Linking to an XSLT File

There are two way to link an XSLT style sheet to an XML source document:

Embed the style sheet in the source document using the <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="myxsl.xsl"?> processing instruction.
Use a script or a COM-enabled programming language to Load the XML and XSLT files into DOM. Call the transformNode method to apply the transformation.

From a performance standpoint, it does not matter whether you link using a style sheet processing instruction or using the DOM. The difference between these two methods focuses on the underlying data, as outlined in the following table.

Link Using...	If...
A style sheet processing instruction	The data is fairly static (changes little, if at all). There is no need for dynamic transformations which include the passing of parameters.
The DOM	The data is dynamic. You want to dynamically evaluate the data by passing parameters or performing dynamic transformations. You want a more modular approach that is easier to maintain.

Note For ease in learning XSLT, many of the samples in this section use a style sheet processing instruction to link to the XSLT file. These samples would work just as well if you linked them using the DOM instead.

Linking to an XSLT File

See Also