Microsoft XSL Processor Read Me

Known Bugs in the Technology Preview Release

January 7, 1998

• If you have a newer version of ATL.DLL already installed on your machine, you will get a warning as the Microsoft XSL ActiveX Control is installed. You should keep the newer version.
• The Microsoft XSL ActiveX Control may require a restart after it is installed. If a dialog directs you to do so, please restart and then return to the demo pages.
• The Microsoft XSL ActiveX Control doesn't provide error messages. You may debug your stylesheet using the MSXSL.EXE command line utility, which provides more complete error reporting.
• The root rule must contain a single top-level element in the action. Actions which consist of unenclosed <children/> or <select-elements> may evaluate to multiple elements and thus be processed incorrectly.
• Style rules have no effect unless there is an appropriate construction rule for the targeted element, AND that construction rule contains a flow object to which the styles can be attached. In particular, the built-in default rule does not create a flow object. Using this default rule instead provides a workaround for most situations:

  <rule>
    <target-element/>
    <SPAN><children/></SPAN>
  </rule>
  

• The background CSS property outputs as an attribute instead of as a style property. Use the components of background (e.g. background-color) separately.
• Empty HTML/CSS Flow Objects do not output end tags. For example:

  <A NAME="foo"></A>
  

  will omit the </A> on output. Putting some content in <A> and other "container" flow objects prevents this. In the above example, just adding a space solves the problem:

  <A NAME="foo"> </A>
  

• The XSL processor does not validate the source document, even if the document refers to a DTD.
• Extended characters are not handled properly and should be avoided in both the source XML document, and the XSL stylesheet.

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