Is there an XSLT buddy available somewhere?

Question

I think a lot of people know about tools like RegexBuddy. Is there something similar for XSLT?

Answer 1

XSLT IDEs (Interactive Development Environments):

• XSelerator (the one I've been using for 6-7 years). Free, has a Debugger for MSXML, has intellisense for both XSLT 1.0 and XSLT 2.0. In addition has some dynamic intellisense. The debugger has breakpoints, data breakpoints,visualizes temporary trees, variables, test conditions, current output, ..., etc.
• VS2008 -- a good XML Editor + XSLT Debugger. Good static intellisence. Match patterns are statically checked. Breakpoints, data breakpoints, visualization of variables and the current output.
• oXygen
• XML-SPY (Altova)
• Stylus Studio

XPath tools:

• The XPath Visualizer -- A popular tool for learning XPath by playing with XPath expressions. Free and open source. Allows any XPath expression to be evaluated against a given XML document and displayes the results hi-lighted in the xml document (if they are node(s)) or in a separate box (if the results are atomic values). Allows xsl:variable-s to be defined and then used in XPath expressions. Allows xsl:key-s to be defined and then referenced by key() functions within XPath expressions.

EDIT: The XPath Visualizer now has a new, safer home, due to the kindness of Lars Huttar.

Answer 2

This is the closest I know that is free: XML Copy Editor

Altova XML Spy is excellent but expensive.

Answer 3

If you just want to experiment with an XSLT expression, there's a sandbox in Orbeon Forms. Obviously, there are a bunch more features in RegexBuddy that this has no equivalent to, but it's a nice interactive way to play with some strange XSLT expression that you're trying to debug.

Answer 4

I have used Architag XRay in the past (I have oXygen now). XRay is free and lightweight.

Answer 5

And your guerilla option, the bugged and seemingly unsupported free family favourite: XML cooktop