Linking to an XSLT File

MSXML 5.0 SDK

previous page next page
Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) 5.0 for Microsoft Office - XSLT Developer's Guide

Linking to an XSLT File

There are two way to link an XSLT style sheet to an XML source document:

  • Embed the style sheet in the source document using the <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="myxsl.xsl"?> processing instruction.
  • Use a script or a COM-enabled programming language to Load the XML and XSLT files into DOM. Call the transformNode method to apply the transformation.

From a performance standpoint, it does not matter whether you link using a style sheet processing instruction or using the DOM. The difference between these two methods focuses on the underlying data, as outlined in the following table.

Link Using... If...
A style sheet processing instruction
  • The data is fairly static (changes little, if at all).
  • There is no need for dynamic transformations which include the passing of parameters.
The DOM
  • The data is dynamic.
  • You want to dynamically evaluate the data by passing parameters or performing dynamic transformations.
  • You want a more modular approach that is easier to maintain.

Note   For ease in learning XSLT, many of the samples in this section use a style sheet processing instruction to link to the XSLT file. These samples would work just as well if you linked them using the DOM instead.

See Also

Linking Using a Processing Instruction | Linking Using the DOM | Displaying Transformation Results | The XSLT Processor

previous page start next page