Displaying XML Files in a Browser

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You can use Microsoft® Internet Explorer to view XML documents in the browser, just as you would view HTML pages. Unlike HTML, XML does not predefine display properties for specific elements. Therefore, XML requires a separate style sheet that specifies how the XML data should be displayed. This separation of XML content from its presentation allows the content to be easily repurposed.

To view an XML file in Internet Explorer, you can specify a style sheet the following ways.

  • Use the default style sheet, which presents the file as a collapsible tree.

  • Specify a specific style sheet at the top of the XML file, in an href attribute such as the following:

    <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="myfile.xsl" ?>

  • Specify any style sheet at the command prompt, for example:

    c:\bat\msxsl mydata.xml mytransform.xsl -o myoutput.html

See Also

Using the Default Style Sheet
Using an External Style Sheet