Re: [xsl] determine the number of payment methods and specify order depending on page type being viewed

[Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Caroline,

Please forgive us if we can't address your problems instantly.

What you are trying to do isn't beyond the reach of an expert in the 
language, but you are looking at several problems at once, which need 
to be disentangled.

I'm afraid I can't do that at this moment, but I can make a 
suggestion that would help myself (if I should have more free time 
another day) or another reader to interpret what you are trying to do 
and help you work it out. Would it be possible for you to rewrite 
your code using literal result element syntax instead of explicit 
xsl:element and xsl:attribute instructions for everything?

An example of what I mean -- would you be able to rewrite

> <xsl:when test="$label = 'directDebit'">
>   <xsl:element name="li">
>     <xsl:attribute name="class">doubleLine current</xsl:attribute>
>     Payment by <br/><xsl:value-of select="$ddPayment" />
>   </xsl:element>
>   <xsl:element name="li">
>     <xsl:attribute name="class">doubleLine</xsl:attribute>
>     Payment by <br/><xsl:value-of select="$ccPayment" />
>   </xsl:element>
>   <xsl:element name="li">
>     <xsl:attribute name="class">doubleLine</xsl:attribute>
>     Payment by <br/><xsl:value-of select="$iPayment" />
>   </xsl:element>
> </xsl:when>

as this:

<xsl:when test="$label = 'directDebit'">
  <li class="doubleLine current">Payment by <br/>Direct Debit</li>
  <li class="doubleLine">Payment by <br/>Credit Card</li>
  <li class="doubleLine">Payment by <br/>Invoice</li>
</xsl:when>

... and similarly throughout the rest of your code sample?

(You will notice I have also dropped your variables $ddPayment, 
$ccPayment, and $iPayment, which make the code more obscure without 
adding anything at present. These can always be restored later, if wanted.)

As you can see, the LRE syntax is more more concise and legible. This 
would make it possible to recognize the patterns in your logic.

This is doubly important for you since recognizing, abstracting and 
simplifying the patterns in your logic is the essence of the problem 
here. What you will find is that like any programming language, XSLT 
makes it possible to factor out repetition and distill that logic to 
its simplest most comprehensible form.

But only if you can see those patterns first -- and we can't.

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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