RE: Matching elements with a name specified by an attribute value

["SCOTT, Darren, FM" <Darren.Scott@xxxxxxxx>]

Thanks Mike - I didn't think about using the name() function!!!

You say that what I'm trying to do is bad document design. Maybe I should
have used different names in my example to give a better idea of what I'm
trying to do. If I redo the example again, does it make more sense this
time? Essentially, the names of the data elements do identify types, and are
all different...

<layout layout-id="block1">
  <layout_item data_element="reference"/>
  <layout_item data_element="trade_date"/>
  <layout_item data_element="ccy"/>
  <layout_item data_element="amount"/>
</layout>

<trade layout-ref="block1">
  <reference>12345</reference>
  <trade_date>23-Oct-2000</trade_date>
  <ccy>GBP</ccy>
  <amount>1,500.00</amount>
</trade>

The reason I'm structuring my XML this way is so that I can separate page
layout from actual page data contents instead of embedding layout in the
XSLT. The first section of the document is a static layout template (using
<layout> elements), and the second section is the corresponding content
generated dynamically from some business object. By doing this, I can use a
single XSLT for all pages of a similar type (to maintain a consistent look
and feel), with the different layouts being specified by different blocks of
layout XML.

Does this sound a good way of achieving this level of flexibility?

-----Original Message-----
From: Kay Michael [mailto:Michael.Kay@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 20 October 2000 16:11
To: 'xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: RE: Matching elements with a name specified by an attribute
value


> Is it possible to match on elements where the names of the 
> elements to look
> for are specified as the attribute values of other elements 
> ie. the element
> name to match is specified at processing time?
> 
> Consider the example source XML...
> 
> <layout>
>   <layout_item data_element="item1"/>
>   <layout_item data_element="item2"/>
>   <layout_item data_element="item3"/>
> </layout>
> 
> <item1>I am item 1</item1>
> <item2>I am item 2</item2>
> <item3>I am item 3</item3>
> 
You can do //*[name()=@data-element]

But this is not a nice document design. Element tags are intended for
identifying types, not instances. To identify instances, you should use an
id attribute: <item id="item1">

Mike Kay 


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