SAXONICA

Saxon Documentation
Full Contents
About Saxon
| Introduction
| Getting Started
| What is Saxon?
| Choosing a software package
| Installation: Java platform
» | Installation: .NET platform
| Historical Note
| Technical Support
| Related Products
Changes in this Release
Conditions of Use
Using XSLT 2.0
Using XQuery
Handling Source Documents
XML Schema Processing
XPath API for Java
Saxon on .NET
Extensibility
Saxon Extensions
Sample Saxon Applications
The Saxon SQL Extension
XSLT Elements
XPath 2.0 Expression Syntax
Function Library
Standards Conformance

# Installing the software

The software is issued in the form of a ZIP file: all you need to do is to create a suitable directory (perhaps `c:\saxon`) and unzip the supplied file.

The executable software will then be installed in the folder `c:\saxon\bin`. The main components are as follows:

File | Contents
saxon8.dll | Basic XSLT 2.0 and XQuery 1.0 processor.
saxon8sa.dll | Schema-aware XSLT 2.0 and XQuery 1.0 processor, and XML Schema processor. Provided in the Saxon-SA product only. This assembly contains the additional components needed to make Saxon schema-aware; it relies on `saxon8.dll` for the basic functionality.
saxon8api.dll | Provides classes implementing Saxon's .NET API
Transform.exe | Command line entry-point for XSLT transformation
Query.exe | Command line entry-point for XQuery evaluation
Validate.exe | Command line entry-point for XML Schema validation
IKVM.Runtime.dll | Run-time library for the IKVM cross-compiler
IKVM.GNU.Classpath.dll | GNU implementation of the Java class library

To develop your own applications, you will want to register the Saxon DLL assemblies in the Global Assembly Cache. To assist in this, a script is provided in the same directory, called `install-gac.cmd`.

It is useful to set the environment variable `SAXON_HOME` to the directory in which Saxon is installed (`c:\saxon` in our example). This is used (a) when locating the Saxon-SA license key (see Obtaining a license key) and (b) by some of the sample applications.

It is also useful to add the `/bin` subdirectory to the `PATH` environment variable. This enables you to use the commands `Transform`, `Query`, and `Validate` without identifying their location explicitly.

Unless you want to use different versions of Saxon in different applications, it is simplest to make these permament settings. Go to `Control Panel / System / Advanced / Environment Variables`. If Saxon is used by multiple users, add a system environment variable `SAXON_HOME`; if there is a single user, make it a user environment variable. At the same time, edit the value of the existing `PATH` variable. You may need to restart applications for the settings to take effect.

If you are new to the product, you will probably want to download the sample C# applications.

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