Re: [xsl] dynamically applying templates

[Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Bruce,

At 03:30 PM 9/15/2004, you wrote:
> MODS doesn't really have explicit typing, so the function does the 
> typing.  It says, in really simplistic terms, if the record has two titles 
> and is issued once, it's a chapter; if only one title, it's a book.  That 
> way, even those things that aren't technically chapters or books but have 
> the same characteristics get formatted fairly accurately.

This strikes me as strange, since I'd hardly think machine heuristics could 
be trusted to decide what a thing "is"; but if that's the way MODS works 
and if formatting is in actuality more an expression of the structure of 
the record than of the ontological status of what it refers to, I suppose 
I'm not one to complain.... :->

> I'm not really sure the implications of that for the templates; it sounds 
> like you're suggesting it'd be easiest to have a fixed list of "types" and 
> have a bunch of templates like the below, where mods:type is created in 
> the temporary tree?
>
>         <xsl:template match="mods:mods[mods:type='book']">

If your mods data is created in a temporary tree and you can provide this, 
yes certainly, it would do nicely.

(Of course in the XSLT you might just match on mods:mods, and that @type 
would be used only for the dynamic delegation of logic to the appropriate 
configuration node.)

As for a fixed list of types, I think that's more or less inevitable, 
though certainly the list can and should be extensible, and a fallback 
"catchall" type should also be available for when data coming in 
corresponds to no known type at all.

Regards,
Wendell



======================================================================
Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street                    Direct Phone: 301/315-9635
Suite 207                                          Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD  20850                                 Fax: 301/315-8285
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in SGML and XML
======================================================================


--+------------------------------------------------------------------
XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
To unsubscribe, go to: http://lists.mulberrytech.com/xsl-list/
or e-mail: <mailto:xsl-list-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
--+--