I found Learning XSLT confusing from a beginner's point of view. It's poorly indexed, and Fitzgerald often uses XSLT vocabulary in examples long before he explains what they are. For example the "select" attribute first appears on page 105 in an example describing the lang() function, without any explanation of what it is or how it should be used. It's not listed at all in the index except in relation to the "for-each" and "sort" elements. He has a nice list of string functions but not much explanation of what kinds of contexts they can be used in, and few examples. He doesn't really explain how "match" and "select" are used together, or how processing works hierarchically by jumping between xsl snippets. Like a lot of O'Reilly books it presumes a pretty sophisticated programming vocabulary (like what does "normalize" mean anyway?).

Some sections are quite useful however, and the fact that there are lots of examples is very helpful.

The information is presented very dryly. The tone of the book is very taxing on the readers attention span.

I find that one of the key tenets of these O'Reilly books is that they are usually very readable, and can be read front to back almost like a novel. I didn't find I was able to do this with Learning XSLT.

Maybe it's the subject matter or maybe its the authors inability to hook the reader. Either way, it didn't work for me.

Late one evening last week I was stuck needing to write some XSL code before an important deadline the next day. Having never written any XSL before, I turned to "Learning XSLT." After spending about two hours studying the excellent examples in the book, I was able to complete the stylesheet I needed which contains about 100 lines of code and 10 templates. I highly recommend the book to anyone needing to get up-to-speed quickly on XSLT.

Granted that XSLT is a confusing topic, and granted that this is supposed to be an introduction rather than a reference, but this disappointing book does not make the subject any more approachable. The author skips all over the place, including coverage of peripherally related topics that would have been better in an appendix (e.g., code points?).

The book is further flawed by an absolutely useless index. Many important terms do not appear in the index at all, and others reference a passing mention in the text rather than a useful discussion.

I had a copy of the Wrox XSLT Book and ended up more confused then before I started. The O'Reilly Book is MUCH easier to understand. The answer I needed was in the Keys chapter (imagine that, a whole chapter on Keys). I spent hours with the Wrox book, only to find what I needed in 5 minutes with O'Reilly.
Thank you!

Based on it's cost, this book is definitely worth every penny. If you are interested in coding in XSLT, this is the only book you will probably need for a while. Of course, I'm assuming that you have a decent background in Java which supports XSLT translations. Once you've mastered the concepts in this text, you will be ready for one of the larger reference manuals. Of course, XSLT reference ( from wrox for example )are pretty much only necessary for those who are looking to become XSLT gurus. This book is very informative and helpful but a bit dull, but then again so are a lot of other O'Reilly titles. Then again, if you're looking for excitement, read a book on skydiving or something.

I know O'Reilly books are supposed to be more advanced than other offerings, but the O'Reilly "sub-series" Learning XYZ generally tends to take it a bit easier on beginners. This book really fails to be tutorial in nature and digresses into deeper subjects rather quickly. Not recommeded for beginners, so don't be fooled by the title inference.

Learning XSLT provides a comprehensive introduction to XSLT. This is a very good entry-level book on XSLT. This book provides a entry level approach without being too "entry level." The author focuses on providing examples for each concept demonstrated and builds on those examples in subsequent chapters. The author explains the template-based approach of XSLT and how it is different from typical programming or scripting languages.

In addition, the book covers XSLT functions. The functions are explained fully and examples are well written. After each example, the book discusses the implications of the example and the output that results from the transformation. The author points out where the chapter in the book relations to the section of the XSLT specification, if the reader wanted to find the actual specification. All the chapters are easy to follow and understand because the author's writing style is very fluid and clear. The upcoming XSLT 2.0 specifications are also highlighted throughout the book.

I would recommend this book to anyone new to XSLT. It's a good book for learning XSLT in clear terms and at an easy pace. You won't be let down if you take the time to read it carefully, try out the different features of XSLT, and think about the XSLT concepts presented.

Hi,
Recently I need to become a little more than a beginner for XSLT. The word of XSLT is very wide and can be seen as simple as a formatting tool or as deep and complicated as calling java object from your tranformation.
If you are already an expert on XSLT this is not your book, but if you need a start that doesn't require that you already know the topic, this is a perfect book to start with.
Max Pellizzaro.
http://www.maxpellizzaro.com

Target Audience
Developers who are looking for an entry level text to learn XSLT and XPath.

Contents
This is a tutorial guide for teaching yourself the fundamentals of Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations, or XSLT.

The book contains the following chapters: Preface; Transforming Documents with XSLT; Building New Documents with XSLT; Controlling Output; Traversing the Tree; XPath and XSLT Functions; Copying Nodes; Using Variables and Parameters; Sorting Things Out; Numbering Lists; Templates; Using Keys; Conditional Processing; Working with Multiple Documents; Alternative Stylesheets; Extensions; XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0; Writing an XSLT Processor Interface; Parting Words; Appendix: XSLT Processors; Glossary; Index

Review
While XML is becoming the de facto standard for data exchange between programs and platforms, it does nothing to allow the reader to see the data in a useful, formatted output. And, since XML is not concerned about presentation of data, that's proper. What you need is some way to turn that data into readable output based on the reader's needs. To do that, you use XSLT. That's where this book comes into play.

Michael Fitzgerald has written a concise, easy-to-follow book that will allow you to start working with the XSLT language. Since this book is not combined with every other XML technology known to man, you will not get lost in a morass of acronyms or concepts that would quickly confuse the beginner. The focus is just XSLT, and the assumption is that you are approaching the language for the first time. There are a number of examples that give you hands-on experience during the learning process, and most of the examples also show a screen print of the browser output so that you know if you were successful with your coding. The code can also be downloaded from the book's website, so if you just want to skip to the output, you can do that.

The author doesn't try to write for both the beginner and the expert. Since the focus is on the beginning XSLT coder, the person with an existing base of XSLT experience may not find this book of much use. I don't say that as a gripe against the book, rather as a way to manage your expectations. It's better than a "For Dummies" title, but it's not an exhaustive guide to all that is XSLT. If you fall into the target audience, you should gain a lot from this title.

Conclusion
Learning XSLT is a very good choice to start your foray into the world of XML transformations. You should come away with the basic information you need to be effective and continue to expand your experience.

I'm a software documentation specialist and Java programmer who needed a text that would enable me to read a few chapters, get the gist, and start applying XSLT at work, looking up details as I go. I think Mr. Fitzgerald had another audience in mind when he wrote this book.

Discussions of big-picture concepts like how templates work and XPath in the early chapters of the book were not, in my opinion, adequately expansive and often digressed into what I consider peripheral detail. Information about templates that I consider key to understanding how a stylesheet works was not addressed until Chapter 10. And I had to lean heavily on the W3C's XPath Recommendation because I could not find important details about XPath in the single-chapter coverage the author provides.

This book offers virtually no practical advice on how to approach transformation of complex, real-world markup. The examples are short, contrived, and generally uninformative, beyond providing basic syntax.

I purchased this book because my employer offers discounts on O'Reilly books, and of the XSLT titles O'Reilly offers, this one seemed closest to my needs. Probably should have looked harder.

Everthing you find in this book is available online. Examples are so simple(to be fair, the author did state he will use simple example in the book)that it doesn't really increase your understanding.

Afterward I got Michael Kay's book on XSLT by WROK, it soo much better.

While XSLT isn't a complex language, its declarative and template-based nature can make harder than expected to learn it, especially for people used to procedural languages. That's why a book like this, which provides a solid introduction to XSLT, may be more valuable than you would expect. The author manages to assemble an entry-level book without writing another useless "for dummies" guide. Fitzgerald filled the book with a huge amount of practical examples; you get plenty of code listings that often build on top of each other; incrementing the complexity along the way (an effective choice). In my opinion the writing style isn't always crystal clear and the author often introduce topics too early, briefly mentioning things that get a full explanation only a few chapters later. Notwithstanding this shortcoming, I think it's an excellent book that can really help getting started with XSLT. I would suggest to read it in a linear fashion, from beginning to the end in order to get the best out of it.