Re: external xml includes

this isn't stricly a xslt question but bear with me. In working on a xslt based solution I realized it would be optimal if I could create xml files that referenced external xmlfiles which are included when doing a transformation.

Do you mean "included ONLY when doing a specific transformation" or
"included any time the document is processed in any way"?

I could build my own parser that searched for a specific tag
before transformation and imported the external references but I'm wondering if there's a better way...

Maybe use standard external entities? They can be invoked by
constructing a local DTD subset relevant for the specific
transformation you are doing. They have the advantage that
they use existing features, so no extra code is needed, and
they will work in any environment.