v143 · dom

Deprecate and remove XSLT

[XSLT v1.0](https://www.w3.org/TR/xslt-10/), which all browsers adhere to, was standardized in 1999. In the meantime, XSLT has evolved to v2.0 and v3.0, adding features, and growing apart from the old version frozen into browsers. This lack of advancement, coupled with the rise of JavaScript libraries and frameworks that offer more flexible and powerful DOM

concepts

  1. XSLT Removal

    Probes whether XSLTProcessor still exists and still runs in this browser, then shows a working DOMParser+template literal replacement that re-renders editable XML to HTML.

  2. RSS without XSLT

    The biggest real-world casualty: feed pretty-printing. Fetches live RSS / Atom and renders it purely with DOMParser + template strings — the replacement for <?xml-stylesheet?>.

  3. XSLT polyfill explorer

    The same XML rendered three ways: native XSLT (probed for support), an XPath-based JS transform, and a DOM walk. Pick a sample (product catalog, RSS, Atom) and see all three produce the same HTML.

  4. OPML importer

    Drop an OPML subscriptions file. Page parses it with DOMParser, surfaces duplicates and missing fields, renders the outline tree, then exports JSON or cleaned-up OPML — no DSL, no XSLT.

why it shipped

Security risks for all users outweigh the very small usage of this feature on the open web.

references