How to apply an XSLT Stylesheet in C#

Question

I want to apply an XSLT Stylesheet to an XML Document using C# and write the output to a File.

Answer 1

Based on Daren's excellent answer, note that this code can be shortened significantly by using the appropriate XslCompiledTransform.Transform overload:

var myXslTrans = new XslCompiledTransform(); 
myXslTrans.Load("stylesheet.xsl"); 
myXslTrans.Transform("source.xml", "result.html"); 

(Sorry for posing this as an answer, but the code block support in comments is rather limited.)

In VB.NET, you don't even need a variable:

With New XslCompiledTransform()
    .Load("stylesheet.xsl")
    .Transform("source.xml", "result.html")
End With

Answer 2

This might help you

public static string TransformDocument(string doc, string stylesheetPath)
{
    Func<string,XmlDocument> GetXmlDocument = (xmlContent) =>
     {
         XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();
         xmlDocument.LoadXml(xmlContent);
         return xmlDocument;
     };

    try
    {
        var document = GetXmlDocument(doc);
        var style = GetXmlDocument(File.ReadAllText(stylesheetPath));

        System.Xml.Xsl.XslCompiledTransform transform = new System.Xml.Xsl.XslCompiledTransform();
        transform.Load(style); // compiled stylesheet
        System.IO.StringWriter writer = new System.IO.StringWriter();
        XmlReader xmlReadB = new XmlTextReader(new StringReader(document.DocumentElement.OuterXml));
        transform.Transform(xmlReadB, null, writer);
        return writer.ToString();
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        throw ex;
    }

}   

Answer 3

I found a possible answer here: http://web.archive.org/web/20130329123237/http://www.csharpfriends.com/Articles/getArticle.aspx?articleID=63

From the article:

XPathDocument myXPathDoc = new XPathDocument(myXmlFile) ;
XslTransform myXslTrans = new XslTransform() ;
myXslTrans.Load(myStyleSheet);
XmlTextWriter myWriter = new XmlTextWriter("result.html",null) ;
myXslTrans.Transform(myXPathDoc,null,myWriter) ;

Edit:

But my trusty compiler says, XslTransform is obsolete: Use XslCompiledTransform instead:

XPathDocument myXPathDoc = new XPathDocument(myXmlFile) ;
XslCompiledTransform myXslTrans = new XslCompiledTransform();
myXslTrans.Load(myStyleSheet);
XmlTextWriter myWriter = new XmlTextWriter("result.html",null);
myXslTrans.Transform(myXPathDoc,null,myWriter);

Answer 4

Here is a tutorial about how to do XSL Transformations in C# on MSDN:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307322/en-us/

and here how to write files:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816149/en-us

just as a side note: if you want to do validation too here is another tutorial (for DTD, XDR, and XSD (=Schema)):

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307379/en-us/

i added this just to provide some more information.