XSLT Checker

The XSLT Checker is a small project to detect commands in any given XSLT stylesheet which are never used when it processes a huge set of input data.

Call the XSLT Checker

The XSLT Checker is called by:

start.bat [config-file]? [output-directory]?

Configuration file

The XSLT Checker is configured by a configuration file, which should be valid to the RelaxNG schema schema/config.rnc.

The default config will be found in config/config.xml

Input Data Set

The <dataFolder> specifies the input data set. The containing path should point to a folder and can be relative or absolute to the config.

In the default config the <dataFolder> points to the folder {$projectDir}/sample/xml.

The optional attribute extensions can be used to specify a file extension. If the attribute is set only files with those extensions should be used as Input Data Set. Multiple extensions should be separated by a semicolon (;). If the attribute is omited any file in the given folder should be used.

In the default config this extensions attribute has the value xml.

XSLT Stylesheet Set

The <styleFolder> specifies the XSLT Stylesheet Set. The containing path should point to a folder and can be relative or absolute to the config.

In the default config the <styleFolder> points to the folder {$projectDir}/sample/xsl.

The optional attribute extensions can be used to specify a file extension. If the attribute is set only files with those extensions should be used as XSLT Stylesheet Set. Multiple extensions should be separated by a semicolon (;). If the attribute is omited any file in the given folder should be used.

In the default config this extensions attribute has the value xsl.

Main Stylesheet

The startingStyle specifies one stylesheet in the XSLT Stylesheet Set which should be used as the Main Stylesheet. The containing path should point to the main stylesheet and should be relative to the folder <styleFolder>.

The main stylesheet should include or import all other stylesheets of the XSLT Stylesheet Set directly or indirectly.

Command Configuration

By default the commands xsl:template, xsl:if, xsl:choose/xsl:when, xsl:choose/xsl:otherwise, xsl:for-each, xsl:for-each-group and xsl:function will be checked by the XSLT Checker.

The optional element checkedElements can be used to specify which commands should be ignored by the XSLT Checker. If this element is omited the XSLT Checker processes in the default behavior.

Example to ignore only the xsl:template with match attribute:

<checkedElements>
    <template>
        <name>true</name>
        <match>false</match>
    </template>
    <if>true</if>
    <choose>
        <when>true</when>
        <otherwise>true</otherwise>
    </choose>
    <for-each>true</for-each>
    <for-each-group>true</for-each-group>
    <function>true</function>
</checkedElements>

Output directory

The output directory will be used to store the result of the XSLT Checker. The result contains two versions of the same report. One in XML and one in plain text format.

Both report versions list all respected commands which were never used when all files of the Input Data Set was processed by the main stylesheet.

The default output directory is {$projectDir}/sample/result

Restrictions

Currently following restrictions apply to the XSLT Checker:

• It works on Windows systems only.
• Java needs to be installed - the environment variable java should be set.
• The Stylesheets should be processable with the Saxon version 8.9
• The XSLT Checker can not catch any error. The Input Data Set should not throw any error.
• Only one Stylesheet call is supported. A XSLT pipeline can not be checked by the XSLT Checker.