Hi Kyle,
At 12:11 PM 8/13/2003, you wrote:
I'd like this stylesheet to copy all existing credential nodes and create
a new
node assigning a unique id
It's a reasonable requirement.
with generate-id().
Why? as opposed to by some other means?
It appears as if the generate-id
call doesn't observe existing id's in the current/copied credential
nodes. So I
end up with duplicate (illegal) id's. I've tried passing several context
nodes
to the generate-id() function, but with no luck.
Sample XSL:
<xsl:template match="/profile">
<profile>
<xsl:for-each select="credential">
<xsl:copy-of select="."/>
</xsl:for-each>
<credential>
<xsl:attribute name="id">
<xsl:value-of
select="generate-id()"/>
</xsl:attribute>
<username><xsl:value-of
select="$username"/></username>
<password><xsl:value-of
select="$password"/></password>
<description><xsl:value-of
select="$description"/></description>
<lastModified><xsl:value-of
select="java:getCurrentDateTimeGMT($dateHelper)"/></lastModified>
</credential>
</profile>
</xsl:template>
My current workaround is to transform twice. The first transformation appends
the new credential node. The second transformation assigns an id (using
generate-id()) to any credential nodes without an id (probably only newly
created). Seems like I should be able to do it all in one transform.
The root of your problem is in thinking that generate-id() assigns (unique)
IDs to new nodes, when it doesn't; it merely assigns (or retrieves) an ID
for a node in the source. The generated value has nothing to do with any
value in the source, even if on an attribute called "id". It needs only to
be unique to the node provided as argument to the function, or to the
context node (in your case, "/profile") if none is given.
Given the code you have provided, in which you create only one <credential>
and assign it an ID unique to the <profile> you have matched, there is a
good chance that the observed duplication is actually faithful to the
input, in which IDs are not unique (check to verify whether this is not the
case). To guarantee uniqueness, reassign an ID to every credential. Since
you are also creating new credentials, a second pass (your current
workaround) is an appropriate place to do this. If you have a requirement
to preserve IDs where they exist, this is a more complex problem and
generate-id() is probably not part of the solution at all.
Cheers,
Wendell
======================================================================
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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