Construct xlink
File: Data.xml <recipe xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <author xlink:href="http:/www.jcookie.com" xlink:type="simple"> name </author> <ingredients> <ingredient xlink:href="http:/www.java2s.com" xlink:type="simple"> flour </ingredient> <ingredient xlink:href="http:/www.java2s.com" xlink:type="simple"> sugar </ingredient> </ingredients> <steps /> </recipe> File: Transform.xslt <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" exclude-result-prefixes="xlink" version="1.0"> <xsl:output method="html" /> <xsl:template match="*[@xlink:type = 'simple' and @xlink:href]"> <a href="{@xlink:href}"> <xsl:apply-templates /> </a> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="recipe"> <html> <body> <xsl:apply-templates /> </body> </html> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet> Output: <html> <body> <a href="http:/www.jcookie.com"> name </a> <a href="http:/www.java2s.com"> flour </a> <a href="http:/www.java2s.com"> sugar </a> </body> </html>