[xsl] exsl:node-set issue in XalanC 110

[Satish <spwanderer-know@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Experts,


I am trying to transform a xml (custom schema) to MSExcel using
SpreadsheetML 
2003 specification. I am using Apache's Xalan-C++ (1.10) and
Apache's Xerces-C++ 


parser (2.70) for the transformation.

When I convert
the xsl variable holding a RTF to a nodeset, it seems to fail. I 
try to get
the count but always end up with a zero. However if I print the xsl 
variable
itself using a <xsl:copy-of>, I can see all the rows in the output 
file.

Can
anyone see the issue with my xsl code?

Here's my stylesheet (with relevant
comments)

Stylesheet
=========

<!-- the dataRows variable contains all books
for the author
       each book indicated by a <Row> element -->
<xsl:variable  name="dataRows">
  <xsl:call-template name="getBooks">
<xsl:with-param name="authorId" select="$authorId" />
  </xsl:call-template>
</xsl:variable>

...

<!-- now I want to know how many rows were returned as
I have to apply some conditional formatting in Excel and
      I need the
range of cells -->

<!-- So I convert this $dataRows to a nodeset and try to
get
       the count of <Row> elements using the following XPath -->
<xsl:variable name="rowCount" select="count(exsl:node-set($dataRows)/Row)" />
<!-- the above @select doesn't work, although I can not see why
however, I print the $dataRows itself using xsl:copyof and 
       I can see
all <Row>  elements in the output file -->
...

<xsl:template name="getBooks">
<xsl:param name="authorId">

  <!-- get all books by the author and print a
row (excel row) for each -->
  <Row>
    <Cell ss:StyleID="s17">
      <Data
ss:Type="Number>
        <xsl:value-of select="$totalPages" />
      </Data>
</Cell>
    ...
    <!-- other information about the book -->
  </Row>
</xsl:template>

The choice of XalanC and XercesC is beyond my control, so I
am stuck with XSLT 
1.0

I also tried the same in MS VS2005 but without any
success. When I debug in VS, 
I can see that $dataRows variable contains the
child <Row> elements but the 
count is still zero.

Thanks for your help
Satish