First, please don't reply to an existing post when starting a new thread.
Even if you change the title (which you didn't) it makes following the
thread more difficult.
 
I think we've all been in this position of being told to use a particular
technology for a development, and not being told why. Sometimes the reasons
are good reasons, sometimes they are bad ones. It's impossible to assess
whether it's a good reason in your particular case without knowing a lot
more about the project requirements and environment. It might even be true
that the choice is suboptimal when you take the narrow perspective of one
particular development, but makes sense when viewed from a broader or
longer-term perspective.
 
I think the primary Purpose of XML (nice capitalization) in data
applications (as distinct from documents) is to achieve loose coupling of
systems. Generally, systems that exchange data using XML are less tightly
coupled than systems that communicate using other technologies. Loose
coupling here means greater flexibility to change either of the systems
without impacting the other, or to add new systems into the mix without
impacting either.
 
To take an example of extreme tight coupling, I once came across a system
where two companies exchanged data in the form of a binary image of a SQL
Server database. Consequence: neither company could upgrade to a new SQL
server version until the other company did the same (in fact, I think it
couldn't even change the hardware platform). SQL access from one system to
another is not as tightly coupled as that, but it is still constraining: it
will make it difficult to change the data provider to use a different
(non-SQL) technology, and it will be difficult to exploit the extracted data
to serve the needs of a third application. In addition, because SQL data is
tabular rather than hierarchical, it can be very difficult to introduce data
structure changes such as allowing products to have multiple prices in
different currencies without major impact.
 
Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/


  _____  

From: Alan CANNON [mailto:acannon@p...] 
Sent: 02 February 2009 21:11
To: xml-dev@l...
Subject: Re: [xml-dev] XSTL stylesheet workarounds for exceptions



im new  XML and After reading all the various posts im Extremely Confused.
My Company is requesting that i export Data from the DB into xml for Data
transfer services. I see alot of Different methods,Elements,Members ect...
and Sub queries on Data contained within XML schema. Im in need of exporting
data from MsSQL for Plant Production Declarations to our SAP systems. It
looks like XML is a whole lot of work Versus just straight Transactions to
the source. What is the real Purpose of XML? 
Thanks for your Help 
Alan Cannon
Process / Automation SCADA Engineer
Plastic Omnium
50 tyger river rd
Duncan, S.C 29344
864 622-3221 (OFFICE)
864 245-6807 (CELL)
Email: acannon@p...
Please consider your environmental responsibility before printing this
e-mail 



Jack Bush <netbeansfan@y...> 


02/02/2009 04:03 PM 


To
xml-dev@l... 

cc

Subject
[xml-dev] XSTL stylesheet workarounds for exceptions

	




Hi All, 


I am at a stage of fine-tuning an existing stylesheet that has been worked
on recently and would like include some workarounds to accommodate
exceptional data in the following 2 areas: 



( i ) Get the content of sub-elements <a> as follows: 


<p> 


  <strong>Hobbies:</strong> 


  <a shape="rect" href=http://www.hobbies.com/fishing title="Shark
Hunting">fishing</a> 


  <a shape="rect" href=http://www.hobbies.com/hunting
title="Animal">rabbit</a> 


(Out-door adventures) 


</p> 



Intended output 


<hobbies> fishing<hobbies> 


<hobbies> rabbit<hobbies> 



In this case, it is both fishing, rabbit that I am after. However, I still
couldn't get it working despite having tried numerous of the following
stylesheet approaches: 



<xsl:template match="/"> 


  <employee> 


    <xsl:apply-templates select="//ns:p"/> 


  </employee> 


</xsl:template> 



( A ) <xsl:template match="ns:p[ns:strong='Hobbies:']"> 


         <xsl:copy-of               


           <hobbies>select="ns:a"/></hobbies> 


       </xsl:template> 


               or 


( B ) <xsl:template match="ns:p[ns:strong='Hobbies:']"> 


         <xsl:for-each select="ns:a/text()[normalize-space() != '']"> 


           <hobbies><xsl:value-of select="normalize-space()"/></hobbies> 


         </xsl:for-each> 


       </xsl:template> 


               or 


( C ) <xsl:template match="ns:p[ns:strong='Hobbies:']"> 


         <xsl:for-each select=".//ns:a/text()[normalize-space() != '']"> 


           <hobbies><xsl:value-of select="normalize-space()"/></hobbies> 


         </xsl:for-each> 


       </xsl:template> 


              or 


( D ) <xsl:template match="ns:p[ns:strong='Hobbies:']"> 


         <xsl:for-each select="ns:p/ns:a/text()[normalize-space() != '']"> 


           <hobbies><xsl:value-of select="normalize-space()"/></hobbies> 


         </xsl:for-each> 


       </xsl:template> 


               or 


( E ) <xsl:template match="ns:p[ns:strong='Hobbies:']"> 


         <xsl:for-each select="../ns:a//text()[normalize-space() != '']"> 


           <hobbies><xsl:value-of select="normalize-space()"/></hobbies> 


         </xsl:for-each> 


       </xsl:template> 


               or 


( F ) <xsl:template match="ns:p[ns:strong='Hobbies:']"> 


         <xsl:for-each select="ns:a"> 


          <xsl:for-each select="text()[normalize-space() != '']">" 


            <hobbies><xsl:value-of select="normalize-space()"/></hobbies> 


          </xsl:for-each> 


        </xsl:for-each> 


     </xsl:template> 


               or 


( G ) <xsl:template match="ns:p[ns:strong='Hobbies:']"> 


          <xsl:for-each select=".//ns:a"> 


            <xsl:for-each select="text()[normalize-space() != '']">" 


              <hobbies><xsl:value-of select="normalize-space()"/></hobbies> 


            </xsl:for-each> 


          </xsl:for-each> 


        </xsl:template> 



( ii ) I also like to add a default generic value for any missing element.
Say if there are no 


<p><strong>Hobbies:</strong></p> element in such document, yet I still would
like to generate a 


null element such as <hobbies>Unknown</hobbies>. The intended stylesheet
should look 


like the following but again couldn't get it working still: 



<xsl:template match="/"> 


  <employee> 


    <xsl:apply-templates select="//ns:p"/> 


  </employee> 


</xsl:template> 



<xsl: choose> 


  <xsl: when test="ns:p[ns:strong='Hobbies:']"> 


    <xsl:template match="ns:p[ns:strong='Hobbies:']"> 


      <xsl:for-each select="text()[normalize-space() != '']"> 


        <hobbies><xsl:value-of select="normalize-space()"/></hobbies> 


      </xsl:for-each> 


    </xsl:template> 


  </xsl:when> 


<xsl:otherwise> 


  <hobbies>Unknown</hobbies> 


</xsl:otherwise> 


</xsl: choose> 



I have run out of ideas and would be very much appreciated if anyone could
give me some suggestion on how to tackle this task. 


Jack 









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