Re: [xsl] MSXML DOCTYPE error

[Ronan Klyne <ronan.klyne@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Luke Stedman wrote:
> Hey guys,
>
> I have been banging my head against this issue for the past hour or so.
>
> I have taken on a legacy system built around Python scripts and the
> MSXML parser, I am currently in the process of cleaning up the XSL's -
> as part of this exercise I have moved a number of variable
> declarations that are use as global constants and moved them to an
> external dtd file, and have come across a strange issue.
>
> When the dtd's are defined in the XSL file:
>
> <!DOCTYPE xsl:stylesheet [
>      <!ENTITY SYSTEM "./det_1.dtd">
>      <!ENTITY SYSTEM "./det_2.dtd">
> ]>
>
> The MSXML parser fails and gives the following error (The MSXML Parser
> is being accessed via win32com):
>
> File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages
> \win32com\client\dynamic.py", line 538,
>   in __setattr__ self._oleobj_.Invoke(entry.dispid, 0, invoke_type, 0, value)
>     pywintypes.com_error: (-2147352567, 'Exception occurred.', (0,
> u'msxml3.dll', u'The stylesheet does not contain a document element.
> The stylesheet may be empty, or it may not be a well-formed XML
> document.\r\n', None, 0, -2147467259), None)
>
> When I remove the DOCTYPE section the parser loads the XSL's fine but
> error's when it comes across an unreferenced entity.
>
> Any pointers/advice would be extremely helpful.
>
> As mentioned above I have inherited this system and am looking to move
> it to something more reliable and, preferably, native to Python -
> Amara is the current favourite.

I think that this will be to do with a lack of a definition for the 
'xsl:' prefix used in the DOCTYPE declaration.

But I'm not sure.

I'm mainly chipping in to say that I've found libxml2 + libxslt to work 
very well with Python (although not natively). It's reliable, well 
tested, fast, and easy to use...

	Ronan

--
Ronan Klyne
Business Collaborator Developer
Tel: +44 01189 028518
ronan.klyne@xxxxxxxxxxx
www.groupbc.com