Making saxon-c available in Python

Making Paths permanent

1. [Terminal] Start editing the bash profile: nano ~/.bash_profile
2. [Nano] Paste the code from "Set PYTHONPATH variable" above
3. [Nano] Save the changes: CTRL+X, Y, ENTER
4. [Terminal] Start editing the bash profile: nano ~/.bash_profile
5. [Nano] Paste the code from "Set PYTHONPATH variable" above, but it should look like this instead: export PYTHONPATH="${PYTHONPATH}:/my/other/path". Note the $ sign and curly braces.
6. [Nano] Save the changes: CTRL+X, Y, ENTER
7. [Terminal] Run source: source ~/.bashrc
8. [Desktop] Open a new Terminal
9. [Terminal] Test it: echo $PYTHONPATH

Getting all this going in Visual Studio Code

1. [VS Code] [Terminal] The PYTHONPATH variable should be populated in here: echo $PYTHONPATH
2. [VS Code] [Terminal] Hello World should work in here: python saxon-test.py
3. [VS Code] [Extensions] Install Python
4. [VS Code] [Extensions] Install Pylance
5. [VS Code] [Extensions] Install XSL Transform. It allows you to do transformations with CTRL+SHIFT+P
6. [VS Code] [Extensions] Install XSLT/XPath for Visual Studio Code
7. [VS Code] Copy saxon-test.py into a VS Code project
8. [VS Code] Rename it to xslt.py
9. [VS Code] [xslt.py] Replace the contents to what is listed below
10. [VS Code] You may notice saxonc has a red line, with the mouse hover message: Import "saxonc" could not be resolved Pylance (reportMissingImports)
11. If you try to call the function, you may get the runtime error: ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'saxonc'
12. [VS Code] [Run and Debug Sidebar] Add launch.json.
13. [VS Code] [launch.json] Add configurations for a Python file, Django, and / or whatever you need.
14. [VS Code] [launch.json] Add the env variable to all of your configurations(s): "env": {"PYTHONPATH":${workspaceFolder}${pathSeparator}${env:PYTHONPATH}"}
15. [Desktop] Restart VS Code.
16. [VS Code] [xslt.py] import saxonc should now be working with no error.

xslt.py

import os
import saxonc

from typing import Dict

class Xslt():

  @classmethod
  def transform(cls, xsl_file: str, xml_file: str, output_file: str, parameters: Dict[str,str]) -> bool:
    try:
      out = cls.transform_to_string(xsl_file, xml_file, parameters)
      with open(output_file, "w") as f:
        f.write(out)
      return True
    except Exception as e:
      print(str(e))
      return False

  @classmethod
  def transform_to_string(cls, xsl_file: str, xml_file: str, parameters: Dict[str,str]) -> str:
    with saxonc.PySaxonProcessor(license=True) as saxonproc:
      xsltproc = saxonproc.new_xslt30_processor()
      for parameter in parameters:
        xsltproc.set_parameter(parameter, saxonproc.make_string_value(parameters[parameter]))
      saxonproc.set_cwd(os.getcwd())
      return xsltproc.transform_to_string(source_file=xml_file, stylesheet_file=xsl_file)

  
  def parse_xml(self, xml_file):
    with saxonc.PySaxonProcessor(license=True) as saxonproc:
      return saxonproc.parse_xml(xml_file_name=xml_file)

* This will probably work on any Ubuntu system.

** I had to cobble these together from multiple locations. Some of the instructions are here. I point this out because I was unable to find this "Getting started" from the home page, the download page, or any other pages quoted. I stumbled upon it in another S/O question. To do all these instructions took hours.