XSL Developers' Guide

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C ) Working Draft for XSL divides the language into two main parts: a transformation language for XML documents, and an XML vocabulary for formatting semantics. Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5 supports a subset of the transformation part of the Extensible Stylesheet Language (December 18th Working Draft) . Microsoft plans to update this technology to match the final W3C recommendation for XSL. XSL Working Draft Conformance Notes  details the differences between the Internet Explorer 5 implementation and the December draft.

XSL transformations address some common needs in XML:

• Enabling display: The XSL transformation language enables display of XML by transforming XML into grammar and structure suitable for display—for instance, into HTML or the XSL Formatting Objects language.
• Direct browsing of XML files: Internet Explorer 5 can apply XSL style sheets that produce HTML, allowing direct browsing of the XML files.
• Content delivery to downlevel browsers: XSL transformations can be executed on the server to provide HTML documents for downlevel browsers.
• Schema Translation: The transformation process is independent of any particular output grammar and can be used for translating XML data from one schema to another.
• Converting XML through querying, sorting, and filtering: The transformation can be used for general-purpose transformations within a single grammar, including filtering, sorting, and summarizing data.

The XSL Developer's Guide covers these topics:

• XSL Working Draft Conformance Notes 
• Browsing XML Documents in Internet Explorer 5
  • XML and Style Sheets
    • Using the Default Style Sheet as a Debugging Aid
  • Choosing Between CSS and XSL
  • How to Write a CSS Style Sheet for Browsing XML
    • Using Namespaces with CSS
    • Using the HTML Namespace
  • Browsing XML Using XSL Style Sheets
    • Accessing the XML and XSL Documents from Script
  • Serving Up XML
    • Declaring the XML MIME Type in an Active Server Page
• Using the XSL Processor
  • Transforming the Contents of XML Data Islands Using XSL
  • Using XSL in an Active Server Page
  • Getting the Results of an XSL Transformation as a New DOM Document
  • Detecting and Handling XSL Errors
  • Parameterizing a Style Sheet
  • Using the Default XSL Style Sheet in Your Application
• Getting Started with XSL
  • Creating and Populating an HTML Template 
  • Authoring Well-Formed HTML 
  • Accessing and Outputting Attributes 
  • Sorting XML 
  • Conditional Templates 
• XSL Patterns
  • Introduction to the Syntax of XSL Patterns
  • How XSL Defines the Context for XSL Pattern Queries
    • Select Patterns
    • Test Patterns
    • Match Patterns
  • How the DOM Defines the Context for XSL Pattern Queries
  • Placing a List of Items into a Grid with the context() Method
  • Creating a Comma-Separated List of Items with the context() Method
• Advanced XSL Features
  • Handling Documents and Irregular Data
  • Authoring Match Patterns
  • Debugging a Style Sheet
    • No Output At All
    • Expected Template Is Not Being Used
    • No Results from Select Pattern
    • Elements with the XSL Namespace Appear in Output
    • Highlighting Elements Not Handled by a Template
  • Simulating Built-in Templates
  • Scoping Templates
  • Translating Between Schemas
  • Filtering XML
  • Copying Entire Subtrees
  • Generating More Sophisticated XML Output
    • Using XSL as the Default Namespace
  • Controlling White Space
• Extending XSL
  • Calling Script During Transformation
    • Additional Functions Available to Script
  • Influencing Transformations Through Script
  • Selecting the Scripting Language
  • Formatting of Data Types Using Script
  • Calculating Totals Using Script
  • Generating Item Numbers Using Script
  • Generating Links Using Script
  • Generating Dynamic HTML
    • Interactions Between xsl:script and SCRIPT
• XSL Developer's Guide Samples

Reference documentation:

• XSL Elements Reference 
• XSL Patterns Reference