Re: [xsl] Dynamic, configurable transformations / was: Re: Wrap changing element sequence into container: with 'for-each-group'?

[David Carlisle <davidc@xxxxxxxxx>]

without seeing an example it's hard to say.

> My idea was to define an XML language that would describe the desired 
> transformation for each p style, and to retrieve the transformation 
> rules specified as XML from inside the application-specific style sheet 
>   that just imports the module with the unmodified "p" template.

that all sounds reasonable until the last bit where I don't see what a
template matching p is doing for you. If it just matches all p's then 
tests the style attribute to call named templates then you would
apparent;y get exactly the  same effect, but much more efficiently,
by not having the template match all p and instead having separate
templates that match different styles.

> Would you consider it a better idea to dynamically generate an 
> application-specific style sheet containing classical push style 
> templates, in my case stuff like match="p[@style='value1'] ? That would 
> at least allow me to group adjacent siblings into a common container, I 
> suppose.

I think the grouping is a separate issue, which is usally best handled
in the template that matches the parent of your p elements.

But if your p template looks like

<xsl:template match="p">
  <xsl:choose>
  <xsl:when test="@style='a'">
    <xsl:call-template name="p-a"/>
  </xsl:when>
  <xsl:when test="@style='b'">
    <xsl:call-template name="p-b"/>
  </xsl:when>


Then it's usually a good idea to get rid of the p template and change

<xsl:template name="p-a">

to

<xsl:template match="p[@style='a']">

as it's less code to write, easier to maintain,  and more efficient to
run.

If that isn't what you mean by your general p template then ignore the
comments (and give an example:-)

David