Translets — Super-fast XSL transformations

XSL transformations are used in many settings to turn XML data
 into presentation data (HTML, XHTML, WML, and so on) or into XML in a different format. If 
 presentation data is generated on the fly, for example with every
 response from an application server, the time needed for the XSL transformation adds up. As a result,
 a long-running transformation can overload the application server or cause unreasonably long
 response times.

To speed up transformations, Sun Microsystems 
 originally developed Translets, a technology that lets you compile XSL templates into Java 
 objects called translets and then use them for XSL transformations. Sun Microsystems passed
 the technology on to the Apache XML Project, specifically to its XSLT 
 processor Xalan.

The XSL transformation benchmarks I ran myself came out strongly in favor of translets.
 The speedup was in the range of 30–70%. For example, a transformation done the conventional way 
 took around one second, and with translets it was down to 0.3 seconds in every case.

If translets interest you or you’d like to try them right away, you can
 start with Raghu Donepudi’s article 
 Supercharge Your Java Web Applications with Translets (via java.net).
 If you’re interested in XSL and its uses, I recommend Pavel Sýkora’s series about the Cocoon XML application server.

Related articles

• (IBM XML developers) Sun gives translets technology to Apache XML Project
• (5.11.2003 Dagblog) Cocoon for web applications