Re: [xsl] Building a Manual with XML/XSL

At 2003-09-06 21:02 +0200, Iván Montoro Ten wrote:

I'm building several manuals with XML for a product we make. I've
seen several frameworks for it, but I'm looking for something
easier, as a bare XML file and a XSL HTML transform (maybe later
I'll get PDF, but that's too much for me right now!)

It might seem scary, but it is as easy as for HTML, just with a different output vocabulary. There are two free book excerpts you can download from our web site to learn more and to use as reference material. As well, we are running two publicly-subscribed training courses in Europe in two week's time that will cover *every* element, attribute and function in XSLT and *every* formatting object in XSL-FO.

I've the basic skeleton for my document. I want XSL to transform
this in a basic <P></P>, <H1></H1>, <H2></H2> structure, but
I don't know how to iterate the subelements linearly, rather I
know how to xsl:for-each them. Is there any solution for this?

<xsl:for-each> is a "pull" approach to the information.

<xsl:apply-templates/> is a "push" approach to the information. The free excerpts give a characterization of these two approaches and contrasts some example stylesheets in each approach.

See a complete example using your data below that illustrates this push approach.

I hope this helps.

............... Ken

p.s. I'm curious why you modelled your titles as attributes ... I would recommend that language-oriented content be in #PCDATA and machine-oriented content be in attributes ... this will allow you to add structure (emphasis, font style, etc) to portions of your titles ... if you leave your titles as attributes, which cannot be structured, you will be limited in the future as your data matures.

T:\ftemp>type ivan.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<manual>
  <chapter title="Begining with...">
    <sub1 title="To start...">
      <para>text text text</para>
      <sub2 title="What you need">
        <para>text text text</para>
      </sub2>
      <sub2 title="Doing it well">
        <para>text text text</para>
        <sub3 title="Don't forget...">
          <para>text text text</para>
        </sub3>
        <para>text text text</para>
      </sub2>
    </sub1>
  </chapter>
</manual>

T:\ftemp>type ivan.xsl
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";
                version="1.0">

<xsl:template match="/">
  <html><xsl:apply-templates/></html>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="sub1">
  <h1><xsl:value-of select="@title"/></h1>
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="sub2">
  <h2><xsl:value-of select="@title"/></h2>
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="sub3">
  <h3><xsl:value-of select="@title"/></h3>
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="para">
  <p><xsl:apply-templates/></p>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>
T:\ftemp>saxon ivan.xml ivan.xsl
<html>

<h1>To start...</h1>

<p>text text text</p>

<h2>What you need</h2>

<p>text text text</p>

<h2>Doing it well</h2>

<p>text text text</p>

<h3>Don't forget...</h3>

<p>text text text</p>

<p>text text text</p>


</html>
T:\ftemp>


--
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for XSLT and XSL-FO world-wide:  please contact us for the details

G. Ken Holman                 mailto:gkholman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Crane Softwrights Ltd.          http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/s/
Box 266, Kars, Ontario CANADA K0A-2E0    +1(613)489-0999 (F:-0995)
ISBN 0-13-065196-6                       Definitive XSLT and XPath
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ISBN 1-894049-11-X               Practical Formatting Using XSL-FO
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