Xalan-Java

An XML file can be opened with a simple text editor like Notepad but the structure of the file is lost and, as such editing and converting them to a different format should be done with special utilities.
Xalan-Java does not have use for the average user as it addresses those that need a tool for converting XML (Extensible Markup Language) documents to HTML text as well as other XML document types.

Features at a glance

The tool can be configured to work with multiple XML parsers but if used with Xerces-Java the developer recommends synchronizing the build of Xalan-Java with it in order to prevent unwanted anomalies.
The list of features available for Xalan-Java includes support for DOM Level 3 serialization for an XML parser and it is capable of processing Stream, SAX or DOM input as well as output to these parsers.
More comfortable file-to-file conversions can be carried out from the command line and it is possible for the tool to function as a server that converts the XML data to HTML documents and distributes the results to the clients.
The functionality of the utility can be extended thanks to its support for extension elements and functions. The Xalan-Java package contains a hefty set of extensions and should there be any problem working with it the developer included plenty of documentation tht can be easily accessed.

Conclusion

Before starting to use the tool make sure that all requirements are met. At the moment the system needs to be equipped with at least Java 1.3 but as new builds are released this information may change.