Helping ordinary people create extraordinary websites!
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Helping ordinary people create extraordinary websites! |
Using PHP 5s XSL Extension to Perform XSL TransformationsBy Tony Marston2005-04-19 
Intended Audience
This tutorial is for developers who wish to know how to generate HTML documents using a combination of XML data and XSL stylesheets. It also includes examples of how to use XSL parameters and included stylesheets. The process of combining the content of an XML file and the formatting instructions of an XSL file to produce another document is known as an XSL Transformation (XSLT for short). This tutorial shows how PHP's inbuilt XSL module can be used to perform XSL transformations. It also shows how to pass optional parameters to the XSL stylesheet during the transformation process, and how you can use include files to contain shared stylesheet definitions. While XSL files are static in nature XML files can be created 'on the fly' to contain whatever data has just been selected from the database. An example of the PHP code which can generate an XML document can be found at Using PHP 5's DOM functions to create XML files from SQL data. It is possible therefore to create complete web applications where the PHP scripts do not contain any HTML tags at all. All they do is create XML files from database queries, then use XSL transformations to generate the actual HTML documents. This method completely splits the presentation layer (i.e. the generation of HTML documents) from the business layer (the application of business rules using a language such as PHP) so that any one of these layers can be modified without affecting the other. Tutorial Pages: » Intended Audience » Prerequisites » A Sample XML File » XML File Contents » A Sample XSL File » XSL File Contents » XSL Include Files » Performing the XSL Transformation » Sample Output » References
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