Customer Reviews

XSLT and XPath On The Edge (Professional Mindware)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book does not teach you the concepts of XSLT. Rather, it truly delivers on a promise of providing answers to common problems. While often books use code to only illustrate the concepts explained, "XSLT and XPath On The Edge" has tons of real world code, some of which I was able to use straight from the book(without changing a thing).
I believe this book really helps to bridge the gap between just understanding the basics of XSLT and using it for real life, practical applications.

my first impressions are

a) this book sits right next to Michael Kay's book, as it is a great
reference to when u have specific problems i.e. ' How do i format dates ? '
and ' How do i group ' and 'How do i use keys'.

b) the level of examples and techniques is a step above introductory.

c) the latter half of the book delves into framework issues; modular
components, extending XSLT, functional modules, and

grouping
sorting
numeric manipulation
string and text manipulation

general formatting
character encoding and entities
the above subjects are all detailed in a concise manner, perfect for
reference

the following subjects are an indepth read;

framework: quite a large amt of discussion of how to break apart into
reusable elements

client side msxml: this will get the novice going

server side proc with cocoon: this will get the novice going

overview of XPATH: very detailed overview of more medium level techniques

using extensions : the clearest illustration and techniques of extending
xslt that i've read

overall i can highly recc.

cheers, jim fuller

This is an excellent XSLT/XPATH resource! However, please be aware that the "Unlimited-Edition.com" website/resource is no longer available! A big reason why I bought this book was for the updated content it promised. But, that was 2001, this is 2006, and any updated content that may have been available is no longer accessible.
Still, this book can stand on it's own feet, and is an invaluable resource, all by itself! Highly recommended!

If you are looking for a book on dealing with real world XSLT scenarios and organized accordingly by scenario. This is the book for you. Jeni (Author) is by far one of the leading XSLT experts out there. It is rare you find someone that can explain complex topics in a manor that is both concise and readable. Buy this book and it will stay with you through any project you are using XSLT on.

Bearing in mind that this book is written for people who already know XSLT, it's probably the best and maybe only book out there. There are lots of starter books but I couldn't find another advanced book. I haven't needed a lot of information contained in it, but I got more than I bargained for in the chapters I did use. It's probably not much of a reader, more of a reference book to pull out when you're stuck on a tough problem.

If you're trying to learn XSLT, this book isn't for you. Perhaps try the author's web site or any of the other resources out there. I'm a learn-as-you-go kind of person who picks up things very quickly, but this book would certainly have confused me if I didn't already know what I was doing.

Rghtly is it said by other reviewers that general information about xslt concepts is not in this book. Unfortunately, I never read the most recent review, because I just read the ones on the main page. If I had read the one from 2007 I would not have bought this book.

I realized before I bought it that the basic information wasn't a *focus* of the book, but it never occurred to me that there was almost no basic information at all. I'm sure if you are already an expert in xslt, and you need to do the same kinds of things that are in this book, it will be helpful.

On the other hand, if any of the following is true, you will not find this book very useful:
-- you don't use xslt all the time, and need *some* information to remind you about details of usage etc.
-- You are using xslt for something other than creating web pages (back-end communications between systems, for example)

I had been hoping that the book would have a small section covering the basics and then the rest of the book with information about efficient real-world uses of xslt. There is a reference section on syntax but it is not friendly to use. And then unfortunately, "real-world" in this case appears to be almost solely html. For example, the acronym SOAP (or its spelled-out version) isn't even in the index.

I am a capable C, C++, and (to a lesser extent) Java coder, so it's not like I'm non-technical. However, I find the organization of the book confusing, and for me it is not a good reference work, because the individual sections require you to read back to know what they are talking about.

Anyway, now I'll have to buy another book. Perhaps if I quit my day job and become a web designer, this book will come in handy too some day.