This article shows you how to add context aware XPath functions to an XSL transformation. This is done by a hack using reflection.

The following more complex examples are meant merely as illustrations of some of the powerful facilities and techniques available in XSLT. These samples expose concepts such as variables, functions, and process control constructs a stylesheet writer uses to effect the desired result, but does not attempt any tutelage in their use.

XPath is a very natural and powerful way to specify locations in XML documents. This paper examines possible generalisations of XPath to allow both locations and paths through generalised labelled directed graphs to be specified. The need for such a path language is driven by work in querying Linguistic Annotations which are in general more complex in structure than XML documents. The result of this exercise is a powerful path language which reduces to XPath as a special case and which could potentially be useful in a range of query applications.

In order to process an XML document, a Java application will typically use the Document Object Model (DOM) API as standardized by the W3C. In this article, André Tost shows that the XSLT and XPath standards provide a way of handling certain problems that is more elegant and efficient than simply using the DOM API. In fact, using DOM, XSLT, and XPath together, applying each to different problems, will lead to the best code. Tost will develop two code examples -- one using XPath and one using an XSLT stylesheet -- that show how these technologies can be used in Java.

XSL, eXtensible Stylesheet Language is a W3C standard with lots of development and momentum and having a large size of community also got abundant number of Books, mailing lists, training and websites. This article just gives a kick start for the people who want to work with XSL and XPath.

In the first part of this article, we introduced XPath and discussed various XPath queries ranging from simple to complex. By applying XPath queries to sample XML files, we elaborated upon various important definitions of XPath such as location step, context node, location path, axes, and node-test. We then discussed complex XPath queries that combine more than one simple query. We also discussed the abstract structure of Wireless Binary XML (WBXML), which is the wireless counterpart of XML. Finally we presented the design of a simple XPath processing engine.

Next we'll look at some basic terminology both helpful in understanding the principles of writing an XSLT stylesheet and recognizing the constructs used therein. This section is not meant as tutelage for writing stylesheets, but only as background information, nomenclature, and practice guidelines.

Welcome to the first regular issue of Standard Deviations from Norm. In this column, we will explore existing and emerging XML standards, learn how they work, and examine ways that you can use them in your next project. Deviating, if you'll pardon the pun, from my own plan of action, this column is not going to be as "hands-on" as I anticipated. Instead, I'm going to introduce a relatively new but important building block for future specifications—XPath. In future issues, we'll get to roll up our sleeves and try XPath out in the trenches.

XML+namespaces promotes precise identification of terms in the web. Inferencing over these terms appears to be taking two divergent paths: XPath/XQuery and RDF. There appears to be little communication between the two communities. The purpose of this document is to provide some shared context with which the two may understand the intent and capabilities of each other's approaches.

XPath is a language used in XSLT and DOM programming for addressing elements and asserting expressions in XML documents. This latter capability of asserting expressions is a lesser known and used capability of the language. It's possible to use XPath as a non-proprietary rule language. We'll look to exploit this capability and demonstrate how DOM and XPath can be used to build a simple declarative rule engine.

"Practical Transformation Using XSLT and XPath" overviews the entire scope of the Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt and the XML Path Language (XPath) http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath W3C Recommendations, used for transforming structured information (e.g. XML to XML, XML to HTML, XML to WML, XML to text, etc.).

An advanced XPath Query Analyzer, based on the work of Enrico Elizar Samuel. This advanced version supports namespaces resolution.

Adding drag and drop support to your TreeView control needn't be taxing. With XML and Xpath, you can get most of that support for free.

If you're a power user or developer familiar with Microsoft Access (or other products that use the Microsoft Jet database engine), you probably think of the SQL language when thinking about queries. In a traditional Access application, SQL is the language that you write queries in, and knowing SQL is necessary to write efficient Jet code.

Based on an analysis of several large XML projects, this article examines how to make effective and efficient use of DOM in Java. The DOM offers a flexible and powerful means for creating, processing, and manipulating XML documents, but it can be awkward to use and can lead to brittle and buggy code. Author Parand Tony Daruger provides a set of Java usage patterns and a library of functions to make DOM robust and easy to use.

Kevin Williams takes a look at the latest status of the XPath 2.0 specifications and provides some specific examples of XPath 2.0 features that will make the XML developer's life easier. Examples are provided in XML and XPath.

XPath and XPointer allow XML developers and document authors to find and manipulate specific needles of content in an XML document's haystack. From mindful use of predicates, to processor efficiency, to exploring both the standards themselves and extensions to them, this article offers ten tips -- techniques and gotchas -- to bear in mind as you use XPath and XPointer in your own work.

XPath is a language for addressing parts of an XML document, used most commonly by XSLT. There are various APIs for processing XPath. For the purposes of this article I will use the open source Jaxen API. Jaxen is a Java XPath engine that supports many XML parsing APIs, such as SAX, DOM4J, and DOM. It also supports namespaces, variables, and functions.