If you have a tag where by you pass the path as an attribute. What is the correct way to go about referencing the resource? stylesheetURL contains a path relative to the applications root context. Is that any more efficient than using a URL object to reference it via a HTTP request? Presumably the form totally avoids a roundtrip. try { XSLTProcessor processor = XSLTProcessorFactory.getProcessor(); XSLTInputSource xmlSource = new XSLTInputSource(new StringReader(xmlin)); //URL ssURL = new URL(stylesheetURL); //styleSheetInputStream = ssURL.openStream(); styleSheetInputStream = pageContext.getServletContext().getResourceAsStream(stylesheetURL); XSLTInputSource xslStylesheet = new XSLTInputSource(styleSheetInputStream); StringWriter transformationWriter = new StringWriter(); XSLTResultTarget xmlOutput = new XSLTResultTarget(transformationWriter); processor.process(xmlSource, xslStylesheet, xmlOutput); return transformationWriter.toString(); } =========================================================================== To unsubscribe: mailto [EMAIL PROTECTED] with body: "signoff JSP-INTEREST". For digest: mailto [EMAIL PROTECTED] with body: "set JSP-INTEREST DIGEST". Some relevant FAQs on JSP/Servlets can be found at: http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/faq.html http://www.esperanto.org.nz/jsp/jspfaq.html http://www.jguru.com/jguru/faq/faqpage.jsp?name=JSP http://www.jguru.com/jguru/faq/faqpage.jsp?name=Servlets