>Archive Index
>xsl-list Archive Home
>Recent entries

>Thread Prev -
>Thread Next - RE: [xsl] Copy element content to another nested empty element
[xsl] Copy element content to another nested empty element

From: TeleServices <teleservices@--------->
To:
Date: 5/1/2008 2:38:00 PM
I am just getting started with XML/XSLT and I struggle sometimes with
the non-procedural thinking required (I am used to plain old "C"
programming).

What I am trying to do is take the content of a selected element (node
from "lists) and copy it into another nested empty "phrase" element.
The empty element references the "list" element using "name" and
"list" attributes.  Here is a tiny example of the source:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<report>
<lists>
  <list name="phrase-list1">
    <option id="value1">a simple phrase</option>
    <option id="value2">also a simple phrase</option>
    <option id="value3">could be a simple phrase</option>
    <option id="value4">another simple phrase</option>
  </list>
  <list name="phrase-list2">
    <option id="value1">a compound phrase element with what '<phrase
name="value3" list="phrase-list1"/>' (single quotes) inside</option>
    <option id="value2">the compound phrase element containing
'<phrase name="value4" list="phrase-list1"/>' (single quotes)</option>
    <option id="value3">multi-compound phrases with '<phrase
name="value1" list="phrase-list1"/>' and '<phrase name="value4"
list="phrase-list1"/>' or more</option>
    <option id="value4">a compound compound phrase element with
"<phrase name="value2" list="phrase-list2"/>" (double quotes)</option>
  </list>
</lists>

<h4>Simple Phrases</h4>
The first phrase element is <phrase name="value1"
list="phrase-list1"/>.  And the second phrase element is <phrase
name="value2" list="phrase-list1"/>, and the third phrase element
<phrase name="value3" list="phrase-list1"/> as well.
<h4>Compound Phrases</h4>
Things get tricky though when instead of <phrase name="value1"
list="phrase-list1"/>, we have <phrase name="value1"
list="phrase-list2"/> of it.  We could have <phrase name="value3"
list="phrase-list2"/> inside of it.  We could even have <phrase
name="value4" list="phrase-list2"/> in a nested fashion.
</report>

The XSLT I am using works for "top level" (non-nested) elements but I
just cannot seem to grasp how to get this to work with the nested
elements.  I have a vague notion that I should be dealing with node
sets here, but this is at the edge of my current understanding.  Here
is the simple (non-working) XSLT:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">

<xsl:output method="xml" encoding="utf-8" indent="yes"/>
<xsl:strip-space elements="report"/>

<xsl:template match="/report">
  <html>
  <head>
    <title>Phrase Insertion</title>
    <style>
      .phrase {background:yellow;}
      .phrase .phrase {background:cyan;}
      .phrase .phrase .phrase {background:magenta;}
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </body>
  </html>
</xsl:template>

 <!-- insert phrases -->
<xsl:template match="phrase">
  <xsl:variable name="phrase" select="@name"/>
  <xsl:variable name="list" select="@list"/>
  <span class="phrase"><xsl:value-of
select="//lists/list[@name=$list]/option[@id=$phrase]"/></span>
</xsl:template>

<!-- pass other elements -->
<xsl:template match="*">
  <xsl:copy>
    <xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
    <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>

<!-- do not directly process lists -->
<xsl:template match="lists"/>
</xsl:stylesheet>

The match="phrase" template is the culprit.  I have tried
apply-templates in a few different ways, but I cannot seem to get at
the nested "phrases".

Here is the current (non-working) output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<html>
<head>
<title>Phrase Insertion</title>
<style>
      .phrase {background:yellow;}
      .phrase .phrase {background:cyan;}
      .phrase .phrase .phrase {background:magenta;}
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<h4>Simple Phrases</h4>
The first phrase element is <span class="phrase">a simple
phrase</span>.  And the second phrase element is <span
class="phrase">also a simple phrase</span>, and the third phrase
element <span class="phrase">could be a simple phrase</span> as well.
<h4>Compound Phrases</h4>
Things get tricky though when instead of <span class="phrase">a simple
phrase</span>, we have <span class="phrase">a compound phrase element
with what '' (single quotes) inside</span> of it.  We could have <span
class="phrase">multi-compound phrases with '' and '' or more</span>
inside of it.  We could even have <span class="phrase">a compound
compound phrase element with "" (double quotes)</span> in a nested
fashion.
</body>
</html>

NOTE: I have added a little CSS formatting to make it easy to see the
copied content.  Here is what I would like to produce:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<html>
<head>
  <title>Phrase Insertion</title>
  <style>
    .phrase {background:yellow;}
    .phrase .phrase {background:cyan;}
    .phrase .phrase .phrase {background:magenta;}
  </style>
</head>
<body>
<h4>Simple Phrases</h4>
The first phrase element is <span class="phrase">a simple
phrase</span>.  And the second phrase element is <span
class="phrase">also a simple phrase</span>, and the third phrase
element <span class="phrase">could be a simple phrase</span> as well.
<h4>Compound Phrases</h4>
Things get tricky though when instead of <span class="phrase">a simple
phrase</span>, we have <span class="phrase">a compound phrase element
with what '<span class="phrase">could be a simple phrase</span>'
(single quotes) inside</span> of it.  We could have <span
class="phrase">multi-compound phrases with '<span class="phrase">a
simple phrase</span>' and '<span class="phrase">another simple
phrase</span>' or more</span> inside of it.  We could even have <span
class="phrase">a compound compound phrase element with "<span
class="phrase">the compound phrase element containing '<span
class="phrase">another simple phrase</span>' (single quotes)</span>"
(double quotes)</span> in a nested fashion.
</body>
</html>

If you copy and paste the two htm sections into files and view with a
browser it is very clear what I am getting versus what I am trying to
produce.

As I said I am thinking that I need to process this using nodesets,
but at this point "my reach exceeds my grasp", so if anyone can help
me understand the "trick" to dealing with the nested elements I would
appreciate it greatly.  I have searched this mailing list and the web
in general but I cannot not seem to find anything to help me in this
matter.

Thanks in advance for any help...


-Kiel
>Thread Prev -
>Thread Next - RE: [xsl] Copy element content to another nested empty element

>Archive Index
>xsl-list Archive Home
>Recent entries
Altova Mailing List Archives

[xsl] Copy element content to another nested empty element
