XSL transform

Abstract

A system and method for transforming XML items is provided. The system includes a transformer that can selectively input XML items in a first format and selectively transform the input XML items to one or more transformed XML items in one or more second formats. The system also include an output manager that can be employed to facilitate selectively pulling and / or pushing a subset of the transformed XML items from the transformer to a variety of output destinations. The system provides an input abstractor that exposes data stored in data stores that implement the input abstractor as a data model and infoset, which facilitates navigating such exposed data.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE [0001] This application is a divisional of co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09 / 901,368, filed Jul. 9, 2001, entitled XSL TRANSFORM, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference.TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] The present invention relates generally to transforming XML data and more particularly to a streaming model Xslt (XSL Transformations) processor. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] As XML (extensible Markup Language) has become more widely accepted, increasing amounts of XML data have been generated and employed to store an ever-increasing variety of data. With such a variety of data being generated, a correspondingly wide variety of presentation formats have been employed to view the XML data and a correspondingly wide variety of uses have been found for such XML data. XML is a W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) endorsed standard for document marking that provides a generic syntax to mark up data with human-readable tags. Since XML does not have a fixed se...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0014] The present invention provides a system and method for providing a streaming input and streaming output, incremental XML transformer. Such a streaming XML transformer can be employed in push and / or pull model processing. The transformer facilitates a user incrementally building the output from XML data so that only a subset of an XML document needs to be loaded into memory to perform a selective transformation. Furthermore, the transformer facilitates interacting with a user program that can selectively pull a subset of the transformed XML rather than being pushed substantially all the data associated with events. Thus, a user program employing the pull model can receive less data than if interacting with a conventional system.

[0021] Conventionally, Xslt processors (transformers) and XPath engines (query engines) are implemented in one integrated system. But the present invention facilitates separating the Xslt processor from the XPath engine, providing flexibility advantages over conventional systems. For example, if a user determines that optimizations (e.g., hardware, software) are available for a generic transformer, then having a separate Xslt processor component simplifies implementing such optimizations.

Problems solved by technology

Such all or nothing models suffer from several drawbacks, including, but not limited to, extra copy steps, the requirement to produce a node tree before transformation can be performed, transforming unneeded data, consuming excessive memory, consuming excessive processor cycles and limiting the flexibility with which the output destination can request transformations.

One drawback with such conventional systems is that such event notifications may require unnecessary processing by a user program that may only be interested in a subset of events.

Furthermore, user programs that interact with such event producing Xslt processors may be required to maintain complicated state machines in order to interact with the conventional Xslt processor.

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