XSLT & XPath Book List

"Cookbook", not for beginners.

XSLT Cookbook, Second Edition

by Salvatore Mangano

• Paperback: 774 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 2 edition (December 14, 2005)
• ISBN: 0596009747

An alternative to Jeni’s “cookbook”. It is a matter of taste which one you prefer. They are very different so it is also nice to have both. Jeni's is still only in its first edition so for the time being I vote for Mangano.

Review: 2007-01-09

Small but surprisingly good.

XSLT 1.0 Pocket Reference

by Evan Lenz

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 1 edition (August 12, 2005)
• ISBN: 0596100086

This small and cheap pocket reference is ok. It has some hints about XSLT 2.0.

Review: 2007-01-09

Standard text book.

Beginning XSLT 2.0: From Novice to Professional

by Jeni Tennison

• Paperback: 824 pages
• Publisher: Apress (July 22, 2005)
• ISBN: 1590593243

This book is great if you know a lot XSLT already. It is completely useless for beginners unless you have a background as webdesigner or you are very interested in XML to HTML transformations.

Review: 2007-03-08

Second to none.

XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference

by Michael Kay

• Paperback: 552 pages
• Publisher: Wrox (August 27, 2004)
• ISBN: 0764569104

XPath 1.0 was just a chapter in books about XML and XSLT but XPath 2.0 is so much "bigger" that a book of its own is now needed.

Michael’s books are all most developers will ever need about XSLT and XPath but they could be supplemented with a beginner’s book and with more specialized books of the “cookbook” type.

Review: 2007-01-09

Second to none.

XSLT 2.0 Programmer's Reference

by Michael Kay

• Paperback: 960 pages
• Publisher: Wrox; 3 edition (August 20, 2004)
• ISBN: 0764569090

The best XSLT book for beginners as well as for advanced users. If you don't have any books about XSLT start with this one and supplement it with some "beginners" book. If you have ten books about XSLT, Michael's books are also for you.

The earlier editions also covered XPath but XPath 2.0 is now a separate volume, and it is also a must.

Michael Kay is the editor of the XSLT 2.0 Recommendation and also the creator of the popular Saxon XSLT processor. Michael is very active at the Mulberry XSL-List.

Review: 2007-01-09

Very special.

XSLT 2.0 Web Development

by Dmitry Kirsanov

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR (March 25, 2004)
• ISBN: 0131406353

Most XSLT developers will find this book a waste of time. I liked it a lot, great inspiration. To get anything out of the book you must be very interested in making XML and XSLT-based websites using Schematron for validation!

We need more great original books making a difference like this one. Too many mediocre standard text books around. This book deserves a price.

Review: 2007-01-09

"Cookbook", outdated.

XSLT and XPath On The Edge

by Jeni Tennison

• Paperback: 648 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; Unlimited edition (October 15, 2001)
• ISBN: 0764547763

This is the cookbook type of book, all sorts of recipes and informed discussions for advanced users. A good supplement to the books of Michael Kay. But wait for the XSLT 2.0 version to come out one day.

Review: 2007-01-09

Standard text book, outdated.

XSLT

by Doug Tidwell

• Paperback: 478 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 1 edition (August 15, 2001)
• ISBN: 0596000537

I used this book together with the 2. edition reference of Michael Kay when I first learned XSLT. Some of the cases are interesting for a more advanced user, but I found many of the basic code examples too long.

Review: 2007-01-09