Re: [xsl] overriding <xsl:output> attributes

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

At 2010-07-08 16:34 -0700, Lynn Murdock wrote:
> i have a document A that imports document B.
>
> in the <xsl:output> instruction, document B specifies doctype-public 
> and doctype-system attributes.  in document A, i want to disable 
> output of doctypes, as we add the doctype declaration at another 
> point in our production pipeline (ie, not in the xsl).
> ...
> simply omitting the doctype statements in the importing document 
> does not disable the output of doctype statements.  according to 
> michael kay's book, a specified attribute within <xsl:output> takes 
> precedence over an omitted attribute, regardless of which document 
> it's in (importing or imported).

Yes, the *attributes* are overridden, not the entire instruction.

> i have tried adding a name attribute to the importing statement, to 
> try to create a new output definition, with no success.  i have also 
> tried using doctype-public="" and doctype-system="" in the importing 
> document, but these simply output a doctype statement with a "" value.
>
> is there a way to completely disable the output of these statements 
> in the resulting html, given that i can't modify the imported document?

No.  I can't think of any way.

But I can give you an "ineffectual" declaration so that you produce a 
DOCTYPE but it doesn't add anything to your document:

This works in DOS:

<!DOCTYPE abc PUBLIC "" "nul"
[
<!ELEMENT abc EMPTY>
]>
<abc/>

This works in Unix:

<!DOCTYPE abc PUBLIC "" "/dev/null"
[
<!ELEMENT abc EMPTY>
]>
<abc/>

So you just need doctype-public="" and doctype-system="/dev/null" or "nul".

> i'm using saxon 8.7, and xsl 2.0.
>
> any insight into this issue would be much appreciated.

This is along the same lines as being able to add attributes to an 
element in the result tree, but not remove them.

I hope this helps but I realize it doesn't get you your desired 
result of omitting the declarations ... nevertheless the declarations 
above will give you the same effect as if not having 
them.  Unfortunately it isn't portable.  If you need a portable 
solution, then create an empty file in your system and point to it 
using the doctype-system.

. . . . . . . . . . Ken

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