You're right that the "push" style (using apply-templates) is the style
that "goes with the flow" of XSLT as a language, and is therefore
usually recommended to students.
Of course both work, and for a simple task, both work equally well. The
benefits of the "push" style include the following:
* the pull style becomes more and more unwieldy and unreadable as the
size and complexity of the transformation increases; the push style
scales better.
* the push style makes it easier to change the stylesheet when the
source data structure changes
* the push style gives you code that is more reusable: you can create a
customized version of the code that does something slightly different by
selectively overriding template rules.
Probably the main reason for recommending the push style to beginners is
that they need to learn how to use template rules because they will need
them eventually. They might not be needed for the simple transfomations
that beginners are asked to write, but they will soon be needed when it
comes to doing more serious work.
Michael Kay
Saxonica
On 15/04/2011 11:08, Kerry, Richard wrote:
Team,
A colleague, who is not on this mailing list, has recently written a couple of
XSL stylesheets.
Here's one of them (device_description.xslt):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";>
<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<body>
<h1>
<xsl:for-each select="device_description">
<td><xsl:value-of select="@name"/></td>
</xsl:for-each>
</h1>
<table border="1">
<tr bgcolor="#9acd32">
<th>Name</th>
<th>Class/Style</th>
<th>Access</th>
<th>Slot</th>
<th>Detail</th>
</tr>
<xsl:for-each select="device_description/param">
<tr>
<td><xsl:value-of select="@name"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="@class"/> /<xsl:value-of
select="@style"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="@access"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="@slot"/></td>
<td>
<xsl:for-each select="state">
<xsl:value-of select="@value"/> =<xsl:value-of select="@caption"/> <br
/>
</xsl:for-each>
<xsl:for-each select="values">
min =<xsl:value-of select="@min"/><br />
max =<xsl:value-of select="@max"/><br />
step =<xsl:value-of select="@step"/><br />
bigstep =<xsl:value-of select="@bigstep"/><br />
default =<xsl:value-of select="@defaultvalue"/><br />
</xsl:for-each>
<xsl:for-each select="display">
<br />Display as:<br />
(<i>value</i> +<xsl:value-of select="@inoffset"/>) *<xsl:value-of select="@multiplier"/>
+<xsl:value-of select="@outoffset"/> <xsl:value-of select="@units"/><br />
</xsl:for-each>
</td>
</tr>
</xsl:for-each>
</table>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
This will take an XML file like this (this is an extract, not the whole thing) :
<?xml version = '1.0'?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="device_description.xslt"?>
<!DOCTYPE device_description SYSTEM "device_description.dtd">
<device_description name="arc20">
<param class="enum" access="readonly" style="button" name="SDI_Input"
slot="8">
<state caption="Missing" style="" value="0" msg="" />
<state caption="Present" style="" value="1" msg="" />
</param>
<param class="enum" access="readwrite" style="button" name="Filter"
slot="9">
<state caption="Video" style="" value="0" msg="" />
<state caption="Film" style="" value="1" msg="" />
<state caption="Mixed" style="" value="2" msg="" />
<state caption="Film Eff" style="" value="3" msg="" />
</param>
<param class="range" access="readwrite" style="" name="Pan" slot="11">
<values defaultvalue="0" step="1" min="-180" max="180" bigstep="10" />
<display inoffset="0" units=" px" outoffset="0" dp="" multiplier="1"
/>
</param>
<param class="range" access="readwrite" style="" name="Tilt" slot="12">
<values defaultvalue="0" step="1" min="-100" max="100" bigstep="10" />
<display inoffset="0" units=" px" outoffset="0" dp="" multiplier="1"
/>
</param>
<param class="range" access="readwrite" style="" name="H_Blank" slot="13">
<values defaultvalue="0" step="1" min="0" max="190" bigstep="10" />
<display inoffset="0" units=" px" outoffset="0" dp="" multiplier="1"
/>
</param>
<param class="enum" access="readwrite" style="" name="Comms" slot="30">
<state caption="Fail" style="" value="0" msg="" />
<state caption="OK" style="" value="1" msg="" />
</param>
</device_description>
And convert it into an html equivalent.
I hadn't seen this until recently and when I did I thought "it shouldn't be written
like that, it should be more like this" (device_description.xsl):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";>
<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<body>
<h1>
<xsl:apply-templates mode="names"/>
</h1>
<table border="1">
<tr bgcolor="#9acd32">
<th>Name</th>
<th>Class/Style</th>
<th>Access</th>
<th>Slot</th>
<th>Detail</th>
</tr>
<xsl:apply-templates mode="params"/>
</table>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="device_description" mode="names">
<td><xsl:value-of select="@name"/></td>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="device_description/param" mode="params">
<tr>
<td><xsl:value-of select="@name"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="@class"/> /<xsl:value-of select="@style"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="@access"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="@slot"/></td>
<td>
<xsl:apply-templates />
</td>
</tr>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="state">
<xsl:value-of select="@value"/> =<xsl:value-of select="@caption"/> <br />
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="values">
min =<xsl:value-of select="@min"/><br />
max =<xsl:value-of select="@max"/><br />
step =<xsl:value-of select="@step"/><br />
bigstep =<xsl:value-of select="@bigstep"/><br />
default =<xsl:value-of select="@defaultvalue"/><br />
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="display">
<br />Display as:<br />
(<i>value</i> +<xsl:value-of select="@inoffset"/>) *<xsl:value-of select="@multiplier"/> +<xsl:value-of
select="@outoffset"/> <xsl:value-of select="@units"/><br />
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
I haven't yet discussed this with my colleague, but when (if) I do so he'll say "Why
should it ?", and I don't think I know the answer.
Can the list members (assuming you agree with me) provide me with a summary of
why the XSL stylesheet should be written in the latter style.
And would I be right that the file's extension should be .xsl and not .xslt ?
Regards,
Richard.
Richard Kerry
Colledia Control Engineer
Siemens IT Solutions and Services Ltd
Room 457 Drama Building, BBC Television Centre, Wood Lane, London, W12 7RJ
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