Re: [xsl] RE:

[Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Guys,

At 06:10 AM 7/29/2003, Simon wrote:
> > <xsl:variable name="myxml" select="document('somefile.xml')"/>
> >
> > you would then perform transformations on it by refering to the variable
> >
> > e.g.
> > <xsl:value select="$myxml//test"/>
> >
> > would output the value of a <test/> element.
>
> I thought this thing was not working with XSL 1.0 since the variable would
> only contain text, and not a node-set.

Even in XSLT 1.0, the $myxml variable declared as above would be bound to a 
node set. All is fine; no extension element is necessary.

This is the difference between

<xsl:variable name="myxml" select="document('somefile.xml')"/>

and

<xsl:variable name="myxml">
  <xsl:copy-of select="document('somefile.xml')"/>
</xsl:variable>

The second variable is bound to a result tree fragment (a *copy* of the 
original node set).

> > btw you will have to understand about RTF and using the common node-set
> extension function if you want to get any further doing stuff with this.
> >
>
> Could you please elaborate a little bit more on that point. Just reading the
> EXSLT doc was not enough for me to understand the use of the new node-set
> function.

The function allows you to turn any RTF, such as the copy just described, 
into an honest-to-goodness node set. So it won't make any difference how 
it's declared. It'll also let you do things like

<xsl:variable name="myRTF">
  <xsl:apply-templates select="document('somefile.xml')"/>
</xsl:variable>

<xsl:variable name="myNodeSet" select="exslt:node-set($myRTF)"/>

and then process the nodes in the variable as if they were a source 
document (even though they are themselves the result of a transform).

This allows chaining or "pipelining" of transforms within a single 
stylesheet process. Powerful, if sometimes a bit tricky to debug....

Shouldn't this thread have a subject line?

Cheers,
Wendell


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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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