I'm only starting out with XSLT (I'm following XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference if you are wondering why I'm posting this here) and I can understand this is obviously a very stupid question.

I have a simple XML 1.0 file whose elements and attributes need to match another data-system with a separate naming convention and I have managed to write a fairly simple XSLT to form a new XML conforming to these rules.

Currently I'm doing the coding in Dreamweaver CS4 and attaching the XML to the XSL and then finally viewing the changed XML as a temporary htm file in the browser. when I attach the XML to the XSL, DW adds the following syntax to the XSL:

so I'm led to believe that there is some kind of XSLT processor/parser inside DW that's doing the job. but these files are temporary and I have do a bulk transformation of some 120 odd files.

So my question is this:
I'm contemplating purchasing Saxon or Altova XMLspy, but I'm not sure if these products are just some sort of development environments or if they can actually run the transformations. I guess they're not, right? In that case can anybody tell me how to do the actual transformations and if I need to purchase anything additionally?

Thanks,
ovlique.

Altova is a full XML development environment that includes an XSLT 2.0 processor as one of its components.

Saxon is essentially a bundle containing an XSLT processor, and XQuery processor, and an XML Schema processor.

If you install either product, you will be able to run XSLT 2.0 transformations without installing anything else.

As the author of the book I refrain from comparing the products, but as the author of the Saxon product, I'm happy to explain its benefits on a different forum!

Note that the way you are currently doing transformations using Dreamweaver and a web browser means (a) you are probably limited to XSLT 1.0, and (b) you will probably get rather poor diagnostics.

__________________
Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
Author, XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 Programmer\'s Reference

I'll just point out that Altova also provide their XSLT processor as a stand alone component, AltovaXML which is free (windows only).

As is the free version of Saxon (Java - will run inside any recent JVM).

If you want an easy way to use Saxon you could get Kernow for Saxon, an open source IDE for Saxon.

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/- Sam Judson : Wrox Technical Editor -/

Think before you post: What have you tried?