Tutorial

XSLT allows to convert XML to other format. XSLT stands for XSL Transformations. The Eclipse XSL Project allows to edit XSLT files and perform interactive XSL transformations in Eclipse. For an introduction to XML please see Java and XML Tutorial.

Install the "Eclipse XSL Developer Tools" via the Eclipse update manager .

We start first with a simplest transformation possible; no transformation at all. Create a new Java project de.vogella.xslt.first. Create a folder files.

Create the following XML file source.xml in the folder files .

			
<?xml version="1.0"?>
	<!-- This is a comment -->
<people>
	<address type="personal">
		<name>Lars </name>
		<street> Test </street>
		<telephon number="0123" />
	</address>
	<address type="personal">
		<name>Joe </name>
		<street> Test2 </street>
		<telephon number="1234" />
	</address>
	<address type="business">
		<name>Jim</name>
		<street> Test3 </street>
		<telephon number="2345" />
	</address>
</people>
		

Create the following XLS file transform.xsl in the folder "files"

			
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
	version="1.0">

	<xsl:output method="xml" />

	<xsl:template match="*">
		<xsl:copy>
			<xsl:copy-of select="@*" />
			<xsl:apply-templates />
		</xsl:copy>
	</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

		

Select your xsl file and run it as XSL application.

Select "Open Files..." and select source.xml. Press ok to run it.

Review the result "source.out.xml"

We want to do a real transformation. Create the following "transform2.xsl" and run it with the same input file

			
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
	version="1.0">

	<xsl:output method="xml" />

	<!-- Copy everything -->
	<xsl:template match="*">
		<xsl:copy>
			<xsl:copy-of select="@*" />
			<xsl:apply-templates />
		</xsl:copy>
	</xsl:template>

	<!-- Do some adjustments for the address -->
	<xsl:template match="address">
		<xsl:element name="place-where-person-live">
			<xsl:apply-templates />
		</xsl:element>
	</xsl:template>

	<!-- Put the name in a <hubba> tag -->
	<xsl:template match="name">
		<xsl:element name="name">
			<hubba>
				<xsl:apply-templates />
			</hubba>
		</xsl:element>
	</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

		

The result should look like the following.

			
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><people>
	<place-where-person-live>
		<name><hubba>Lars </hubba></name>
		<street> Test </street>
		<telephon number="0123"/>
	</place-where-person-live>
	<place-where-person-live>
		<name><hubba>Joe </hubba></name>
		<street> Test2 </street>
		<telephon number="1234"/>
	</place-where-person-live>
	<place-where-person-live>
		<name><hubba>Jim</hubba></name>
		<street> Test3 </street>
		<telephon number="2345"/>
	</place-where-person-live>
</people>
		

Please help me to support this article:

Before posting questions, please see the vogella FAQ. If you have questions or find an error in this article please use the www.vogella.de Google Group. I have created a short list how to create good questions which might also help you.

http://wiki.eclipse.org/XSLT_Project Eclipse XSL Wiki

http://www.dpawson.co.uk/xsl/sect2/sect21.html XSLT FAQ

http://www.zvon.org/xxl/XSLTutorial/Books/Book1/index.html XSLT Tutorial