XSLT `xsl:apply-templates` Element: Applying Templates to Process XML Nodes

Master XSLT transformations using the powerful `xsl:apply-templates` element. This tutorial demonstrates its functionality, key attributes (`select`, `mode`), and how it enables the creation of reusable and efficient stylesheets for processing and transforming XML data into various output formats.

Using the XSLT `xsl:apply-templates` Element

The XSLT `xsl:apply-templates` element is a very important instruction that directs the XSLT processor to locate and apply the appropriate templates to process selected nodes from your XML document. It's a crucial element for building flexible and reusable XSLT stylesheets.

`xsl:apply-templates` Element and its Attributes

<xsl:apply-templates select="xpath_expression" mode="mode_name"/>

The key attributes are:

• select: An XPath expression that specifies the nodes to process. The `xsl:apply-templates` instruction selects the nodes to which the processing templates should be applied. This expression is evaluated against the current node in the XML document being processed.
• mode: (Optional) A string that specifies a processing mode. This attribute allows you to apply different templates to the same nodes depending on the processing context or the processing stage. This helps in creating very flexible stylesheets.

Example: Processing Employee Data

(Note: This example requires an XML file named `employee.xml` and an XSLT stylesheet named `employee.xsl`. Screenshots from the original text are not included here. Please refer to the original document for visual verification of the example and XSLT output. The descriptions below aim to convey the information present in those screenshots.)

This example uses `xsl:apply-templates` to process employee data from an XML file and create a formatted HTML table.

`employee.xml` (Example XML Data)

<employees>
  <employee>
    <firstName>Aryan</firstName>
    <lastName>Gupta</lastName>
    <nickName>Raju</nickName>
    <salary>30000</salary>
  </employee>
  <!-- ... more employee elements ... -->
</employees>

`employee.xsl` (XSLT Stylesheet)

(The original content includes the content of the `employee.xsl` file. Since we cannot display the file here, please refer to the original document for the file content.)

Test it Now

(The original content includes a screenshot showing the output. Since we cannot display images, please refer to the original document for the visual representation of the output.)

The output is an HTML table displaying the employee's details. The `xsl:apply-templates` instruction is used to select and process the `employee` nodes, leveraging templates within the stylesheet for data extraction and formatting. The use of `xsl:apply-templates` makes the stylesheet more modular and maintainable.