Saxon SQL Extension
The saxon9-sql.jar
file, distributed alongside the main JAR file, includes a set
of XSLT extension instructions providing access to SQL databases. The JAR must be added to the
classpath when these extensions are used. These are not intended as being necessarily a
production-quality piece of software (there are many limitations in the design), but more as
an illustration of how extension instructions can be used to enhance the capability of the
processor.
A Warning about Side-Effects
XSLT does not guarantee the order of execution of instructions. In principle, the sql:close instruction could be evaluated before the sql:query instruction, which would obviously be disastrous.
In practice, Saxon's order of execution for XSLT instructions is reasonably predictable unless
you use variables, or unless you invoke stylesheet functions from within an XPath expression.
Using the SQL extension instructions within templates that are directly invoked is thus fairly
safe, but it is not a good idea to invoke them as a side-effect of computing a variable or
invoking a function. The exceptions are sql:connect
and sql:query
:
if you use these instructions to evaluate the content of a variable, then they will of course
be executed before any instruction that uses the value of the variable.
A Warning about Security (SQL injection)
The instructions in the SQL extension make no attempt to verify that the SQL being executed is correct and benign. No checks are made against injection attacks; indeed the sql:execute instruction explicitly allows any SQL statement to be executed.
Therefore, the extension should be enabled only if (a) the stylesheet itself is trusted, and (b) any text inserted into the stylesheet to construct dynamic SQL statements is also trusted.