Customer Reviews

Beginning XSLT 2.0: From Novice to Professional

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm new to XML technology, yet I wanted to do some complex processing using XSLT in a short amount of time. I spent almost a week with other books and online tutorials, but I was not getting anywhere, and was just about ready to punt and use Perl. That is, until I saw the reviews for the previous edition of this book. All those positive reviews apply to this edition too.

This book is very well though out and presented. It is very easy to read; yet it covers the topics in detail. The author understands the difficultly a typical software programmer would face dealing with XSLT and addresses the issues clearly.

If you are new to XSLT and looking for a book, make sure you look at which version is covered in the book. This one covers the latest.

I would absolutely recommend this book. Thanks to the author!

This book does not start with actually teaching XSLT. Chpt1 is called Beyond HTML (no XSLT) Chpt2 is about XML, Chpt3 is creating HTML from XML (see what I am getting at, SHOW ME THE XSLT!). After getting this book I actually immediately ordered Sams Teach Yourself XSLT in 21 Days because I know from experience these books get you right into the subject matter and get you going. However this book will be valuable due to it's broad and detailed scope if you have 6 months time to eventually digest it all. At times it is overly wordy on insignificant matter and instead of building on simple examples as you progress the author uses a complete TV guide right off the start which I find to be quite complex to start teaching people!

I suggest this book to all intermediate developers.
The organization of the book focus topics from basic xml to dynamic application using xslt.
Each topic is followed by another in a natural way, making you learning step by step.

Personally i like how the book is organized: a feature is followed by a small example just to give you an idea of how it works, some notes about the caveats and a summary to read while revisiting the book later.

This is how books should be organized not as a mere cut & paste from online ref doc as some books did.

Highly recommended if you want to learn xslt and xpath quickly but in an effective way.

Good book for advanced programmers; could use additional examples of how to use the XSLT tags and functions; would make this an excellent book

After reading this book, I have a thorough understanding of XSLT 2.0. I was really surprised that it covered the Sarissa API, which I use extensively and is also used by other APIs such as MapBuilder.

Though it says 2.0, 1.0 is covered in the book too, although not specifically. The code in the first 200 pages (and probably more) works with 1.0 as long as you change the namespace references and fix your own typos.

The thing about the community is that most of the XSLT in use is in browsers and is still version 1.0, so 2.0 info isn't useful - yet, though it is covered well in this book.

This book got me up and running with detail in a few days. The explanations and the chapters flow nicely. I liked that it didn't read like a PhD dissertation. Good job Jeni.

Sam

I've been trying to learn XSLT literally for years, and I always seemed to get hung up on the notion of exactly what constitutes a "template" in XSLT-speak, and (to a lesser extent) some of the ins and outs of XPath. The bottom line is that, for some reason -- I don't know why, and I don't care -- everything snapped into focus with Jeni Tennison's book, and I was able to start coding some practical tools that we're using at the office now. The book is billed as an XSLT 2 intro, and it does have a lot of good stuff on XSLT 2, but I found it a very good reference as well for someone just trying to learn XSLT and basic XPath generally. You should only come to the book if you're already reasonably comfortable with markup languages and creating well-formed XML, but of course you probably wouldn't be reading this if you weren't . . .

I am in a summer XML class for my master's program. We used another book for basic XML and Tennison's book for XSLT. For just learning about XSLT, this book is way over my head. The running example throughout the book is too complex for learning the basics and the author assumes the "beginning" reader is more advanced than this. Very disappointing and frustrating to read.

I paged through this book and Ms. Tennison's other book on the subject "Beginning XSLT." I ended up purchasing her first book, "Beginning XSLT" because XSLT 2.0 has yet to gain widespread acceptance in both client and server side technologies. The difference in price between the books was $20 (at least at my local Border's)...so I went with the cheaper one which instructs you on how to use XSLT that will actually work (1.0). This book, "Beginning XSLT," I highly recommend. Easy to read. Very in depth. A great book on the subject.

This book is pretty good about explaining XSL. My one complaint is that the author focuses a little too much on a British soap opera in her examples. Sure it works as an example, but when your demographic is mostly male and American why would you choose a television show directed towards British females? (Of course I know why, but it simply doesn't make sense thinking of marketing.)