RE: [xsl] XML to HTML: How to make decisions based on what has been displayed

Subject: RE: [xsl] XML to HTML: How to make decisions based on what has been displayed
From: "Michael Kay" <mhk@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 08:36:36 -0000
> I am creating the stylesheet for displaying info from fairly 
> large XML files (1 to 2 MB). The output is HTML and I'm using 
> the http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform namespace. I have to 
> alternate background colors of every row in a table. The FAQ 
> list has a straightforward answer that I've used:
> 
> <xsl:choose>
> 	<xsl:when test="position() mod 2 = 0">
> 		<xsl:attribute name="BGCOLOR">white</xsl:attribute>
> 	</xsl:when>
> 	<xsl:otherwise>
> 		<xsl:attribute name="BGCOLOR">gainsboro</xsl:attribute>
> 	</xsl:otherwise>
> </xsl:choose>
> 
> This should work, right? Wrong! The problem I have is that 
> I'm not selecting every element for the output tree. 

This shouldn't matter. position() calculates the position of the current
node within the current node list, which is the list of nodes selected
using <xsl:apply-templates> or <xsl:for-each>. So long as you select the
nodes to be included using one of those instructions (and not, for
example, by selected a larger set of nodes and then selecting a subset
using xsl:if or xsl:choose) the position() should be set correctly.




> For 
> instance, if I have five elements, and for some reason 
> (immaterial for the purpose of this question) I want to 
> select only elements 1, 3 and 5, they'll all end up being the 
> same color. My idea is that if I can store somehow the value 
> of the previous background, I can look at it

You can't store anything in XSLT - it's a side-effect-free language; and
there is no concept of "previous" - it's not a sequential execution
model. 

 
> Also, I have to display in the HTML document the name - only 
> once - of an element who has at least one descendant 
> satisfying certain conditions. The way I solved that was to 
> use xsl:for-each on the descendants, and select the name of 
> the element only on the first descendant satisfying the condition:

That shouldn't be necessary. I can't follow your code below but I think
you've made it much too difficult. From the description given above, you
should be doing something like:

<xsl:value-of select="name(element[.//*[conditions]][1])"/>

Michael Kay


> 
> <!-- Display the test name only if the test has numeric 
> results --> 
>  <xsl:for-each 
> select="preceding-sibling::ResultList/Element/Numeric">
> 	<!-- Display the test name only for the first 
> encountered numeric result (guarantees exactly one display of 
> the test name) -->
> 	<xsl:if test="../preceding-sibling::Element/Numeric=false()">
> 		<H2><br/><br/>
> 			<FONT FACE="ARIAL">
> 				<xsl:if test="../Status = ' Passed'">
> 					<xsl:attribute
> name="COLOR"><xsl:value-of 
> select="//ReportOptions/Colors/Passed"/></xsl:attribute>
> 					<xsl:value-of
> select="../../../Sequence"/>
> 					<IMG
> SRC="C:\TestStand\Examples\XMLReports\passed.gif"/>
> 				</xsl:if>
> 				<xsl:if test="../Status = ' Failed'">
> 					<xsl:attribute
> name="COLOR"><xsl:value-of 
> select="//ReportOptions/Colors/Failed"/></xsl:attribute>
> 					<xsl:value-of
> select="../../../Sequence"/>
> 					<IMG
> SRC="C:\TestStand\Examples\XMLReports\failed.gif"/>
> 				</xsl:if>
> 			</FONT>
> 		</H2>
> 	</xsl:if>
> </xsl:for-each>
> 
> That worked just fine until somebody threw at me an XML file 
> that had some additional elements defeating the purpose my 
> checks to determine the "first" descendant. Again, if I would 
> have a way of knowing if the ancestor name has already been 
> displayed, I would be done. Wouldn't have to determine the 
> first descendant any more, just get a match on every 
> descendant but display only if the ancestor name hasn't been 
> displayed. Can this be done?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> CV
> 
>  XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
> 


 XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list


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