XML ON IE5

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 has an actual implementation of XML, which means IE5 can parse and display an XML file!. So IE5 is one step ahead of other browsers on XML support (Netscape 5 should be having XML support ).

So the XML documents referred in the XML Jumpstart page should be parsed and displyed by IE5. But there is a small glitch with the IE5 XML parser which requires two extra templates tobe defined in the XSL file. Other XML parsers - like the ones mentioned in the XML Jumpstart page - does not require these two extra template definitions. The other parsers gives an error message if these two templates are defined.

Anyway I have fixed the XSL file with the following two extra templates added at the start.

<xsl:template><xsl:apply-templates/><xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="text()|@*"><xsl:value-of/><xsl:template>

Here is the XML file for the Jumpstart page which refers this XSL file which is modified as above. Please note IE5 will parse and display the XML file as the resultant HTML with CSS. So if you want to see the XML code, please right click and save the file on to disk and open it in a text editor.

There is no changes on the XML file it is the same for IE5 as well as the other parsers. It's only the XSL file that needs the two extra templates.

You may also want to check out this page at XML.COM which reviews the IE5 XML implementation.