Applying a named template to arbitrary content

[Iain Huxley <iain@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi --

I've spent a fair while searching for a solution to a seemingly simple 
problem, perhaps someone could help me out...

I'm trying to make a generic template which will, in effect, simply insert 
stuff before and after the content.  In one case, I want to do it to apply 
font styling parameters etc. where needed:

e.g.
    ...
    <font size="4" color="#ffffff">
      <b>
        ...content...
      </b>
    </font>
    ..

The catch is that I want the content to be arbitrary - sometimes it would 
simply be <xsl:apply-templates/>, sometimes it might be a call to another 
named template, or it might be a series of elements and text.

The closest I've got is by always calling <xsl:apply-templates/> within the 
template

e.g.

<xsl:template name="FontAppearance">
    <font size="4" color="#ffffff">
      <b>
        <xsl:apply-templates/>
      </b>
    </font>
</xsl:template>

usage:
<xsl:call-template name="FontAppearance"/>

however, this isn't great since I want to be able to apply the style to 
anything, such as a call to a named template.

In order to solve this, I tried assigning the desired content to a 
variable, and passing that to the template. (I initally tried putting the 
content directly into the param and using <xsl:value-of select="$content"> 
in the named template, I'm not sure if this should be possible).

e.g.

<xsl:template name="FontAppearance">
  <xsl:param name="content">
    <font size="4" color="#ffffff">
      <b>
        <xsl:copy-of select="$content"/>
      </b>
    </font>
</xsl:template>

usage:
  <xsl:variable name="foo">
    <!-- content example - call index template -->
    <xsl:call-template name="Index"/>
  </xsl:variable>
  <xsl:call-template name="FontAppearance">
    <xsl:param name="content">
     <xsl:value-of select="$foo">
    </xsl:param>
  </xsl:call-template>

However, this doesn't work, and it's very clunky considering how regularly 
I want to use it in my stylesheet anyway.

Here are some examples of how I'd ideally like to use it:

  <xsl:call-template name="FontAppearance_Body1">
    <!-- following would be inserted into the FontAppearance template -->
    <xsl:call-template name="Index"/>
  </xsl:call-template>

  <xsl:call-template name="FontAppearance_Heading1">
   <xsl:value-of select="Title"/>
  </xsl:call-template>

  <xsl:call-template name="FontAppearance_Body2">
   <xsl:apply-templates select="Sections"/>
  </xsl:call-template>


My basic question is - what's the closest I can get to the above 
usage?  Perhaps I've missed something obvious, it seems like it should be 
more straightforward to do what I want.

Thanks in advance,

Iain.


//----------------------------------------------------
// Iain Huxley
// President
// Mindspike Technologies
// http://mindspike.com
// Ph: (510) 339 7789
//----------------------------------------------------


XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list