Razor vs. XSLT
See XCST for a middle ground between XSLT and Razor.
Razor and XSLT are both excellent tools. The following table compares their strengths and weaknesses, you decide which capabilities are most important for your particular scenario. Feedback is welcome, and I intend to update this table as both languages evolve.
| Capability | Razor | XSLT |
|---|---|---|
| Process XML (or normalized HTML) | Requires external component like DOM or LINQ to XML, or conversion to objects | XPath |
| Process objects | C# or VB | Requires conversion to in-memory representation (e.g. DOM), data only, no functions |
| Modularity | File-based. In App_Code, directories map to namespaces, files to classes and helpers to methods. | URI-based (XmlResolver extensibility), stylesheets, templates (modes), namespaces (QNames) |
| Inheritance | Layouts, start pages (_PageStart, _ViewStart) | xsl:import |
| Template overriding | Abstract sections | Template precedence, xsl:next-match in v2, xsl:apply-imports in v1 |
| Dynamic invoke | RenderPage/RenderPartial |
Must import module (some processors have extensions) |
| Processing styles | Pull. ASP.NET MVC has some push support with Html.EditorFor and Html.DisplayFor. |
Push and pull |
| Post-process output (multi-step, chaining) | Not supported | v2 or exsl:node-set in v1 |
| Type system | .NET, static and dynamic | v1 has 5 data types: String, number, boolean, node-set and result tree fragment. |
| v2 has sequences and 20+ atomic types. Complex types and PSVI requires schema-awareness (XML Schema). | ||
| Function library | Everything .NET | Limited but extensible |
| Delegated templates | e.g. Func<dynamic, object> b = @<strong>@item</strong>; |
Template reference technique |
| Serialization | HTML (default encoding). RazorEngine library provides encoding extensibility. | XML, HTML, XHTML and text. Indentation and whitespace control. XmlWriter extensibility. |
| Framework integration | ASP.NET MVC: Display and editor templates, data annotations attribute-based validation, URL generation. | Not available |
| Portability | .NET and Mono | Available in many frameworks, languages, operating systems and browsers |
XSLT tools for .NET/Visual Studio
- XSLT 2.0 Schema (for intellisense)
- XSLT View Engine (XslCompiledTransform)
- Saxon XSLT and XQuery View Engines
- SgmlReader