xsl:include

Used to include the contents of one stylesheet within another.

Category: declaration
Content: none
Permitted parent elements: xsl:package ; xsl:stylesheet ; xsl:transform

Attributes

href

uri

A URL (absolute or relative) of another stylesheet to be textually included within this one.

To customize the way in which the href attribute is handled, a user-written URIResolver can be supplied (or on .NET, an XMLResolver). Note that it is the compile-time URIResolver that is used, not the run-time URIResolver. See also Using XML catalogs.

If the URI is relative, then it is interpreted relative to the base URI of the xsl:include element itself, which normally is the location of the file containing the source stylesheet module. If the stylesheet is loaded other than from a file (for example, if it is supplied as a string literal in the source of the application program that invokes the transformation), then a base URI should be supplied when invoking the compilation.

Saxon availability

Available in XSLT 1.0 and later versions. Available in all Saxon editions. Available for all platforms.

Notes on the Saxon implementation

Since Saxon 13, in XSLT 4.0, xsl:include declarations now allow cycles and "diamond" structures: if the same module is included more than once at the same stylesheet (import) level, all but the first xsl:include declarations are ignored.

Details

The xsl:include element is always used at the top level of the stylesheet. The top-level elements of the included stylesheet effectively replace the xsl:include element.

The xsl:include element may also be used at the top level of the included stylesheet, and so on recursively.

("Textual inclusion" here is a simplification: attributes and namespaces declared on the xsl:stylesheet element of the including module do not affect anything in the included module.)

Links to W3C specifications

XSLT 3.0 Specification

XSLT 4.0 Specification