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How to convert xml to html

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2023-04-24 14:49:163317browse

With the rapid development of the Internet, XML (Extensible Markup Language) has become a very popular data format and is widely used for the storage and exchange of various types of documents and data. However, XML is not intended to be a user-friendly format, so converting it to HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) may be a better option. This article will explore how to convert XML to HTML to more conveniently display and share data on the Web.

Step 1: Understand the basic differences between XML and HTML

Before converting XML to HTML, let us first understand the basic differences between the two:

  • XML is a custom markup language that can store any type of data, such as text, images, videos, etc. HTML is a markup language used to create web pages, its main purpose is to display text, images and other media page content.
  • The structure of XML is very flexible and does not have any prescribed tags or elements. HTML needs to follow strict structures and standards to ensure consistent display on all web browsers.
  • XML and HTML differ in the meaning of tags. XML tags only identify the beginning and end of data, while HTML tags have specific meanings and are used to represent the structure, content and format of the page.

Step 2: Choose the XML to HTML conversion tool you need to use

Now that we have understood the basic differences between XML and HTML, we need to choose an available Tools to convert XML to HTML, you have the following options:

  • Use XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language) - XSL is a standard language for converting XML to HTML. It uses XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation) for transformation. Several different tools, such as Saxon and Xalan, can be used to perform XSL transformations.
  • Using JavaScript - We can use JavaScript to handle XML conversion work, use JavaScript's DOM processing capabilities to parse XML through the Document Object Model (DOM), and then use JavaScript to create HTML elements to generate HTML pages.
  • Use server-side scripting - Another option is to use server-side scripting to handle the XML transformation. You can use PHP, Python, Ruby or other server-side languages ​​to parse XML files and then generate HTML pages.

Step 3: Use XSL to convert XML to HTML

In this article, we will use XSL to convert XML to HTML. The following is a sample XML document:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<employees>
   <employee>
      <name>John Smith</name>
      <id>0001</id>
      <title>Software Engineer</title>
   </employee>
   <employee>
      <name>Jane Doe</name>
      <id>0002</id>
      <title>Technical Writer</title>
   </employee>
</employees>

The following is a sample XSL document that converts the above XML into a simple HTML table:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
   <xsl:output method="html" encoding="UTF-8" indent="yes"/>
   <xsl:template match="/">
      <html>
         <head>
            <title>Employee List</title>
         </head>
         <body>
            <h2>Employee List</h2>
               <table border="1">
                  <tr>
                     <th>Name</th>
                     <th>ID</th>
                     <th>Title</th>
                  </tr>
                  <xsl:for-each select="employees/employee">
                     <tr>
                        <td><xsl:value-of select="name"/></td>
                        <td><xsl:value-of select="id"/></td>
                        <td><xsl:value-of select="title"/></td>
                     </tr>
                  </xsl:for-each>
               </table>
         </body>
      </html>
   </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

The above XSL template uses xsl:for-each The loop mechanism traverses each employee element in the XML, and then outputs the data of each row of the table to an HTML table. The final HTML output looks like this:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
   <head>
      <title>Employee List</title>
   </head>
   <body>
      <h2>Employee List</h2>
         <table border="1">
            <tr>
               <th>Name</th>
               <th>ID</th>
               <th>Title</th>
            </tr>
            <tr>
               <td>John Smith</td>
               <td>0001</td>
               <td>Software Engineer</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
               <td>Jane Doe</td>
               <td>0002</td>
               <td>Technical Writer</td>
            </tr>
         </table>
   </body>
</html>

Conclusion

XML and HTML are two different markup languages, each with its own purpose. When displaying and sharing data on the Web, you often need to convert XML to HTML. This article explains how to use XSL and other tools to convert XML to HTML. No matter which method you use, converting XML to HTML is an important step in making your data more usable and accessible on the web.

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