Xml – Convert string to node-set

jstlxmlxslt

In my xsl file,
I am receiving a separate xml document (beside the main xml document
that I’m transforming) as a string parameter (param)

say my param name is seconddoc

<xsl:param name="seconddoc"></xsl:param>

and the param value is following (again, i'm getting the whole thing as a string)

<products>
    <product>
        <id>1</id>
        <name>pro-1</name>
    </product>
    <product>
        <id>2</id>
        <name>pro-2</name>
    </product>
    <product>
        <id>3</id>
        <name>pro-3</name>
    </product>
</products>

I can print the entire string as following

<xsl:value-of select="$seconddoc" />

But I want iterate the data (string) instead of getting entire value at once.
my end goal is to load this data to a select option.

I tired like this:

<select>
    <xsl:for-each select="$seconddoc/products/product">
        <option value="{id}">
            <xsl:value-of select="name" /></option>
    </xsl:for-each>
</select>

but I'm getting TransformerException. "Invalid conversion from 'java.lang.String' to 'node-set'.

update:

This is what I have in my jsp page

<x:transform xml="${mainxmldoc}" xslt="${xslt}">
<x:param name="seconddoc" value="<%=xmlString %>"/>
</x:transform>

Best Answer

You're probably using the built-in XSLT 1.0 processor that comes with the JDK, which is a version of Xalan. There's no standard way in either XSLT 1.0 or 2.0 to invoke an XML parser (which is what you need to do to convert a string to a node). You either need to do the conversion outside the transformation (passing a node as the parameter), or use an extension that does the job. I seem to remember that Xalan's implementation of exslt:node-set() might do this; check it out. Alternatively, since you're in the Java world, a whole lot of things would be much easier if you upgraded to XSLT 2.0 (meaning Saxon). I'm not sure how well Saxon plays with JSP though (it can certainly be done, but I don't know if you can use the x:transform tag library). Saxon has a saxon:parse extension function, which in the draft 3.0 specifications is replaced by a standard function parse-xml().

Related Solutions

Xml – Selecting node sets (attributes or elements) which match a string variable name

This selects an attribute with the name of 'foo'.

<xsl:call-template name="print-value-of">
  <xsl:with-param name="attribute-type" select="@*[name() = 'foo']"/>
</xsl:call-template>

<xsl:template name="print-value-of">
   <xsl:param name="attribute-type"/>
   <xsl:value-of select="."/>
</xsl:template>

Alternatively, you can leave the <xsl:call-template> like it is and do the change in your template:

<xsl:template name="print-value-of">
  <xsl:param name="attribute-type"/>

  <xsl:value-of select="@*[name() = $attribute-type]"/>
</xsl:template>

In any case, unless this was only a synthetic example, all of the above is a quite expensive way of saying:

<xsl:value-of select="@*[name() = $attribute-type]"/>

EDIT:

To create attributes with a dynamic name, use:

<xsl:attribute name="{$attribute-type}">
  <xsl:value-of select="$some-value-or-expression" />
</xsl:attribute>

Note that the curly braces make the XSLT-processor evaluate their contents (in attribute values only).

You should make sure that $attribute-type contains a string that adheres to the XML naming rules. And you should think about renaming the variable to $attribute-name, because that's what it is.

XSLT – Adding Elements dynamically

What would happen if more job roles, other than Dev and QA got added? Would your stylesheet be able to cope? Maybe you can make use of Muenchian Grouping to get all possible roles in the stylesheet, and then generate columns for each possible role dynamically?

<xsl:key name="roles" match="role" use="."/>

<xsl:template match="/projectteam">
 <table border="1">
  <tr>
   <td>Name</td>
   <td>Role</td>
   <xsl:for-each select="member[generate-id(role) = generate-id(key('roles', role)[1])]">
    <td>
     <xsl:value-of select="role"/>
    </td>
   </xsl:for-each>
  </tr>
  <xsl:apply-templates select="member"/>
 </table>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="member">
 <xsl:variable name="currentrole" select="role"/>
 <xsl:variable name="currenthrs" select="hrs"/>
 <tr>
  <td>
   <xsl:value-of select="name"/>
  </td>
  <td>
   <xsl:value-of select="role"/>
  </td>
  <xsl:for-each select="/projectteam/member[generate-id(role) = generate-id(key('roles', role)[1])]">
   <td>
    <xsl:choose>
     <xsl:when test="$currentrole = role">
      <xsl:value-of select="$currenthrs"/>
     </xsl:when>
    </xsl:choose>
   </td>
  </xsl:for-each>
 </tr>
</xsl:template>

I've outputted as HTML, not XSL-FO, but maybe this gives you the general idea.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Xml – Selecting node sets (attributes or elements) which match a string variable name

XSLT – Adding Elements dynamically

Related Topic