Re: Embedded XML/XSL documents

["Richard Lander" <rlander@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 Russell,

 

I believe that the sort of function you are looking for is 'document()', which is in the latest XSLT draft. There isn't any XT implementation that currently supports document() or doc()/docref(), as it was called in the previous draft. I don't know about the status of SAXON on this issue.

 

The other option is to use external entities, which restricts you to XML documents without document type declarations. I haven't done a lot with 'nested remote documents', as you call them, but might something like <childref href=""/> be a better approach than PIs? The use of elements would allow you to validate your content, which isn't possible with PIs.

 

Good luck,

 

Richard.

Richard Lander
relander at uwaterloo.ca
http://pdbeam.uwaterloo.ca/~rlander/

 

Professional XML Authoring
http://www.on-line-learning.com/

----- Original Message -----

From: Russell Allen

To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Monday, July 12, 1999 11:21 AM

Subject: Embedded XML/XSL documents

Does xml/xsl support nested remote documents?  For example:

 

Root.xml:

<Root>

  <LeftChild>

    <?import SRC=""/>

  </LeftChild>

  <RightChild>

    <?import SRC=""/>

  </RightChild>

</Root>

 

LChild.xml:

<E1>

  ...data...

</E1>

 

RChild.xml:

 

<E2>

  ...data...

</E2>

 

Such that the processing of Root would cause the loading of Left and Right, along with their associated style sheets.

 

The use case for this is for a web site with a universal format.  Say, a border on the left with a set of links like a main menu.  That could be the left child.  The right child would be the individual content for a particular page.  Thus, when your 'menu' changes you only need to change a single document instead of every page in your site.

 

Is this possible?  What command should I look at in the spec?  Is this supported by any xml/xsl parsers?  (IE5, LotusXSL...)

 

I apologize for asking a question that the spec could answer.  I have skimmed it but I do not recall such a command.

 

Thanks in advance,

Russell Allen.

Software Engineer

ComFrame Software Corp.