Benefits of Using Stylus Studio

Now that you have an understanding of what a stylesheet can do, you can appreciate the benefits of using Stylus Studio to create them. Stylus Studio is the first integrated environment for creating, managing, and maintaining an XSL-enabled Web presence. By combining the tools needed to create XSLT stylesheets in a visual editing environment, Stylus Studio speeds initial development and eases maintenance. Key elements of Stylus Studio's XSLT features include

Structural Data View

Stylus Studio graphically displays the structure, or schema, of the XML data to which you want to apply a stylesheet.

Figure 224. Tree View Lets You Easily Edit XSLT

Sophisticated Editing Environment

The Stylus Studio editor allows you to edit both the XML source document and the XSLT stylesheet. There is no need to memorize complicated syntax. As you type, Stylus Studio Sense:X technology automatically suggests XSLT or HTML tag and attribute names, and ensures that all XML is well formed.

Figure 226. Sense:X Speeds Coding, Reduces Errors

XSLT and Java Debugging Features

Complex stylesheets require robust debugging features. With Stylus Studio, you can do the following:

Also, you can click in the stylesheet and the backmapping feature highlights the text generated by that template.

Stylus Studio integrates an XML parser with an XSLT processor. This allows Stylus Studio to instantly show the output of your stylesheet. Each time you apply a stylesheet to an XML document, Stylus Studio detects and flags any errors in your stylesheet or XML data.

Stylus Studio's default XSLT processor is compliant with the W3C XSLT Recommendation. You can also use custom processors of your own.