Re: [xsl] Where does <xsl:message> output go?

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

At 2010-04-07 10:06 -0400, Costello, Roger L. wrote:
> I know that when I run an XSLT transform from the DOS command line, 
> the contents of <xsl:message> goes to the command line.

Sounds like you are using Saxon and it is actually going to the error 
port.  You can redirect it with:

  2>filename

> If I invoke an XSLT transform using, say, a Java program, where does 
> the <xsl:message> content go? If there are multiple <xsl:message> 
> elements, does their content all go to the same place? Where?

It is implementation defined.  The spec doesn't say where they go at all:

  http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/REC-xslt20-20070123/#message
  "The xsl:message instruction sends a message in an
   implementation-defined way."

> Is it the same for every XSLT processor?

Not at all.  Saxon puts them to the error port.  IE ignores all 
except those with terminate="yes".  And even then I think IE 
truncates a long message.

> What happens to the in-memory result tree when the XSLT processor 
> encounters an <xsl:message terminate="yes"> element?

It is the same as a dynamic error:

  When a transformation is terminated by use of xsl:message
  terminate="yes", the effect is the same as when a
  non-recoverable dynamic error occurs during the transformation.

I've found sometimes that if I've finished off the result tree 
document element and then run terminate="yes" that the file is okay, 
but I can't rely on that.

I hope this helps.

. . . . . . . . . . Ken

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