Next Generation Application Integration: From Simple Information to Web Services

XSLT Processors and Processing

XSLT does not operate directly on the XML text. Instead, it relies on a parser (DOM or SAX compliant) to convert values into an object tree for processing. It uses this tree to manipulate the structure in memory. XSLT enables the user to take advantage of the native language to navigate around the node tree, select nodes, and alter the nodes as the transformation requires.

XSLT processors apply an XSLT stylesheet to an XML source document and thus create a results document—all while remaining consistent with the way processors handle XML through trees. Thus, XSLT must process three trees: the input, stylesheet, and output trees, which we will discuss in more detail later in this chapter.

The XSLT processor applies ...