XSLT debugger for Windows

See what your XSLT is actually doing.

Breakpoints, variables, back-mapping, profiler. A real XSLT debugger that runs entirely on your machine.

Download for Windows

30 days. No account, no sign-up, no Java to install.

A breakpoint set, execution stopped, variables in view.

Why I wrote this tool

I once spent a night on a stylesheet that produced nothing. No error, no message: an empty output document. I ended up scattering xsl:message calls one by one until I found the template that was never called.

Any debugger would have answered that question in three minutes. There was none I could install on my own machine that same evening, without an account and without a network licence. So I wrote one.

— Thomas Peters

A real debugger, not trace messages

Set a breakpoint in the gutter, run the transformation: execution stops where you expected it to, and you see the actual state instead of guessing it.

  • A breakpoint on any template line you choose.
  • Step through execution without leaving the stylesheet.
  • Variables and parameters visible at the moment of the stop.
The debugger stopped on a breakpoint, the variables panel open.
The debugger stopped on a breakpoint, the variables panel open.

Back-mapping

Select a node in the output document: the template line that produced it is highlighted in the stylesheet.

That is the question you actually ask in front of wrong output — what wrote this? — and it is the feature that sets the tool apart.

The output document in the foreground: the three prices produced by a single template line, highlighted together.
The output document in the foreground: the three prices produced by a single template line, highlighted together.

The profiler

Time spent per template, as a table. On a slow transformation, nearly all of the time sits in two or three templates.

You will know which ones before you start rewriting.

The per-template timing table, sorted by duration.
The per-template timing table, sorted by duration.

XSpec

Run an XSpec suite from the tool and read the results without switching windows.

Stylesheet tests mostly tell you what you have just broken. They still have to be easy enough to run that you run them.

The XSpec report: one green scenario, one red with expected and actual side by side, one pending.
The XSpec report: one green scenario, one red with expected and actual side by side, one pending.

What it does not do

Better said here than after you install it.

Available
Linux and Windows are both published.
Not planned
macOS is not planned.
Lead time
The licence key is not delivered the second you pay: it is issued by hand. The 30-day trial, on the other hand, starts with no waiting at all.
Scope
One tool that does one thing: debug, profile and test XSLT transformations. It is not an XML suite.

Pricing

€99.99

Perpetual licence · one-time purchase · 12 months of updates included

Price including all taxes, Belgian VAT included. This is the amount you pay: nothing is added at checkout.

Try it on your own stylesheet

That is the only evaluation that counts. Thirty days, no account to create and nothing to configure.

Download for Windows

30 days. No account, no sign-up, no Java to install.