I am just getting started with XML/XSLT and I struggle sometimes with
the non-procedural thinking required (I am used to plain old "C"
programming).
What I am trying to do is take the content of a selected element (node
from "lists) and copy it into another nested empty "phrase" element.
The empty element references the "list" element using "name" and
"list" attributes. Here is a tiny example of the source:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<report>
<lists>
<list name="phrase-list1">
<option id="value1">a simple phrase</option>
<option id="value2">also a simple phrase</option>
<option id="value3">could be a simple phrase</option>
<option id="value4">another simple phrase</option>
</list>
<list name="phrase-list2">
<option id="value1">a compound phrase element with what '<phrase
name="value3" list="phrase-list1"/>' (single quotes) inside</option>
<option id="value2">the compound phrase element containing
'<phrase name="value4" list="phrase-list1"/>' (single quotes)</option>
<option id="value3">multi-compound phrases with '<phrase
name="value1" list="phrase-list1"/>' and '<phrase name="value4"
list="phrase-list1"/>' or more</option>
<option id="value4">a compound compound phrase element with
"<phrase name="value2" list="phrase-list2"/>" (double quotes)</option>
</list>
</lists>
<h4>Simple Phrases</h4>
The first phrase element is <phrase name="value1"
list="phrase-list1"/>. And the second phrase element is <phrase
name="value2" list="phrase-list1"/>, and the third phrase element
<phrase name="value3" list="phrase-list1"/> as well.
<h4>Compound Phrases</h4>
Things get tricky though when instead of <phrase name="value1"
list="phrase-list1"/>, we have <phrase name="value1"
list="phrase-list2"/> of it. We could have <phrase name="value3"
list="phrase-list2"/> inside of it. We could even have <phrase
name="value4" list="phrase-list2"/> in a nested fashion.
</report>
The XSLT I am using works for "top level" (non-nested) elements but I
just cannot seem to grasp how to get this to work with the nested
elements. I have a vague notion that I should be dealing with node
sets here, but this is at the edge of my current understanding. Here
is the simple (non-working) XSLT:
<?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="/report">
<html>
<head>
<title>Phrase Insertion</title>
<style>
.phrase {background:yellow;}
.phrase .phrase {background:cyan;}
.phrase .phrase .phrase {background:magenta;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
<!-- insert phrases -->
<xsl:template match="phrase">
<xsl:variable name="phrase" select="@name"/>
<xsl:variable name="list" select="@list"/>
<span class="phrase"><xsl:value-of
select="//lists/list[(_at_)name=$list]/option[(_at_)id=$phrase]"/></span>
</xsl:template>
<!-- pass other elements -->
<xsl:template match="*">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
<!-- do not directly process lists -->
<xsl:template match="lists"/>
</xsl:stylesheet>
The match="phrase" template is the culprit. I have tried
apply-templates in a few different ways, but I cannot seem to get at
the nested "phrases".
Here is the current (non-working) output:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<html>
<head>
<title>Phrase Insertion</title>
<style>
.phrase {background:yellow;}
.phrase .phrase {background:cyan;}
.phrase .phrase .phrase {background:magenta;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h4>Simple Phrases</h4>
The first phrase element is <span class="phrase">a simple
phrase</span>. And the second phrase element is <span
class="phrase">also a simple phrase</span>, and the third phrase
element <span class="phrase">could be a simple phrase</span> as well.
<h4>Compound Phrases</h4>
Things get tricky though when instead of <span class="phrase">a simple
phrase</span>, we have <span class="phrase">a compound phrase element
with what '' (single quotes) inside</span> of it. We could have <span
class="phrase">multi-compound phrases with '' and '' or more</span>
inside of it. We could even have <span class="phrase">a compound
compound phrase element with "" (double quotes)</span> in a nested
fashion.
</body>
</html>
NOTE: I have added a little CSS formatting to make it easy to see the
copied content. Here is what I would like to produce:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<html>
<head>
<title>Phrase Insertion</title>
<style>
.phrase {background:yellow;}
.phrase .phrase {background:cyan;}
.phrase .phrase .phrase {background:magenta;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h4>Simple Phrases</h4>
The first phrase element is <span class="phrase">a simple
phrase</span>. And the second phrase element is <span
class="phrase">also a simple phrase</span>, and the third phrase
element <span class="phrase">could be a simple phrase</span> as well.
<h4>Compound Phrases</h4>
Things get tricky though when instead of <span class="phrase">a simple
phrase</span>, we have <span class="phrase">a compound phrase element
with what '<span class="phrase">could be a simple phrase</span>'
(single quotes) inside</span> of it. We could have <span
class="phrase">multi-compound phrases with '<span class="phrase">a
simple phrase</span>' and '<span class="phrase">another simple
phrase</span>' or more</span> inside of it. We could even have <span
class="phrase">a compound compound phrase element with "<span
class="phrase">the compound phrase element containing '<span
class="phrase">another simple phrase</span>' (single quotes)</span>"
(double quotes)</span> in a nested fashion.
</body>
</html>
If you copy and paste the two htm sections into files and view with a
browser it is very clear what I am getting versus what I am trying to
produce.
As I said I am thinking that I need to process this using nodesets,
but at this point "my reach exceeds my grasp", so if anyone can help
me understand the "trick" to dealing with the nested elements I would
appreciate it greatly. I have searched this mailing list and the web
in general but I cannot not seem to find anything to help me in this
matter.
Thanks in advance for any help...
-Kiel
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