The combined power of XML and XSL for representing, manipulating, and presenting data over the Web and sharing data across differing applications has been clearly demonstrated through the fast acceptance and broad usage of these technologies. Still, most developers familiar with the basics of XML and XSL are not utilizing this power fully. This article shows developers how to use extensions, a technique that allows you to expand the capabilities of XSL.

This column takes a look at how to use XLink pointers when representing data to make XML documents more compact and flexible. Sample code shows examples of an invoice with and without the XLink pointers, plus an example of using XLinks with a URL-addressable database.