I have a reporting system that merges three xml sources:
1) boilerplate - text seen in all reports
2) custom - text that is used to replace "phrase" elements in boilerplate
3) vars - values (text or numbers) used to select from custom text
This works fine unless I wish to put a "phrase" element inside another
"phrase" element. I originally did the "flat" version" with an
implication that in future I would allow "recursion" (phrases inside
phrases).
Well I bit off a little more than I bargained for because I do not
seem to understand how to get this type of "recursion" to work.
Note, that there are several ways this is used. This can be seen in
the examples. I can expound on this if need be - I am trying to keep
this very simple to start with.
Following my message are example files:
1) boilerplate.xml - For simplicity I have combined boilerplat.xml,
custom.xml and vars.xml into this one file - normally they are
passed as pararmeters (it get same results).
2a) merge.xsl (original version) - merges the three sources
2b) merge.xsl (attempt at "recursion") - merges the three sources
3) present.xsl - present report.xml as HTML file report.htm to
view results as user would see them.
I have been using command line tols to test this problem.
To create the report.xml file I process these files I am using
msxsl.exe under Windows:
msxsl boilerplate.xml merge.xsl > report.xml
or xsltproc under linux:
xsltproc merge.xsl boilerplate.xml >report.xml
To present the report.xml as an HTML file report.htm, I use one of
these commands. For Windows:
msxsl report.xml present.xsl > report.htm
for linux:
xsltproc present.xsl report.xml >report.htm
So, can anyone help me understand how to process a "phrase" inside a "phrase"?
Also, any critiques or suggestion about my code are most welcome as I
am bit of a newbie.
Thanks for any help!
Dan Vokt, Teleservices
==== FILES ARE BELOW ======================================
1) boilerplate, custom, vars:
---- boilerplate.xml -----------------------------------------------------
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<report>
<vars> <!-- vars.xml generated at runtime -->
<var name="var1">value1</var>
<var name="var2">value2</var>
<var name="var3">value3</var>
<var name="var4">value4</var>
</vars>
<lists> <!-- custom.xml -->
<list name="keyword-list">
<option id="value1">VALUE_1</option>
<option id="value2">VALUE_2</option>
<option id="value3">VALUE_3</option>
<option id="value4">VALUE_4</option>
</list>
<list name="phrase-list">
<option id="value1">this is phrase list item 1 from phrase-list</option>
<option id="value2">this is phrase list item 2 from phrase-list</option>
<option id="value3">this is phrase list item 3 from phrase-list</option>
<option id="value4">this is phrase list item 4 from phrase-list</option>
</list>
<list name="phrase-list-recursive">
<option id="value1">this is phrase list item 1 from
phrase-list-recursive, with a value of '<phrase name="var1"/>' for
var1</option>
<option id="value2">this is phrase list item 2 from
phrase-list-recursive, with a value of '<phrase name="var1"/>' for
var1</option>
<option id="value3">this is phrase list item 3 from
phrase-list-recursive, with a value of '<phrase name="var1"/>' for
var1</option>
<option id="value4">this is phrase list item 4 from
phrase-list-recursive, with a value of '<phrase name="var1"/>' for
var1</option>
</list>
</lists>
<h4>name to value:</h4> <!-- boilerplate.xml -->
Your var1 value of <phrase name="var1"/> is very interesting, though
not as interesting as the <phrase name="var4"/> value of your var4.<br
/>
<h4>name to keyword:</h4>
Your var1 keyword of <phrase name="var1" list="keyword-list"/> is very
interesting, though not as interesting as the <phrase name="var4"
list="keyword-list"/> keyword of your var4.<br />
<h4>name to phrase:</h4>
Your var1 phrase of <phrase name="var1" list="phrase-list"/> is very
interesting, though not as interesting as the <phrase name="var4"
list="phrase-list"/> phrase of your var4.<br />
<h4>name to phrase-recursive -- PROBLEM!!!:</h4>
Your var1 recursive phrase of <phrase name="var1"
list="phrase-list-recursive"/> is very interesting, though not as
interesting as the <phrase name="var4" list="phrase-list-recursive"/>
recursive phrase of your var4.<br />
</report>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
2a) Here is the ORIGINAL XSL file that merges these:
---- merge.xsl (original) ------------------------------------------------
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"; version="1.0">
<xsl:output method="xml" encoding="utf-8" indent="yes"/>
<xsl:strip-space elements="report"/>
<!-- original -->
<xsl:template match="phrase">
<span class="phrase">
<xsl:variable name="phrase" select="@name"/>
<xsl:variable name="list">
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="@list"><xsl:value-of select="@list"/></xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise><xsl:value-of select="@name"/></xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="var" select="//vars/var[(_at_)name=$phrase]/text()"/>
<xsl:variable name="verbiage"
select="//lists/list[(_at_)name=$list]/option[(_at_)id=$var]"/>
<xsl:if test="string-length($verbiage)>0"><xsl:value-of
select="$verbiage"/></xsl:if>
<xsl:if test="string-length($verbiage)=0"><xsl:value-of
select="$var"/></xsl:if>
</span>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="*">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
<!-- do not directly process vars or lists -->
<xsl:template match="vars"/>
<xsl:template match="lists"/>
</xsl:stylesheet>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
2b) Here is my lame ATTEMPT at "recursion":
---- merge.xsl ("recursive") ---------------------------------------------
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"; version="1.0">
<xsl:output method="xml" encoding="utf-8" indent="yes"/>
<xsl:strip-space elements="report"/>
<xsl:template match="phrase">
<xsl:variable name="phrase-name" select="@name"/>
<xsl:variable name="list">
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="@list"><xsl:value-of select="@list"/></xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise><xsl:value-of select="@name"/></xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="var" select="//vars/var[(_at_)name=$phrase-name]/text()"/>
<xsl:variable name="verbiage"
select="//lists/list[(_at_)name=$list]/option[(_at_)id=$var]"/>
<xsl:variable name="phrase">
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="string-length($verbiage)>0"><xsl:value-of
select="$verbiage"/></xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise><xsl:value-of select="$var"/></xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:variable>
<span class="phrase">
<xsl:value-of select="$phrase"/>
<xsl:if test="//vars/var[(_at_)name=$phrase-name]/phrase">
<xsl:apply-templates select="//vars/var[(_at_)name=$phrase-name]/phrase"/>
</xsl:if>
<xsl:if test="//lists/list[(_at_)name=$list]/option[(_at_)id=$var]/phrase">
<xsl:apply-templates
select="//lists/list[(_at_)name=$list]/option[(_at_)id=$var]/phrase"/>
</xsl:if>
</span>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="*">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
<!-- do not directly process vars or lists -->
<xsl:template match="vars"/>
<xsl:template match="lists"/>
</xsl:stylesheet>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
3) I present the report.xml as an HTML file report.htm using this:
---- present.xsl ---------------------------------------------------------
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"; version="1.0">
<xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes" encoding="utf-8"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<head>
<title>Simple Recursive Phrase</title>
<style>
p {
margin-top: 0;
}
h4 {
margin-bottom: .5em;
}
.phrase {
color:blue;
}
.phrase .phrase {
color:red;
}
.phrase .phrase .phrase {
color:green;
}
.phrase .phrase .phrase .phrase {
color:magenta;
}
</style>
</head>
<body><xsl:apply-templates/></body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="para">
<xsl:if test="@title!=''">
<h4 class="paratitle"><xsl:value-of select="@title"/></h4>
</xsl:if>
<p><xsl:apply-templates/></p>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="a|ul|li|img|table|tr|td|span|div|pre|label|h4">
<xsl:copy><xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="br"><br /></xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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