xml - How do I run an XSLT file?

Question

Alright this seems like a stupid question but I can't figure it out. I'm writing an XSLT file to translate an XML document into an XHTML document. I've used both Visual Studio and XML Notepad 2007 to preview the results of my XSLT file, but now I want to actually write out a real XHTML file so I can see how it looks in other browsers.

Neither Visual Studio or XML NotePad have an obvious way to save the preview. Am I missing something. Obviously the file is getting created because something is being previewed, but I need to know where that file is being created or better yet choose its location.

Answer 1

You have two options:

1. Let the browser do it. Pass the XML with a reference to the XSLT and the browser (IE 6 or lower might have problems) will render it as (X)HTML:

   <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://www.example.com/my-xslt.xsl" ?>

2. Do it server-side. Most languages have methods for accepting XSLT and XML data, then outputting (X)HTML. Here are some options:

   • MSXML
   • Saxon
   • Xalan