XSLT 3.0, published by W3c on 8 June 2017, is the latest stable version of XSLT. As such, it is the target version for XSLT in this extension, alongside XPath 3.1.

Learning XSLT 3.0

The online W3C documentation for XSLT 3.0, along with its XPath 3.1 sub-language, comprises 3 main parts:

• XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 3.0
• XML Path Language (XPath) 3.1
• XPath and XQuery Functions and Operators 3.1

While the size of each part of the XSLT specifications may appear daunting at first, each part is well-structured, with a Table of Contents panel that makes it easy to navigate. Many code samples are included with the specification.

Offline Reading Material

There are no published books for XSLT 3.0, but the XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference by Michael Kay is frequently recommended. XSLT 3.0 is a significant enhancement to XSLT 2.0 but it builds on the fundamental principals and language in XSLT 2.0.

Video Tutorials

A set of video tutorials by Dimitre Novatchev is available:

• XSLT 2.0 and 1.0 Foundations.
• The Evolution of XPath: What’s New in XPath 3.0.

Supporting XSLT Processors

This extension integrates with the Saxon XSLT processor by Saxonica via XSLT tasks through the Saxon command-line interface. Saxon is probably the most popular/ubiquitous XSLT 3.0 processor. It publishes specification conformance data and supports many platforms. A free open source version Saxon-HE is available along with paid-for 'Professional' and 'Enterprise' variants are also available. These are summarised in a feature matrix.

Saxon PE and EE 12.8 or later, run with syntax extensions, also accept some XSLT 4.0 features in an XSLT 3.0 stylesheet: named item types - with record and enumeration types - and xsl:note. To edit such stylesheets with the same support as for XSLT 4.0, enable the XSLT.validation.xslt30ItemTypesAndNotes setting - see XSLT 4.0 Item Types and Notes in XSLT 3.0. For the full set of XSLT 4.0 features implemented in Saxon 13, see XSLT 4.0.

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Altova's RaptorXML server supports XSLT 3.0 - no integration with Visual Studio Code is available as ALtova offer their own paid-for XML/XSLT development solution. No XSLT standards conformance data is published for this processor.