Re: [xsl] How to get comments to indent on their own line in XML output?

[Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Alan,

At 02:51 AM 7/8/2008, you wrote:
> What interests me is the least inelegant way of doing this "by 
> hand", as you mention.

Elegance is certainly in the eye of the beholder, but you could 
generalize your creation of any comment like so:

<xsl:template name="make-comment">
  <xsl:param name="content" select="''"/>
  <xsl:text>&#xA;</xsl:text>
  <xsl:comment>
    <xsl:value-of select="$content"/>
  </xsl:comment>
  <xsl:text>&#xA;</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>

Then calling it like so:

<xsl:call-template name="make-comment">
  <xsl:with-param name="content">
    <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </xsl:with-param>
</xsl:call-template>

will result in a comment containing the string value of the results 
of applying templates to the context node (where the 'make-comment' 
template is called), preceded and followed by a CR character.

Of course, you can pass anything in as the parameter, and its string 
value will appear in the comment.

Indenting the comment is a bit trickier, but you might find that an 
indent based on the depth of the context node (where the comment is 
called) will work for you:

<xsl:template name="make-comment">
  <xsl:param name="content" select="''"/>
  <xsl:text>&#xA;</xsl:text>
  <xsl:for-each select="ancestor::*">
    <xsl:text>  </xsl:text>
  </xsl:for-each>
  <xsl:comment>
    <xsl:value-of select="$content"/>
  </xsl:comment>
  <xsl:text>&#xA;</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>

Adjustments may have to be made. In certain cases you may also find 
you have to pass the indent in as a parameter as well. It all depends 
on what your requirements are.

Note that in a system with many stylesheets under maintenance, it may 
also make sense to separate all this logic out into a post-processing 
stylesheet.

Cheers,
Wendell


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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
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