How to convert xsl file to sef file

Question

I have xsl file I would like to apply to some XML content in node.js. I found saxon-js and it seems to offer what I need. While I'm slightly lost in the documentation, it seems like I should first convert my xsl file to .sef file before running transform in node.

saxon-js readme mentiones other package, xslt3 that should be able to do that (see readme):

Compiling a stylesheet

To compile a stylesheet held in books.xsl to a SEF file in books.sef.json, to be run either in the browser or Node.js, use the command line:

xslt3 -xsl:books.xsl -export:books.sef.json -t -ns:##html5

However, after installing xslt3 package, there's no executable available to run the conversion.

Am I missing something? How can I convert xsl to sef.json (one time is OK, don't need to run it from server dynamically or anything)?

Answer 1

FWIW, here's how you can do this programmatically, without xslt3 (in case someone else lands here, looking for a code-based solution):

// xsl: path to XSLT file
// xml: path to XML file to be transformed

const saxon = require("saxon-js");
const env = saxon.getPlatform();

const doc = env.parseXmlFromString(env.readFile(xsl));
// hack: avoid error "Required cardinality of value of parameter $static-base-uri is exactly one; supplied value is empty"
doc._saxonBaseUri = "file:///";

const sef = saxon.compile(doc);

/* now you can use `sef`:
const resultStringXML = saxon.transform({
  stylesheetInternal: sef,
  sourceText: env.readFile(xml)
});
*/

This is somewhat of a monkey-patch (esp. the _saxonBaseUri part); adding it here anyway, as I couldn't (yet) find a better/formal approach in any documentation - Saxonica or otherwise.

Answer 2

You can either find the executable in ./node_modules/xslt3/xslt3.js after installing the package as a local dependency in your project

npm i xslt3

❯ ./node_modules/xslt3/xslt3.js
Saxon requires a stylesheet as -xsl: argument
Error FORG0001
    Cannot locate stylesheet ('/Users/<username>/Projects/saxonjs-poc/undefined')

or you can use the -g flag with npm to install xslt3 globally. Then xslt3 will be available as an executable anywhere on your machine

npm i -g xslt3

❯ xslt3
Saxon requires a stylesheet as -xsl: argument
Error FORG0001
    Cannot locate stylesheet ('/Users/<username>/Projects/saxonjs-poc/undefined')