice. The book also include 200+ pages of XSLT and Xpath reference

I have bought and studied every book on XSLT that I can find. In my opinion, this is one of the best. I delayed getting it originally because of some of the reviews, but after having read one of the author's articles in IBM developerWorks articles, I immediately rushed out ot get it. I'm kinda sorry now I waited.The book treats the XSLT transformer Xalan as a command line utility to isolate and develop XSLT as a hands on approach.There is no Java or other managing code to divert the directed discussion.As such, it sets the stage for the next steps, in other books, adding Java and server functionality to the picture.The authors tone is friendly, but not overly intrusive. It is a good read.He anticipates questions and problems, and deals with some unique issues such as "emulating a for loop" that I haven't seen elsewhere. His explanation of the case study - the tutorial builder from ibm developerworks - is a great example.I enjoyed reading the book and I'd recommend it with 10 stars if they had it.The negative reviews make sense only if they were really due to the difficulty of grokking XSLT. They are not really due to this book by any means I can see. I'm sorry those readers didn't have a better time with the book. I don't think it would serve as an XSLT for beginners. It is for the next stage after that.I intend to use it in every XML class I teach, after introducing the basics to cover the first stages of transformming with XSLT prior to intruducing Java.Thanks to the author for writing it, and to O'Reilly for publishing it.

Meets the high standard I've come to expect from O'Reilly books. I had bought "The XSL Companion" by Neil Bradley, and found myself often stumped when trying to do XSL 'for real'. I got the XSLT book and immediately found the answers to everything that had stumped me. It's well laid-out, very well-written, and chock full of examples.My _only_ quibble is that the book is a bit thin - he 'pads' things by making up multi-page examples over and over, instead of having a standard set which he could revisit.