A language for transforming XML documents
A domain-specific declarative programming language designed to transform XML documents into other formats, such as HTML, plain text, or XSL Formatting Objects. These transformed formats can then be converted into other formats like PDF, PostScript, and PNG. Originally, XSLT was developed to transform XML documents into other XML documents, but later updates to the XSLT 1.0 specification added support for JSON and plain-text transformation.
Key Features and Capabilities
- Content Management: XSLT allows for the management and manipulation of XML document content independently of its structure.
- Separation of Content and Presentation: By separating content from presentation, XSLT enables the reuse of XML data in various ways and different output formats.
- Multi-language Support: XSLT 3.0 implementations support Java, .NET, C/C++, Python, PHP, and NodeJS. Additionally, an XSLT 3.0 JavaScript library can be hosted within the web browser.
Usage and Adoption
- Browser Support: Modern web browsers include native support for XSLT 1.0.
- Declining Usage: Despite its capabilities, XSLT usage has been relatively low and declining. It was used by 0.02% of websites in 2013 and dropped to 0.001% in 2025.
- Security Concerns: Over the years, XSLT has faced repeated severe security issues, which have contributed to its declining usage.