<xsl:message>  
Sends a message. How the message is sent can vary from one XSLT processor to the next, but it's typically written to the standard output device. This element is useful for debugging stylesheets.
 
Category

Instruction
 
Required Attributes

None.
 
Optional Attributes
terminate= " yes " | " no "
If this attribute has the value yes , the XSLT processor stops execution after issuing this message. The default value for this attribute is no ; if the < xsl:message > doesn't terminate the processor, the message is sent and processing continues.

 
Content

An XSLT template.
 
Appears in

<xsl:message> appears inside a template.

 
Defined in

XSLT section 13, Messages.
 
Example

Here's a stylesheet that uses the <xsl:message> element to trace the transformation of an XML document. We'll use our list of recently purchased albums again:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<list xml:lang="en">
  <title>Albums I've bought recently:</title>
  <listitem>The Sacred Art of Dub</listitem>
  <listitem>Only the Poor Man Feel It</listitem>
  <listitem>Excitable Boy</listitem>
  <listitem xml:lang="sw">Aki Special</listitem>
  <listitem xml:lang="en-gb">Combat Rock</listitem>
  <listitem xml:lang="zu">Talking Timbuktu</listitem>
  <listitem xml:lang="jz">The Birth of the Cool</listitem>
</list>

We'll list all of the purchased albums in an HTML table, with the background color of each row alternating through various colors. Our stylesheet uses an <xsl:choose> element inside an <xsl:attribute> element to determine the value of the bgcolor attribute. If a given <listitem> is converted to an HTML <tr> with a background color of lavender, we'll issue a celebratory message:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

  <xsl:output method="html"/>

  <xsl:template match="/">
    <html>
      <head>
        <title>
          <xsl:value-of select="list/title"/>
        </title>
      </head>
      <body>
        <h1><xsl:value-of select="list/title"/></h1>
        <table border="1">
          <xsl:for-each select="list/listitem">
            <tr>
              <td>
                <xsl:attribute name="bgcolor">
                  <xsl:choose>
                    <xsl:when test="position() mod 4 = 0">
                      <xsl:text>papayawhip</xsl:text>
                    </xsl:when>
                    <xsl:when test="position() mod 4 = 1">
                      <xsl:text>mintcream</xsl:text>
                    </xsl:when>
                    <xsl:when test="position() mod 4 = 2">
                      <xsl:text>lavender</xsl:text>
                      <xsl:message terminate="no">
                        <xsl:text>Table row #</xsl:text>
                        <xsl:value-of select="position()"/>
                        <xsl:text> is lavender!</xsl:text>
                      </xsl:message>
                    </xsl:when>
                    <xsl:otherwise>
                      <xsl:text>whitesmoke</xsl:text>
                    </xsl:otherwise>
                  </xsl:choose>
                </xsl:attribute>
                <xsl:value-of select="."/>
              </td>
            </tr>
          </xsl:for-each>
        </table>
      </body>
    </html>
  </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

Note that the XSLT specification doesn't define how the message is issued. When we use this stylesheet with Xalan 2.0.1, we get these results:

file:///D:/O'Reilly/XSLT/bookSamples/AppendixA/message.xsl; Line 32; Column 51;
Table row #2 is lavender!
file:///D:/O'Reilly/XSLT/bookSamples/AppendixA/message.xsl; Line 32; Column 51;
Table row #6 is lavender!

Xalan gives us feedback on the part of the stylesheet that generated each message. Saxon, on the other hand, keeps things short and sweet:

Table row #2 is lavender!
Table row #6 is lavender!

For variety's sake, here's how XT processes the <xsl:message> element:

file:/D:/O'Reilly/XSLT/bookSamples/AppendixA/test4.xml:5: Table row #2 is lavender!
file:/D:/O'Reilly/XSLT/bookSamples/AppendixA/test4.xml:9: Table row #6 is lavender!

XT gives information about the line in the XML source document that generated the message.