Is there a way to use saxon8 instead of the pre-packaged
xalan that comes with Java 1.4?
Yes, you can use the same JAXP interfaces from your application. If the
Saxon JAR file is on your classpath, then it will be invoked in preference
to the pre-packaged Xalan.
For more control, if the Java system property
javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory is set to
net.sf.saxon.TransformerFactoryImpl, the basic (open-source) version of
Saxon will be invoked (it must be on your classpath, of course), and if it
is set to com.saxonica.TransformerFactoryImpl, the schema-aware (commercial)
version of Saxon will be invoked.
You can set a Java system property from the command line:
java
-Djavax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory=net.sf.saxon.TransformerFactoryImpl
my.package.class params
or by calling System.setProperty() from your application.
It's a good idea to include in your stylesheet:
<xsl:comment><xsl:value-of
select="system-property('xsl:vendor')"/></xsl:comment>
so you know which processor you are running.
Michael Kay