USCSXSL internal component

What is it?

The USCSXSL internal component is an XSLT 1.0 processor with rich extensions also found in XSLT 2.0 or 3.0. It is a USoft-proprietary C# implementation.

The USCSXSL internal component gives you the same basic XSLT functionality as the USXSL component. This is to say that it provides a standard XSLT 1.0 processor and, in addition, the capability to mix in USoft application data.

But in addition to the USXSL component, USCSXSL also allows you to call extension functions. You can discover these functions by calling ublendit.exe:

> usoft-bindir\ublendit.exe functions

> usoft-bindir\ublendit.exe functions ns=strings

> usoft-bindir\ublendit.exe functions p=title

Intended use

Use this component in any way that you would normally use XSLT 1.0:

• Apply an XSL transformation to an XML document.
• Retrieve a value from an XML document.
• Retrieve a complete node from an XML document.

Use it also to:

• Mix USoft application data into an XSLT transformation.

Finally, use it also for its extension functions. You can call these functions from Blend scripts, a special way of using USCSXSL, but you can also call these functions directly when you apply USCSXSL to transform an XML document, for example:

<xsl:variable name="rdmlx" select="xslutil:xmlfragment(strings:Text2Xml(files:ReadFile($filepath, .)), .)"/>

Encoding

A different encoding is produced depending on whether the output is internal or external.

The USCSXSL component produces UTF-16 output encoding internally, ie., as long as the output is not written to a file on the file system or passed to a third party by way of a webservice call. This is because with UTF-16 we can easily exchange Unicode characters with controls and other Windows-related interfaces. UTF-16 is also the encoding recommended by Microsoft.

Correspondingly, in this case, the USCSXSL component produces the attribute encoding="UTF-16" in the XML declaration at the top of the output document. You cannot change this behaviour. It applies regardless of what is the value of the encoding attribute of the <xsl:output> instruction in the XSL stylesheet (if such an attribute is present).

By default, the USCSXSL component produces UTF-8 output encoding externally, ie., when the result is written to a file on the file system, as is the case when you call USCSXSL.Apply2File, or is passed to a third party by way of a webservice call. This is because UTF-8 is a common default in these cases. You can obtain a different external output encoding by specifying it as the encoding attribute of the <xsl:output> instruction in the XSL stylesheet, for example:

<xsl:output encoding="UTF-16"/>

or

<xsl:output encoding="ISO-8859-1"/>