Using XSLT3/XPATH3

[stefan-jung]

Hi, is it "safe" to upgrade plugins to XSLT3/XPATH3? It's out since 2017. The coding conventions don't mention it. Are there any Saxon licensing issues or limitations? Is it ok to mix XSLT2 files with XSLT3 files? https://www.dita-ot.org/dev/topics/plugin-coding-conventions.html

[chrispy-snps]

@xephon2 - XSLT3 has been working great for me.

I have been using XSLT3 in my plugin stylesheets for over a year now. They integrate seamlessly into the DITA-OT's XSLT2 processing, both with the open-source DITA-OT (Saxon HE) and with Syncro Soft's DITA-OT (Saxon EE).

The primary XSLT3 features I have been using for DITA-OT plugins are:

• Having a cleaner way to define a template mode that defaults to an identity transformation:

  <!-- default to identity transformation -->
  <xsl:mode name="snps-add-endnote-number" on-no-match="shallow-copy"/>
  
  <!-- modify only this element -->
  <xsl:template match="*[contains-token(@class, 'snps-d/endnote')]" mode="snps-add-endnote-number">
    ...
  </xsl:template>
  

• Using contains-token() to check for @class values:

  <xsl:template match="*[contains-token(@class, 'topic/note')]">
    ...
  </xsl:template>
  

• String concatenation using || instead of concat():

  <xsl:with-param name="id" select="'Figure-' || local-name()"/>
  

There is some more good stuff mentioned here that I hope to start using:

What’s new in XSLT 3.0 and XPath 3.1?

[stefan-jung]

Great, thank you, @chrispy-snps. I am also escpecially interested in the new string concatenation syntax.