[xsl] Applying an XSLT-file to specific nodes within an XML file

[Mark Aussems <mark.aussems@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

Hopefully someone can assist me in solving a (probably rather basic) 
problem related to restricting the execution of an XSLT file to a 
specific part of an XML file.

My XML file looks like this (very simplified):

<mss>
      <msDesc>
              <msItem>
                      <title>AAAA</title>
              </msItem>
      </msDesc>
      <msDesc>
              <msItem>
                      <title>BBBB</title>
              </msItem>
      </msDesc>
      <msDesc>
              <msItem>
                      <title>CCCC</title>
              </msItem>
      </msDesc>
</mss>

I have written an XSLT file which transforms my entire XML into a nice 
HTML file. I would now like to restrict the XSLT file so that it ONLY 
transforms the <msDesc> nodes which have a <title> tag with the value 
'AAAA'. So, in simpler terms, I would like to say to my XSL file:

1. Find all <msDesc> nodes which have a <title> tag with the value 'AAAA'.
2. Apply the following <xsl:template>  transformations, but only to the 
<msDesc> nodes specified above.
3. [And then all my <xsl:template> transformations]

A possible solution to this would be to write a simple XQuery script to 
extract the relevant <msDesc> nodes and put them in a separate XML file, 
which can then be transformed. That requires a lot of manual labour 
(especially since my titles go from AAAA to PPPP...), so I was wondering 
whether there is a work-around or short-cut within XSL?

I hope this makes sense. I'm sure there's something obvious I'm missing...

Many thanks in advance,
Mark