[xsl] dictating node processing order

[Nathan Shaw <n8_shaw@xxxxxxxxx>]

I am trying to allow an end user of an application to
have the ability to pass in which fields they would
like to see and in which order, as well as, what the
sort order should be, when they view the results page
of a search run against an LDAP server.

To accomplish this, I am shoving their desired fields
(which are ordered in the order in which they should
be displayed in the resulting XHTML document) and sort
order into the XML document so that I can pick them
out with my XSLT (this was chosen instead of passing
params into the parser for portability's sake).

<searchResults>
  <searchResult>
  	<uniqueID>HQ007267</uniqueID>
    <firstName>Jonathan</firstName>
    <lastName>Smith</lastName>
    <fullName>Jonathan H Smith</fullName>
    <title>Senior Consultant</title>
    <organization>National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration</organization>
	<orgUnit>headquarters</orgUnit>
    <email>jsmith5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</email>
    <code>AO</code>
    <employer>Booz, Allen and Hamilton</employer>
    <phone>+1 202 358-1389</phone>
    <fax>+1 202 358-3063</fax>
    <building>HQ</building>
    <room>6075</room>
  </searchResult>
  <searchResult>
  	<uniqueID>HQ005617</uniqueID>
  	<firstName>Mark</firstName>
  	<lastName>Smith</lastName>
  	<fullName>Mark Allen Smith</fullName>
    <title>Criminal Investigator</title>
    <organization>National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration</organization>
	<orgUnit>headquarters</orgUnit>
    <email>mark.smith@xxxxxxxx</email>
    <code>W</code>
    <employer>NASA</employer>
    <phone>+1 818 354-9804</phone>
    <fax>+1 818 393-4271</fax>
    <building>JPL</building>
    <room></room>
  </searchResult>
  <supplementaryData>
    <sort>
      <sortField>employer</sortField>
      <sortField>lastName</sortField>
      <sortPage>search.cfm</sortPage>
    </sort>
    <display>
		  <displayField>fullname</displayField>
		  <displayField>code</displayField>
		  <displayField>employer</displayField>
		  <displayField>room</displayField>
		  <displayField>phone</displayField>
		  <displayField>email</displayField>
    </display>
   
<ldapBaseUrl>ldap://ldap.hq.nasa.gov:389/ou=headquarters,o=National

Aeronautics and Space
Administration,c=us??sub?</ldapBaseUrl>
  </supplementaryData>
</searchResults>

However, when trying to output the desired fields in
the proper order, I am running into design problems.

This is what I am attempting now, but apparently
xsl:apply-templates needs an actual node set, not a
string representing a pointer to a node set.

<xsl:template match="searchResult">
	<tr>
		<xsl:for-each select="$displayFields/displayField">
			<xsl:variable name="dField" 
select="concat('/searchResults/searchResult/',normalize-space(.))"
/>
			<!--<xsl:value-of select="$dField" /><br />-->
			<td valign="top" align="left">
				<xsl:choose>
					<xsl:when test="$dField='email'">
						<a>
							<xsl:attribute name="href">mailto:<xsl:value-of

select="normalize-space(.)" /></xsl:attribute>
							<xsl:apply-templates select="$dField" />
						</a>
					</xsl:when>
					<xsl:otherwise>
						<xsl:apply-templates select="$dField" />
					</xsl:otherwise>
				</xsl:choose>
			</td>
		</xsl:for-each>
	</tr>
</xsl:template>

Is there a better way to accomplish what I am trying
to do? I feel like I should be thinking differently,
looking at the problem from another angle, but I have
been unable to see one yet.

a cc to me is appreciated, as I am a digester...

thanks,

--Nate


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