Abie,
As we often have to point out on this list, XSL engines do not work on a
file or a sequence of characters, but rather on a data object (an "XPath
tree") that represents the XML document tolerably well for many purposes,
and extremely well for the purposes for which it was designed.
Accordingly, an XSLT "identity transform" does not and cannot work to
create a character-by-character mirror of an input file ... it's the result
tree that's identical to the source (tree). For better or worse, the
difference between (say) "& lt;" (pls remove fooler-space) and
"<![CDATA[<]]>" is not represented in the model, so these cannot be
distinguished by the processor or represented differently in the output.
Whether it's a "true" identity transform is a matter for metaphysical
debate. :-> But if you need character-for-character fidelity, XSLT isn't
the tool for the job.
Cheers,
Wendell
At 03:58 PM 6/26/2003, you wrote:
I saw an identity transform on msdn online that goes like this:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"; >
<xsl:template match="/ | @* | node()">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()"/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
however this is not a true identity transform since CDATA sections
enclosed in the original xml document in <![CDATA[ ]]> is output as
regular characters. I don't know if there are other elements besides
CDATA elements that also don't get translated truthfully.
can someone suggest a new identity template that will render the output
based on the input exactly as if one were to issue a 'copy' command at a
dos prompt, or at least get closer to it than the template above?
eg:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<docroot>
<element id="a"/>
<![CDATA[ this is cdata ]]>
<element id="b"/>
</docroot>
should become:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<docroot>
<element id="a"/>
<![CDATA[ this is cdata ]]>
<element id="b"/>
</docroot>
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Wendell Piez
mailto:wapiez(_at_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com
Mulberry Technologies, Inc. http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street Direct Phone: 301/315-9635
Suite 207 Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD 20850 Fax: 301/315-8285
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