Hi,
I'm wondering if what I'm doing will get me in to some trouble at some point.
Currently everything works, but I'm not sure if it is or isn't because I'm
getting lucky.
I have a stylesheet that produces a 'boilerplate' XHTML file which is then
modified outside the transformation process. Now, if the transformation is run
again, I want to preserve the added content of the existing XHTML by adding it
into the newly generated XHTML. I'm doing this using custom tags in the XHTML
and grabbing the added content via those tags and the document() function.
After looking at the spec, I'm not sure that how I've constructed the
stylesheet is 'right'.
I pass in the name of the XHTML file as a parameter at transform time, then
create a variable to hold the node-set created by the document() call. Here's
the relevant portions of the stylesheet:
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";
xmlns:ud="http://www.someurl.com/ESD/2002/UserData";>
<xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes" omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>
<xsl:param name="HTMLMergeFile"/>
<xsl:variable name="MergeXML" select="document($HTMLMergeFile)"/>
<!-- some other templates -->
<xsl:template match="members">
<dl>
<xsl:for-each select="info">
<xsl:variable name="Index" select="position()"/>
<dt><i><xsl:value-of select="."/></i></dt>
<dd>
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when
test="string-length(($MergeXML/html/body/descendant::ud:Description)[$Index])>0">
<xsl:copy-of
select="($MergeXML/html/body/descendant::ud:Description)[$Index]"/>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<ud:Description>TODO - Add Member Description here</ud:Description>
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</dd>
</xsl:for-each>
</dl>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
The XHTML would look something like this when output (w/o using the existing
XHTML):
<html xmlns:ud="http://www.someurl.com/ESD/2002/UserData";
<body>
<dl><dt><i>MemberInfo</i></dt>
<dd><ud:Description>TODO - Add Member Description here</ud:Description></dd>
</dl>
</body>
</html>
Now, if I use the existing XHTML, the text of the <ud:Description> element is
included in the re-generated 'boilerplate' XHTML of the stylesheet. I should
note, when this 'boilerplate' is modified, the TODO part would be changed, or
removed (giving me an 'empty' <ud:Description> element). This all works, but I
have a few questions:
1) Am I getting lucky with the document() function?
What I mean is: I don't pass in the name of an existing XHTML file if one
doesn't exist. My understanding of the document() function is that I get a
reference to the stylesheet if the 'string' argument is nothing. Is the test
"string-length(($MergeXML/html/body/descendant::ud:Description)[$Index])>0"
working because my stylesheet doesn't have an html/body/ud:Description node? I
don't really understand what's going on here only that it works and I may be
benefiting from some side-effect of my stylesheet construction.
2) Is the 'string-length' test for the existence of a modified
<ud:Description> the best way to do check for a modified <ud:Description>?
Thanks,
Mike
(I'm on the digest so just reply to the list)
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