TestXSLT


I've been using XML for several years, but only a bit here, a bit there. Everything I knew about XML you could find in the first couple chapters of any primer on the subject, with a few more advanced details sprinkled in on an as-needed basis. I had vague ideas about what XSLT and XPath were used for, but didn't really have any need to learn them until quite recently. If you're in the same boat, I'd like to point you to a neat little program called TestXSLT...



I don't know about you, but I learn best by using a technology and working through examples. Just reading a book on a technical subject puts me to sleep quickly. While it's not hard to write up XML and XSLT in your favorite text editor and run the transform at the command line, TestXSLT (for OS X) makes the process a bit more streamlined and fun.

Editors for XML and XSLT are built-in and will check your tags for balance as well as auto-completing closing tags. You can save or load documents from these editors, or just drag a document to the editor window to load it. Click the Process button and TestXSLT will transform your XML document using the XSLT processor of your choice: Sablotron, Gnome LibXSLT, Saxon, or Xalan-J. You can then view the results as plaintext, HTML, or with the Apache FOP XSL-FO (the last of which I'm unfamiliar with, but it's apparently a rendering engine that can produce PDF among other things).

TestXSLT is made available as a free download by developer Marc Liyanage. Source code for TestXSLT is also available if you'd like to learn from Marc's Cocoa experience.

Posted: Wed - March 9, 2005 at 09:57 PM          

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