[xsl] Global namespace prefixes (Corrected Examples)

[Nathan Potter <ndp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(I post this earlier and bungled it. My examples where broken, and I  
managed to attach it to an existing thread. Here's a better effort.)


Greetings,

The crux of my question is this:

Is there a way to get namespace prefix declarations into the root  
element of the result tree through the XSLT API? Or must each  
namespace prefix declared in the root element of the result tree be  
present in the xsl:stylesheet element of the transform?



I have the situation that I need to use (create elements in) a  
namespace whose name is contained in, but not a declared namespace of,  
the input document for my XSLT.



Input:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Dataset xmlns="http://xml.opendap.org/ns/DAP/3.2#"; base="http://base.document 
">
   <Attribute name="Conventions" >CF-1.0</Attribute>
   <Attribute name="logname" >olson</Attribute>
   <Attribute name="host" >bb0001en</Attribute>
</Dataset>



XSLT:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
      xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";
      xmlns:dap="http://xml.opendap.org/ns/DAP/3.2#";
      >
   <xsl:output method='xml' version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'  
indent='yes'/>

   <xsl:template match="dap:Dataset" >
        <output>
            <xsl:apply-templates />
        </output>
   </xsl:template>

   <xsl:template match="dap:Attribute" >
       <xsl:element name="{@name}" namespace="{/dap:Dataset/@base}/ 
att#"><xsl:value-of select="." /></xsl:element>
   </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>



And it works. Output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<output xmlns:dap="http://xml.opendap.org/ns/DAP/3.2#";>
  <ns0:Conventions xmlns:ns0="http://base.document/att#";>CF-1.0</ 
ns0:Conventions>
  <ns1:logname xmlns:ns1="http://base.document/att#";>olson</ 
ns1:logname>
  <ns2:host xmlns:ns2="http://base.document/att#";>bb0001en</ns2:host>
</output>


However this bit of creating a new prefix for every element - even  
though the namespace is the same - is a bit of a drag from a  
readability standpoint (I end up with hundreds of these prefixes).

From what I can tell the only way to get a single, global, namespace  
prefix into the result tree is for it to be declared in the  
xsl:stylesheet element of the transform.

Is that true?

If so, then I think that means I need to modify the xsl:stylesheet  
document for each document processed.

Is that a reasonable design pattern?


Nathan


============================================================
Nathan Potter                 Oregon State University, COAS
ndp at coas.oregonstate.edu   104 Ocean. Admin. Bldg.
541 737 2293 voice            Corvallis, OR   97331-5503
541 737 2064 fax