Re: [xsl] problem with xsl:copy-of and counting lines

[Andreas Peter <info@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Quoting David Carlisle <davidc@xxxxxxxxx>:

> > But if I want to use the value of the string for other operations I
> > have to declare a global variable, right?
>
> it depends what you want to do with it, I'd say 999 times out of a 1000
> when users ask about variable usage the answer to the real underlying
> problem doesn't involve the use of variables at all.
>
> If it is a global variable it has a global value, but i thought you
> wanted different values calculated on different blocks.
>
> > Is it possible to match the node of an external document like
> > <xsl:template match="document('variables.xsl')/block"> or something
> >  like this?
>
> You are mixing up the concepts of matching and selecting. a maych
> pattern says, more or less 2if you happen to come across a node that
> looks like this, do the following". It's Xpath expressions in select
> attributes that actually steer the processor to look in different
> places.
>
> so you'd want
>
> <xsl:template match="block">
>  ...
>
>
> then at some point if you want to process the other doc, do
>
> <xsl:apply-templates select="document('variables.xsl')"/>
>
> or
>
> <xsl:apply-templates select="document('variables.xsl')/block"/>
>
> or whataver's needed in your case.
>
>
> > The variables.xsl file looks like this:
>
> oops that's xslt not an input file (although of course you can input
> xslt as data, it doesn't execute in that case)
>
> To spread your stylesheet code across multiple docu,emts you don't use
> document() you use xsl:import or xsl:include but these are compile time
> constructs the whole stylesheet is constructed by importing teh
> necessary .xsl files _before_ any transformation actually runs.
>
>
> Take 10 steps back.
>
> What problem are you trying to solve, just state it in english, without
> assuming that the solution requires the use of xsl:variable.
>
>
> > I am just waiting for Michael
> > Kays two books about XPath 2.0 and XSLT 2.0 for helping me with the
> > theme.
>
> are you using XSLT2 (all answers given so far assume the use of XSLt1)
> there are easier ways of counting lines in xslt2 as it has regular
> expression support.
>
> Also, _why_ do you want to count all the lines in an xml file, ignoring
> the XML structure, if that's what you really need it would seem to be
> easier to use a non xml tool, wc -l for example.
>
> David
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> The Numerical Algorithms Group Ltd is a company registered in England
> and Wales with company number 1249803. The registered office is:
> Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Road, Oxford OX2 8DR, United Kingdom.
>
> This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star. The service is
> powered by MessageLabs.
> ________________________________________________________________________

Okay, 10 steps back. At the moment I am working on my diploma for my
degreed engineer. I wanted to do something with xml and some
transformations.

The source object is an printed broschure which was generated in
InDesign. I want to create a more automated possibility for ceating
the print data. Thats why I "try" to learn XSL(T) because the source
data comes from a database as xml files.

The main problem is that the document has a more or less complex structure.
For example every page has a different number of lines. If there is a
less number of lines than the maximum number of lines on a page the
rest of the page will be filled by announcements or sth else from a
pool of grafics.

My suggestion was: page height minus the lines of a certain group of
elements so that I can see if there is enough space for an
announcement or not.

At the beginning of the project I was very enthusiastic but now I
realise how much programmers know how is behind the "small" broschure.
And I am not a real programmer. My first contact with programming.

Thanks for listening :-) and helping.
Andreas