XML::XSLT(3pm)

💖 XML::XSLT — the perl module for processing XSLT 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because this is the XML::XSLT manual page (yeah, the 3pm one, the User Contributed Perl Documentation one) and she is so much more than she looks. let's get into it 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

XML::XSLT — A perl module for processing XSLT. that's it. that's the whole name. iconic behavior honestly 👑

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

here's the vibe, no notes:

use XML::XSLT;

my $xslt = XML::XSLT->new ($xsl, warnings => 1);

$xslt->transform ($xmlfile);
print $xslt->toString;

$xslt->dispose();

like... look at her go. 💅

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so this module implements the W3C's XSLT specification. the goal is a full implementation of the spec, but bestie... we have not yet achieved that. 😭 however! it already works well, fr fr. see "XML::XSLT Commands" for the current status of each command, because some of these xsl commands are eating and some of them are lowkey just vibing in the "not supported yet" corner.

also important: XML::XSLT makes use of XML::DOM and LWP::Simple, while XML::DOM uses XML::Parser. therefore XML::Parser, XML::DOM and LWP::Simple have to be installed properly for XML::XSLT to run. no shortcuts, no cap. 🧚

🌸 Specifying Sources 🌸

the stylesheets and the documents may be passed as filenames, file handles, regular strings, string references or DOM-trees. functions that require sources (e.g. new) will accept either a named parameter or simply the argument. she's flexible like that 💁

either of the following are allowed:

my $xslt = XML::XSLT->new($xsl);
my $xslt = XML::XSLT->new(Source => $xsl);

in documentation, the named parameter Source is always shown, but it is never required. yes, really. it's giving optional. 🎀

🦋 METHODS 🦋

• new(Source => $xml [, %args]) — returns a new XSLT parser object. valid flags are:
  • DOMparser_args — hashref of arguments to pass to the XML::DOM::Parser object's parse method.
  • variables — hashref of variables and their values for the stylesheet.
  • base — base of URL for file inclusion.
  • debug — turn on debugging messages.
  • warnings — turn on warning messages.
  • indent — starting amount of indention for debug messages. defaults to 0.
  • indent_incr — amount to indent each level of debug message. defaults to 1.
• open_xml(Source => $xml [, %args]) — gives the XSLT object new XML to process. returns an XML::DOM object corresponding to the XML.
  • base — the base URL to use for opening documents.
  • parser_args — arguments to pass to the parser.
• open_xsl(Source => $xml, [, %args]) — gives the XSLT object a new stylesheet to use in processing XML. returns an XML::DOM object corresponding to the stylesheet. any arguments present are passed to the XML::DOM::Parser.
  • base — the base URL to use for opening documents.
  • parser_args — arguments to pass to the parser.
• process(%variables) — processes the previously loaded XML through the stylesheet using the variables set in the argument.
• transform(Source => $xml [, %args]) — processes the given XML through the stylesheet. returns an XML::DOM object corresponding to the transformed XML. any arguments present are passed to the XML::DOM::Parser.
• serve(Source => $xml [, %args]) — processes the given XML through the stylesheet. returns a string containing the result. example:

use XML::XSLT qw(serve);

$xslt = XML::XSLT->new($xsl);
print $xslt->serve $xml;

• http_headers — if true, then prepends the appropriate HTTP headers (e.g. Content-Type, Content-Length); defaults to true.
• xml_declaration — if true, then the result contains the appropriate <?xml?> header. defaults to true.
• xml_version — the version of the XML. defaults to 1.0.
• doctype — the type of DOCTYPE this document is. defaults to SYSTEM.

• xsl_output_method — get or set the <xsl:output method= attribute. valid arguments are 'html', 'text' and 'xml'. periodt. 💅
• toString — returns the result of transforming the XML with the stylesheet as a string.
• to_dom — returns the result of transforming the XML with the stylesheet as an XML::DOM object.
• media_type — returns the media type (aka mime type) of the object.
• dispose — executes the "dispose" method on each XML::DOM object.

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🔥 XML::XSLT Commands 🔥

okay this is the part where we do the vibe check on every single xsl command. buckle up bestie, it's a long list and i'm not skipping a single one. 🍓

• xsl:apply-imports — no — not supported yet.
• xsl:apply-templates — limited — attribute 'select' is supported to the same extent as xsl:value-of supports path selections.
  • not supported yet: - attribute 'mode' - xsl:sort and xsl:with-param in content
• xsl:attribute — partially — adds an attribute named to the value of the attribute 'name' and as value the stringified content-template.
  • not supported yet: - attribute 'namespace'
• xsl:attribute-set — yes — partially.
• xsl:call-template — yes — takes attribute 'name' which selects xsl:template's by name.
  • weak support: - xsl:with-param (select attrib not supported)
  • not supported yet: - xsl:sort
• xsl:choose — yes — tests sequentially all xsl:whens until one succeeds or until an xsl:otherwise is found. limited test support, see xsl:when.
• xsl:comment — yes — supported. 💖
• xsl:copy — partially
• xsl:copy-of — limited — attribute 'select' functions as well as with xsl:value-of.
• xsl:decimal-format — no — not supported yet.
• xsl:element — yes
• xsl:fallback — no — not supported yet.
• xsl:for-each — limited — attribute 'select' functions as well as with xsl:value-of.
  • not supported yet: - xsl:sort in content
• xsl:if — limited — identical to xsl:when, but outside xsl:choose context.
• xsl:import — no — not supported yet.
• xsl:include — yes — takes attribute href, which can be relative-local, absolute-local as well as an URL (preceded by identifier http:).
• xsl:key — no — not supported yet.
• xsl:message — no — not supported yet.
• xsl:namespace-alias — no — not supported yet.
• xsl:number — no — not supported yet.
• xsl:otherwise — yes — supported.
• xsl:output — limited — only the initial xsl:output element is used. the "text" output method is not supported, but shouldn't be difficult to implement. only the "doctype-public", "doctype-system", "omit-xml-declaration", "method", and "encoding" attributes have any support.
• xsl:param — experimental — synonym for xsl:variable (currently). see xsl:variable for support.
• xsl:preserve-space — no — not supported yet. whitespace is always preserved.
• xsl:processing-instruction — yes — supported.
• xsl:sort — no — not supported yet.
• xsl:strip-space — no — not supported yet. no whitespace is stripped.
• xsl:stylesheet — limited — minor namespace support: other namespace than 'xsl:' for xsl-commands is allowed if xmlns-attribute is present. xmlns URL is verified. other attributes are ignored.
• xsl:template — limited — attribute 'name' and 'match' are supported to minor extend. ('name' must match exactly and 'match' must match with full path or no path)
  • not supported yet: - attributes 'priority' and 'mode'
• xsl:text — yes — supported.
• xsl:transform — limited — synonym for xsl:stylesheet.
• xsl:value-of — limited — inserts attribute or element values. limited support:

<xsl:value-of select="."/>

<xsl:value-of select="/root-elem"/>

<xsl:value-of select="elem"/>

<xsl:value-of select="//elem"/>

<xsl:value-of select="elem[n]"/>

<xsl:value-of select="//elem[n]"/>

<xsl:value-of select="@attr"/>

<xsl:value-of select="text()"/>

<xsl:value-of select="processing-instruction()"/>

<xsl:value-of select="comment()"/>

and combinations of these.

• not supported yet: - attribute 'disable-output-escaping'

• xsl:variable — partial or from literal text in the stylesheet.
• xsl:when — limited — only inside xsl:choose. limited test support:

<xsl:when test="@attr='value'"/>

<xsl:when test="elem='value'"/>

<xsl:when test="path/[@attr='value']"/>

<xsl:when test="path/[elem='value']"/>

<xsl:when test="path"/>

path is supported to the same extend as with xsl:value-of.

• xsl:with-param — experimental — it is currently not functioning. (or is it?) 🙈

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💜 SUPPORT 💜

general information, bug reporting tools, the latest version, mailing lists, etc. can be found at the XML::XSLT homepage:

http://xmlxslt.sourceforge.net/

go say hi, they don't bite. 🫶

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⚠️ DEPRECATIONS ⚠️

methods and interfaces from previous versions that are not documented in this version are deprecated. each of these deprecations can still be used but will produce a warning when the deprecation is first used. you can use the old interfaces without warnings by passing "new()" the flag "use_deprecated". example:

$parser = XML::XSLT->new($xsl, "FILE",
                         use_deprecated => 1);

the deprecated methods will disappear by the time a 1.0 release is made. so like... don't get attached bestie. 😭

the deprecated methods are:

• output_string — use toString instead
• result_string — use toString instead
• output — use toString instead
• result — use toString instead
• result_mime_type — use media_type instead
• output_mime_type — use media_type instead
• result_tree — use to_dom instead
• output_tree — use to_dom instead
• transform_document — use transform instead
• process_project — use process instead
• open_project — use "Source" argument to new() and transform instead.
• print_output — use serve() instead.

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💀 BUGS 💀

yes.

(that's it. that's the entire section. the confidence. the brevity. she ate and left no crumbs. 🔥)

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🌈 HISTORY 🌈

Geert Josten and Egon Willighagen developed and maintained XML::XSLT up to version 0.22. at that point, Mark Hershberger started moving the project to Sourceforge and began working on it with Bron Gondwana. the lore is real. 📜

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🎀 LICENCE 🎀

Copyright (c) 1999 Geert Josten & Egon Willighagen. All Rights Reserved. This module is free software, and may be distributed under the same terms and conditions as Perl.

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

• Geert Josten <gjosten@sci.kun.nl>
• Egon Willighagen <egonw@sci.kun.nl>
• Mark A. Hershberger <mah@everybody.org>
• Bron Gondwana <perlcode@brong.net>
• Jonathan Stowe <jns@gellyfish.com>

absolute legends, all of them. 💖

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

XML::DOM, LWP::Simple, XML::Parser

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and that's the whole page bestie!! 🌸 this was perl v5.26.2, dated 2018-08-28 — so like, vintage but make it iconic, and honestly it still slays. go forth and transform some XML, you've got this. mwah. 💅✨🫶