XML viewer for Chrome, with an XSLT tester built in

The XML viewer

When you open an XML document that doesn't name a stylesheet, such as an API response, a SOAP message, a configuration file or an unstyled feed, XSLT Prism replaces Chrome's plain listing with a viewer built for reading and inspecting. The tools sit in a floating dock at the bottom of the page, so the document keeps the full height of the window.

A tree you can fold

Elements open and close with a click or the arrow keys. Fold to level opens the document to depth 1, 2 or 3, or all the way, which is the quickest way to get the shape of an unfamiliar file. Namespace prefixes are dimmed so the local names stand out.

Find and XPath

One query field has two modes. Find searches text, and you step through the matches with Enter and Shift+Enter. XPath runs an XPath 1.0 expression and highlights every node it selects, which makes the viewer a handy XPath tester on real data. If the document has a default namespace, as sitemaps and feeds usually do, the viewer gives it a prefix (usually d:) and shows it in the field, so //d:url/d:loc just works.

Breadcrumb, copy XPath and stats

Select a node and the breadcrumb shows its path from the root. One button copies that node's XPath, ready to paste into code or a stylesheet. Next to it, document stats count elements and attributes and report the depth and size.

Raw view

Switch from the tree to the raw view to see the source text, line-numbered and colour-coded, with optional line wrap. From there you can copy the whole document or download it as a file.

Built for large files

The tree renders an element's children only when you open it, in batches, and the raw view only lays out the lines near the screen. Multi-megabyte exports stay responsive instead of freezing the tab.

Keyboard shortcuts

If you were looking for an XML formatter for Chrome, the tree view is it: however minified the file, it shows every element indented and colour-coded. The viewer follows your light or dark theme, works on XML files from your computer once file access is allowed, and works today, before Chrome's XSLT removal.

Prism Workbench: an XSLT editor and tester

Prism Workbench is a full-tab XSLT editor and tester. Open it with Alt+Shift+S, from the toolbar button's right-click menu, or from the popup on any page.

• Tabbed editors for input.xml and transform.xsl, with a side-by-side split when you want both in view.
• Parameters: give values to the stylesheet's xsl:param declarations without editing it.
• Run with Ctrl+Enter, or turn on auto-run. The output pane has four tabs: Preview, Source, Messages (everything xsl:message printed) and Timing.
• XPath tester: evaluate an expression against the input and see each matching node with its path and line.
• Command palette (Ctrl+K) for samples, run, format, open a page and theme.
• Open a live page: paste the address of an XML document and the Workbench loads it with its stylesheet, so you can see why a page renders the way it does. Addresses you type are fetched without cookies.

Five samples cover the common jobs: a podcast feed (RSS), a website sitemap, an e-invoice (UBL), a catalogue with parameters, and readings exported to CSV text. Each is a working pair of XML and XSLT you can change and run.

The preview is sandboxed: scripts, forms and network requests are switched off, so a stylesheet under test can't do anything beyond drawing its output.

What it is not

Both tools use libxslt, so they handle XSLT 1.0 with EXSLT, the level browsers always supported, and XPath 1.0. Stylesheets written for XSLT 2.0 or 3.0 need a server-side processor. Neither tool needs an account or sends documents anywhere.

The viewer and the Workbench come with XSLT Prism, which is mainly an XSLT polyfill for Chrome: it keeps styled XML rendering after Chrome's XSLT removal and can bring back the API for apps that fail with "XSLTProcessor is not defined".