Debug XSLT in Eclipse for my specific Java environment

[snyderpa]

I had a dream, and in my dream I needed to use the exslt date-format extension, implemented in Xalan 2.7, but our server environment is set up with Xalan 2.6. So, in my dream, I requested that we update the server to use Xalan 2.7 and our manager said "no problem, let's do it."

But when I awoke, my manager said, "we would have to regression test thousands of files, it's not worth it."

So, I want to develop, test, AND DEBUG my xslt templates on the server using the Xalan 2.6 library.

Now I have another dream, and that is that oXygen will implement a debugger that allows me to step through my transformations using the transformation libraries I am targeting for production.

Please, make my dream come true.

[sorin_ristache]

Hello,

I am trying to make your dream come true but it is not quite possible. We integrated new Xalan versions in oXygen as they were released under the Apache Xalan project. If I remember correctly we skipped Xalan version 2.6.0 because it had some ugly bugs and from Xalan 2.5.1 we jumped to Xalan 2.7.0. If Xalan 2.5.1 is suitable for you just download oXygen 5.1 and use it.

You could try to replace the Xalan 2.7.0 jar files in the [oXygen-install-folder]/lib folder with the Xalan 2.6.0 jar files, restart oXygen and select Xalan as debugging engine but probably debugging using Xalan 2.6.0 will not work correctly.


Regards,
Sorin

[snyderpa]

Thank you Sorin,

It sounds like the oXygen debugger architecture does not treat the transformation engine as an abstraction - true? If it did, you couldn't provide the kind of step-through-the-xsl that you do - right?

My ideal would be that I can specify the path to the jar file of whatever library is installed on my system and expect the debugger to make calls into the transformation library and receive and report errors -- no need to step through the Xalan code. This is especially important for debugging since (as you pointed out) the 2.6.0 library is buggy -- that's why I need to debug my xsl code specifically for it -- know what I mean? (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

I understand that your debugger provides more powerful features that should not be abandoned, but you could provide a less featureful option (perhaps involving an ant launch configuration) for using the installed libraries. For now, I've fallen back to using an Orangevolt launch configuration. That does the trick but it is inconvenient. If you could integrate something simple like that, provide a better interface, and give it a name to differentiate it from your excellent debugger, I think it would be good.

I would think this is something you would want to do because Xalan 2.7.0 is probably not the end of the line. There may be a Xalan 2.8 or even a Xalan 2.9 -- the possibilities are staggering -- and your product will have the same weakness during each transition.

Best regards,

Paul.

[sorin_ristache]

Hello Paul,

Usually a new release of Xalan fixes bugs of previous versions, is more stable than previous versions and should be preferred to them. So we integrate in the oXygen's XSLT Debugger the latest stable Xalan version when we release a new version of oXygen. Sometimes the Xalan API used to access the debugging features of Xalan changes between two versions and this means that we cannot support more than one Xalan version in a release of oXygen. If you need to run and debug your stylesheets against a previous version of Xalan we can send you a license key for the version of oXygen that includes that version of Xalan.

Maybe you can upgrade your XSLT transformation system to a version of Xalan that is more recent than 2.6.0 and has less bugs.


Regards,
Sorin

[snyderpa]

"Maybe you can upgrade your XSLT transformation system to a version of Xalan that is more recent than 2.6.0 and has less bugs. "

Please see the original post about the real world -- maybe you can look at this as an opportunity to better server your customers.

All the best,

Paul.