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Followup question for Kenny Akridge...Thank you!

2004-02-02 14:53:08
Hi again... This question is directed to Kenny Akridge
specifically.  I wasn't sure how else to reach him
directly...

_______

Last week you were gracious enough to offer
me a solution as to how to get parts of a page
to display if info. was or was not included in
the XML file.  I really appreciate the time you took
to think it through for me.

Your solution works great on the simple level
I laid out.

You did offer to write back if I had questions,
so I am taking you up on it.

As I mentioned before, my goal is to
plug your solution into a full-fledged XSL
stylesheet that includes all the rest of the HTML
and CSS references etc.

Here is what the existing page looks like:

http://www.stockton.lib.ca.us/new_webroot/statistics/stat-openpg.htm


Here is the existing XSL stylesheet:

http://www.stockton.lib.ca.us/xml_xsl_html_samples/stat-openpg.xsl


and the existing XML file:

http://www.stockton.lib.ca.us/xml_xsl_html_samples/stat-openpg.xml


The XSL file works correctly using commands specific
to the XML file... but my goal was to try to put your
solution into it to make it a "one size fits all" XSL
stylesheet that could transform ANY XML file that
either HAD Categories and Databases and Websites or
that HAD ONLY Websites in the XML file...

Does that make sense?

So, anyway, I looked admiringly at your solution
and then tried for several hours to get your code
to be substituted for the xsl: stuff in the existing
XSL file.

Needless to say, I have not been able to get this to
work yet.   

I think I still don't have a very good grasp of
how to construct an XSL stylesheet.  I really don't 
understand where to put the the XSL commands within
the HTML in the stylesheet to make it generate correct
HTML output...

I get error messages that I can't fathom, so it gets 
pretty frustrating.   

I was wondering if you could take some time again
to look at our XSL file and XML file and see if you
could insert the code you have shown that works (in a
simplified page).  

Keep in mind that this XSL file references other XML
files such as:

http://www.stockton.lib.ca.us/xml_xsl_html_samples/bureau-labor-stats.xml


I must emphasize that I am certainly not a programmer.
I am a librarian and learned HTML from the ground up,
but it was pretty simple compared to XSLT, so I often
get stumped when I try things out in XSLT.  I know it
is not programming per se, but it can be quite
confusing.   

I was so happy when I got our existing XML and XSL to
work. 

But, now it seems like we should be able to condense
it all down to one XSL file that would work against
all the Subject and Sub-subject XML files.  That is
the goal in all of this...

So, anyway, if you have time, I would sure appreciate
any expertise you can apply to my problem.  I know you
can't test it fully since you don't have all the image
and css files we have here, but if you could
substitute your commands for my commands, I could
bring it back here and test it (AND see if I could
understand how you did it!!)

So, if you can putter with it, please just use the
designations that are in the files...i.e. categories,
databases, web_sites...

And again, thank you very much for being such a good
samaritan.  My wife is just getting into the Internet
and she was amazed at my being able to ask a question
of a group of XSL experts and people actually taking
the time to try to help.

--Bill Walker
  Reference Dept.
  Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library


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