Re: [xsl] XSL:FO Identify Transforms

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

At 2011-09-16 17:19 +0100, you wrote:
> I have an XSL I use for identifying the XML - e.g. takes the XML and 
> transforms it into another XML. This works as expected when it's XSLT.
> However I need to make this work in the same work but using XSL:FO 
> so that it can be made pretty for print and outputted as a PDF.
>
> I am sure this should be simple, and I am missing something obvious.

A user's vocabulary cannot simply be copied into an XSL-FO file, just 
in the same way it cannot simply be copied into an HTML file.

> How can I get the <xsl:copy> and <xsl:elements> working in FO, or 
> something similar?

By not using those instructions and translating your input into 
appropriate XSL-FO constructs.

For example, match on your block-level constructs and use <fo:block>, 
and match on your inline-level constructs and use <fo:inline>.

> <xsl:template match="/ | node()">
>                 <xsl:copy>
>                    <xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()" />
>                 </xsl:copy>
> </xsl:template>

Above you are copying your input

> <xsl:template match="@*" >
>                 <xsl:element name="attribute">
>                                 <xsl:attribute name="name">
>                                                 <xsl:value-of 
> select="local-name()" />
>                                 </xsl:attribute>
>                                 <xsl:value-of select="." />
>                 </xsl:element>
> </xsl:template>

Unrelated to your question, the above can be replaced with:

<xsl:template match="@*"><xsl:copy/></xsl:template>

.... or even incorporated into a single template rule with:

<xsl:template match="node() | @*">
                <xsl:copy>
                   <xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()" />
                </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>

... but it is still inappropriate in your stylesheet to go to XSL-FO.

> SAMPLE XML:
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
> <xml>
>             <header>
>                         <test>This is  test</test>
>             </header>
> </xml>

The XSL-FO specification tells an engine to tolerate elements it does 
not recognize when those elements are not in the XSL-FO namespace, 
but it throws them and their content away.

The HTML specification tells a browser to tolerate elements it does 
not recognize, but it still processes the content of that unrecognized element.

Again, draw the parallel to HTML:  if you used the identity transform 
in a stylesheet going to HTML, your end result would have <header> 
and <test> elements in the HTML and you wouldn't get a pretty print 
because a browser does not recognize your vocabulary.  In HTML you 
have to build a document of <div> and <span> (or whatever HTML) from your XML.

Similarly, when using XSL-FO you have to build a document of <block> 
and <inline> (or whatever XSL-FO) from your XML, because the engine 
does not recognize your vocabulary.

I hope this helps.

. . . . . . . . . . .  Ken


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