Debugging XSL Transformations in VisualStudio 2005

I've been doing a bit of work lately with XSL transforms. While searching for a good transform debugging tool, I found that I had a decent one already installed - VisualStudio. To demonstrate, I pulled sample xml and xslt from the W3Schools site. (Click on each image to see a larger version.)


With the xsl template loaded in VS, right-click anywhere on the xslt and choose Properties. In the Properties window, set the Input value to point to the sample xml file (cdcatalog.xml in this case.)


At this point you can run the transform to view the output. Choose "XML" > "Debug XSLT" from the menu.


Nothing terribly interesting so far. The real fun doesn't start until you realize you can set breakpoints within the xslt. This is done the same as with other types of code files (by clicking the grey strip on the left or pressing F9.) Now, when you start the debugger, processing stops at the specified line. As expected, hovering the mouse over a variable or expression gives you a tooltip with the value.


Several of the other debug windows are also usable in this mode, such as the Locals and Immediate window.