I have looked at a course catalogue a time or two in my life. Here's what I
think you want, please correct me if I am mistaken.
For each <course_group> element in "courses_codes.xml" you want to gather all
<course> elements in the "courses.xml" document with a <course_group> element
whose value matches the value of the <course_group>.
For example, if you had passed "ANTH" as the value of the "group" parameter to
your stylesheet, you want an output like this:
Anthropology and Archaeology
The Archaeology of the American Southwest ............................ 2
[Here would be other course titles taken from the <course> elements in
"courses.xml", all with "ANTH" as the value of the <course_group> element
sorted alphabetically on the <title> element.]
On page 2 (I'm assuming that the "2" at the end of the leader dots is a page
number), you want to have all sections of this course (sorted by title) listed
for the those <course> element with an "acad_year" attribute whose value
matches the value of the "year" parameter you passed to the stylesheet.
I fear that sending you to the explanation of Meunchian grouping may have been
a waste of your time. After re-reading your post, I recognize now that the
groupings are defined in the file "courses.xml" and that you don't have to
synthesize them from the "courses_codes.xml" file.
I don't have my XSL-FO reference books at hand so this sample stylesheet will
need work. Let me know if it satisfies the basic need for the table of contents.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";
xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format";>
<xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes" encoding="UTF-8" />
<xsl:param name="group" select="'ANTH'" />
<xsl:param name="year" select="'2003'" />
<xsl:variable name="look-up" select="document('courses.xml')" />
<xsl:template match="/dce_courses">
<xsl:text>
</xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of
select="$look-up/courses_codes/course_groups/course_group[(_at_)code=$group]/@name
" />
<xsl:text>
</xsl:text>
<fo:block>
<xsl:for-each select="course[(_at_)acad_year=$year and
course_group=$group]">
<xsl:sort select="title" />
<fo:block text-align-last="justify">
<fo:basic-link>
<xsl:attribute name="internal-destination">
<xsl:value-of select="generate-id()" />
</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:value-of select="title" />
<fo:leader leader-pattern="dots" />
<fo:page-number-citation>
<xsl:attribute name="ref-id">
<xsl:value-of select="generate-id()" />
</xsl:attribute>
</fo:page-number-citation>
</fo:basic-link>
</fo:block>
</xsl:for-each>
</fo:block>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
--
Charles Knell
cknell(_at_)onebox(_dot_)com - email
XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list