Highly informative
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.
Excellent resource!
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!
Excellent Reference Book
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.
great help for practical tasks
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.
A book for when u need to do something.....
my first impressions area) 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
