how to get variable value outside scope

I have an application whose data resides in an Access database. The
application bascially loops through a number of categories, and for each
item ("news_post") in each category, loops through and transforms the
data into HTML. What I am trying to do is capture the value of the
"category" variable and pass it outside the current scope so I can link
to another page with more content relevant to the specific category. 

I don't know how to either declare the variable in a scope that will
achieve my purpose, or pass the value through. 

http://iisstage.pacific.edu/homepage/events/pacific-event-calendar.asp

Above is a link to the output and here's the code below. Any help would
be appreciated.



<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";
xmlns:ms="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt">
        <xsl:output method="html"/>
        <xsl:template match="/">
                <div>
                        <xsl:apply-templates/>
                </div>
        </xsl:template>
        <xsl:template match="news_posts">
                <!-- check for empty node - no posts found - give error
message if not -->
                <xsl:if test="not(node())">
                        <tr>
                                <xsl:text
disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;td width="100%"
valign="top"&gt;</xsl:text>
                        No events are currently scheduled.
                 <xsl:text
disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;/td&gt;</xsl:text>
                        </tr>
                </xsl:if>
                <!-- display posts if found -->
                <xsl:variable name="pagename">
                        <xsl:value-of select="../page_info/@pagename"/>
                </xsl:variable>
                <xsl:variable name="single">
                        <xsl:value-of
select="../page_info/@singlepost"/>
                </xsl:variable>
                <!-- output only first 2 posts -->
                <xsl:choose> 
                <xsl:if test="count(news_post) &lt; 3">
                <!-- end test count value -->
                <xsl:text>News post count 1A: </xsl:text>
                <xsl:value-of disable-output-escaping="yes"
select="count(news_post)"></xsl:value-of><br />
                <xsl:for-each select="news_post">
                        <xsl:sort order="ascending" select="."/>
                        <xsl:attribute
name="id"><xsl:text>zNews</xsl:text><xsl:value-of
select="position()"/></xsl:attribute>
                        <tr>
                                <xsl:text
disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;td valign="top" width="33%"
class='zcontent'&gt;</xsl:text>
                                <xsl:value-of select="short"
disable-output-escaping="yes" />
                                <xsl:text
disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;/td&gt;</xsl:text>
                                <xsl:text
disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;td valign="top" width="66%"
class='zcontent'&gt;</xsl:text>
                                        <div class="zheadline">
                                         <a class="zheadtitleUnderline">
                                                <xsl:attribute
name="href">
                                                
<xsl:text>mainevents.asp?postid=</xsl:text>
                                                 <xsl:value-of
select="@postid" />
                                                </xsl:attribute>
                                                 <xsl:value-of
select="title" disable-output-escaping="yes" />
                                         </a>
                                         </div>
                                <xsl:text
disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;/td&gt;</xsl:text>
                                <!-- check value -->
                                <xsl:value-of select="news_post"
disable-output-escaping="yes"/>
                                <xsl:text
disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;/tr&gt;</xsl:text>
                                <!-- print test count value -->
                                
                                
                                
                        <xsl:text
disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;/td&gt;</xsl:text>
                </tr>
                        <!--</xsl:if>-->
                </xsl:for-each>
                <!-- end test for number of posts -->
                </xsl:if>
                <xsl:if test="$nPosts &gt; 1"> 
                                        <tr>
                                        <xsl:text
disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;td colspan=2 valign ="top"
width="100%" class='zcontent'&gt;</xsl:text>
                                                 <div align="right">
                                                 <xsl:text
disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;a href='pacific-</xsl:text>
                                                 <xsl:value-of
select="category" disable-output-escaping="yes" />
                                                 <!--<xsl:value-of
select="$nCategory" disable-output-escaping="yes" />-->
                                                 <xsl:text
disable-output-escaping="yes">-events.asp'&gt;more
&gt;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</xsl:text>
                                                 </div>
                                        <xsl:text
disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;/td&gt;</xsl:text>
                                        </tr>    
                                </xsl:if>
                

Brian Phelps

Web Manager
Marketing and University Relations
(209) 946-3273 PST

For current web site updates, stay informed:
http://www.pacific.edu/developers/

AIM/Yahoo IM: btphelps
icq: 221376

University of the Pacific
Stockton, CA
www.pacific.edu

--~------------------------------------------------------------------
XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
To unsubscribe, go to: http://lists.mulberrytech.com/xsl-list/
or e-mail: <mailto:xsl-list-unsubscribe(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com>
--~--