Re: [xsl] XSL FO TOC for an indexing document

["G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 2009-03-15 14:00 -0700, Mark Wilson wrote:
> All of the XSL FO TOC generating examples I have seen are keyed to 
> the structural parts of a book (a chapter element, etc) or some 
> similar object. I have constructed an index to a journal using 
> XSL-FO and would like to have a TOC that indicates the initial use 
> of each letter of the alphabet, or some useful refinement thereof. 
> For a start, how would I identify the position in the index where a 
> letter was used for the first time.

I think that is the wrong question to ask when working with 
XSL-FO.  You need to work top-down.

> If it would help, here is a draft copy of the document: 
> http://www.knihtisk.org/library/specialist/headings.pdf.
>
> The initial occurrence of a letter , as well as every other 
> occurrence, will appear in the XML element <Heading>. For the letter 
> 'A', this is  the first entry in the above document <Heading>Abbeys 
> and Monasteries</Heading>. Since every entry appears in the same 
> element type, how do I distinguish 'interesting' <Heading> elements 
> (those with an initial occurrence of a letter) from their less 
> interesting cousins (those with later occurrences)?

<xsl:for-each-group select="....population.here..."
                    group-by="upper-case(substring(normalize-space(.),1,1)">
  <!--now at the first one of the population with the first letter-->
  <fo:block font-size="150%" font-weight="bold">
     <!--show the letter-->
     <xsl:value-of select="current-grouping-key()"/>
  </fo:block>
  <!--all those with the first letter are in current-group()-->
  <!--create your index entries here with those in the current-group()-->
</xsl:for-each-group>

I hope this helps.

. . . . . . . . . . Ken

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