Description: Pretty XML Tree Viewer produces an HTML document that shows, in the form of 'ASCII art', the node structure of an XML document. A CSS 1 stylesheet (tree-view.css) helps render the HTML in an appealing style. There are different ways of representing what's in an XML document. This particular model is what is used by XSLT and is prescribed by Section 5 of the XPath recommendation.

Pretty XML Tree Viewer was written by Mike J. Brown and Jeni Tennison. (Thanks Jeni!)

Requirements: The Pretty XML Tree Viewer is an XSL document that must be applied to a source tree with an XSLT processor. I have tested it with Michael Kay's SAXON and also with MSXML 3.0.

See also: my ASCII XML Tree Viewer, which produces plain text output; and Crane Softwrights' showtree.xsl, which produces an outline view.

You have other options, as well! If you want to see the source tree expressed in XML syntax via an XSLT transformation, and output as XML, you can do either of the following:

• Use the XML output method and an identity transformation as described in the XSLT spec under "Copying"; or
• Use the XML output method and <xsl:copy-of select="."/> in the template that matches the root node.

If you want to see the source tree expressed in XML syntax via an XSLT transformation, but output within in an HTML document, you can do any of the following:

• Use Oliver Becker's XML to HTML Verbatim Formatter with Syntax Highlighting;
• Use Evan Lenz's XML-to-string converter; or
• Use the same stylesheet Internet Explorer uses to produce a DHTML view (see the MSXML XSLT FAQ).