For testing I am using an extension function to get sysdate and a variable
instead of a parameter; hopefully I can fix that later. I am not sure why
xsl:for-each is not recommended, but it seems like I should do this with
xsl:template, xsl:call-template, xsl:apply-templates and/or whatever else is
appropriate, I just don't know how, especially "breaking out of the loop"
(comments below)
There is some redundancy in the XPath statements (for instance, the variable
$remaining is populated with something very similar to the for-each below it)
- how do I avoid that?
Thanks again,
-John
<xsl:variable name="sysdate" select="shcutil:Now()" />
<xsl:variable name="sysdatenum" select="concat( substring-before( $sysdate,
'T' ), substring-after( $sysdate, 'T' ))" />
<xsl:template match="*" mode="main">
<!-- after outputing the "highlighted" records, this number of non-highlighted
records should be output -->
<xsl:variable name="remaining" select="5 - count(
//item[(_at_)template='tmpnews'
and number( concat( substring-before( sc:fld( 'highlightuntil', . ), 'T' ),
substring-after( sc:fld( 'highlightuntil', . ), 'T' ))) > $sysdatenum] )" />
<!-- this seems to work -->
<xsl:for-each select="//item[(_at_)template='tmpnews' and number( concat(
substring-before( sc:fld( 'highlightuntil', . ), 'T' ), substring-after(
sc:fld( 'highlightuntil', . ), 'T' ))) > $sysdatenum]">
<xsl:sort order="descending" select="@highlight"/>
<strong><xsl:value-of select="sc:fld( 'highlightuntil', . )" />
<xsl:value-of select="sc:path(.)" /></strong><br />
</xsl:for-each>
<!-- I am not sure how to make this one break out of the loop when $remaining
is hit -->
<xsl:for-each select="//item[(_at_)template='tmpnews' and number( concat(
substring-before( sc:fld( 'highlightuntil', . ), 'T' ), substring-after(
sc:fld( 'highlightuntil', . ), 'T' ))) <= $sysdatenum]">
<xsl:sort order="descending" select="@releasedate"/>
<xsl:value-of select="sc:fld( 'releasedate', . )" /> <xsl:value-of
select="sc:path(.)" /><br />
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Robert Koberg <rob(_at_)koberg(_dot_)com>
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 17:56:01 -0700
Subject: Re: [xsl] Release Date vs. Highlight Until Date
To: xsl-list(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com
xsl-list wrote:
Thanks for your suggestions. I am not sure the CMS vendor supports XSL 2.0.
After looking more at the system I think I'll implement an XSL extension to
retrieve sysdate instead of passing it everywhere I need it. I've been
digging deeper and found that the dates are stored as yyyyMMddTHHmmss, which
I
don't think is xs:datetime format but should be pretty easy to parse/sort, or
convert to another format for parsing/sorting.
It is the XML Schema date time or xs:dateTime datatype. You are
lucky -- this is the easiest to sort, since it allows for simple
string sorting. You would do something like:
<xsl:template match="items">
<xsl:apply-template select="item">
<xsl:sort select="@release-date"/>
</xsl:apply-templates>
</xsl:template>
Therefore, since a single XML document contains both the IA and the content,
I
think I can do something like (half code, half psuedo-code):
<xsl:variable name="sysdate" select="me:function" />
personally, I would avoid extension functions as much as humanly
possible (you don't need them -- I never use them in the CMS, but do
when offline for batch processing).
Is it possible to write a single XPath query that merges the equivalent of
the
two XPath queries below (excuse my attempt at syntax) such that an
xsl:for-each with that as select will first process the elements matching the
first condition, then those matching the second condition?
//item[(_at_)highlight_date < $sysdate]
this works, but stay away from xsl:for-each until you uinderstand
what you are doing.
//item
Also, to ensure I don't get the same record twice, do I just reverse the
first
condition in the second condition? Something like:
//item[(_at_)highlight_date < $sysdate]
//item[(_at_)highlight_date >= $sysdate]
You would want to apply-templates like I have shown above then you
can check the position of the node (continuing on my XSL above):
<xsl:template match="item">
<xsl:if test="position() < 6">
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>
<>
I think that for performance I wouldn't want this combined query to return
more than 5 records. It seems like this would have to do with
position(), but
that can only apply before the sort, and I want the 5 records after
sort. Any
suggestions? maybe a recursive function? anyway, I have to consider
alternatives for performance.
Then within the xsl:for-each I need to sort such that those records
matched by
the highlight_date query appear first - any suggestions there?
Now you can can all see how lost I am.
No, you are getting it, but heading in a wrong direction. Stay away from
xsl:for-each.
best,
-Rob