PHP 5 includes the XSL extension (libxslt) "by default" (Read http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.xsl.php) which permits the use of PHP functions (standard or user defined) in the stylesheet as XSLT extension functions.

Read http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.xs...

With PHP4 you may use the XSLT (Sablotron) extension or the DOM XML extension

PHP5 XSL is much more powerful and the way to go!

From what I understand - and experience - the libraries are included in PHP4 and 5 but not enabled by default. With all the general hosting providers I have checked it is not enabled, therefore I cannot use it.

I have been using hosting with PHP4 XSLT extension at KDAWebServices.com - You can check a phpinfo page at http://support.kdawebservices.com/forum/...

Nowadays XSL stylesheets are an important way to split logic and presentation.

You will find a bunch of hosting places offering the service searching at Google for the words: PHP hosting XSL OR XSLT

You may allways have a server at the office or at home and enable XSLT yourself.

Here is another interesting hosting site http://1and1.com that have php4 with XSLT and PHP5 with XSL extensions enabled (See phpinfo pages at http://faq.1and1.com/scripting_languages...)

You may find other places with XSLT enabled, just ask for the phpinfo page

I do not know about any xslt library as php script.

Another way would be to go for the "cool" XSLT version 2.0 which has a lot more features than version 1, without PHP but on Java or .Net

There is a free basic implementation (Saxon-B) for these platforms from Saxonica at http://saxon.sourceforge.net/

I have to try it some day.

Yeah, I liked the idea of xslt and became a bit frustrated that not a lot of other people considered it valuable - thanks a lot for all the information, I am definately going to check out v2.0.

If you are new to XSLT I'd recommend to begin with version 1 since version 2 is somewhat more complicated.

Version 1 is short on functions but you can solve it using PHP5 functions in the stylesheet as stated before.

One think the version 1 lacks is node grouping to make grouped reports, but this is circumvented using "The Muenchian Method" (http://www.jenitennison.com/xslt/groupin...)

A good XSLT 1 mini-tutorial is at http://w3schools.com/xsl/default.asp although you'd better go to the specs for the function list since theirs contains some extra (XSLT 2) functions.

Sometime ago I wrote an XSLT 1.0 example (called Tiles) that includes many features at the LiteratePrograms wiki http://en.literateprograms.org/Category:...

XSLT 2.0 / XPath 2.0 comes with more data types including a list type but its definition has to be specified in an XML Schema file, and everything related to Schemas is out of the Saxon free edition and requires the commercial "Saxon-SA (Schema Aware)" edition.

XSLT Specs: http://www.w3.org/Style/XSL/

XSLT 2.0 vs XSLT 1.0 links:
http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2006/...
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/04/10/xslt...