xml-dev - RE: XML Extensibility / XML Schemas

[Evan Lenz <elenz@xyzfind.com>]

>
>Problem: I wonder if it's possible to transform both
>XSLT & XML Schemas with XSLT?
>
>- Probably yes because they are valid XML, but can you
>imagine the carnage/innovation this could cause...
>

For our XML search engine, we use XSLT to generate HTML forms dynamically,
based on an existing XML data set.  As much as I enjoy XSLT and its power,
it has been the primary "gotcha" when it comes to customization of the user
search experience.  It's easy to just say, "write your own stylesheets," but
we know full well that XSLT is not exactly an easy step up for the average
web developer.  To alleviate this, I've been working on a set of stylesheets
that automatically generates a stylesheet to be used by our server, given
just HTML input from the user following a couple of simple contracts.  We
haven't yet released this feature, but I'm finding it to be a very powerful
application of XSLT.  Of course, generating stylesheets from stylesheets
will not always be feasible; the requirements have to be strictly defined
ahead of time.  In our case, they are, and we will be able to hide all this
complexity from our customers, if they so choose.

Evan Lenz
elenz@xyzfind.com
http://www.xyzfind.com

p.s. if you attempt to create XSLT with XSLT, make sure you first become
familiar with xsl:namespace-alias :)