Hi Vivek,
Looking at your sample code has lead me to draw the conclusion that the best
way to help you understand both what your problem is and the best way in
which to solve it is to point you towards an XSLT tutorial that will help
you learn the underlying foundation of XSLT first before trying to tackle an
advance grouping problem such as this one. It seems Dr. Kay has gone ahead
and created some code that will solve your problem. As such I would do two
things at this point.... stop whatever you are doing and locate and print
out a copy of Wendell's (Piez) email from last week that discussed in detail
the concepts and methodology behind your problem and explained them in an
easy to understand format that very few people have the capability of doing.
Then pay a visit to Dave Pawson's site
(http://www.dpawson.co.uk/xsl/index.html) and go to the "Where to Start"
section (http://www.dpawson.co.uk/xsl/sect1/sect1.html) and spend some time
really trying to build a strong foundation in beginning to intermediate XSLT
concepts. Bookmark DaveP's site as this will be a great reference that you
will find yourself utilizing a ton just like most of the rest of us do.
Next stop is Jeni Tennison's site that David Carlisle pointed you at this
morning (http://www.jenitennison.com/xslt/index.html). This site will help
you tremendously in really bringing home the more advanced topics such as
positional grouping (the problem you are currently tackling).
Probably the best thing you can do for now and for the future is to purchase
a copy of Dr. Kays XSLT Reference from Amazon
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1861005067/qid=1086868682/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-6792726-9104143?v=glance&s=books).
Jeni also lists several of her titles (although it seems to me there are
more titles either out or on there way out than she has listed on her
site... but no doubt she knows better than I do :) Maybes she's listing the
ones that she feels are best associated with the tutorials on the site and
as such I would also invest into one if not all of her XSLT titles as you
will find that she has a very gifted (and extremely educated/experienced as
does Dr. Kay:) way of teaching XSLT that will ensure a long term retention
for the simple fact that when you are finished reading one of her tutorials
you will not just know how but you will also understand why, a crucial
element of truly understanding XSLT from the foundation on up. Between
Wendell's email from last week (he has a GREAT web site as well that
showcases and annotates a complete XSLT based application
(http://www.xmlshoestring.com)) and DaveP's and Dr. Tennison's web sites,
Dr. Kay's technology and language reference and Dr. Tennison's tutorial and
reference styled titles you will be well equipped to be the one answering
instead of asking the questions of other newcomers who are trying to get a
grasp of XSLT by jumping with both feet from the high dive into the deep end
of the XML/XSLT pool and kicking and paddling there way to safety via shear
will power and guts. I commend you for being fearless but implore you now
to spend some time with the master instructors in a more shallow section of
the pool until such time as you are able to do more than tread water until
someone comes along to pull you to safety.
Best of luck Vivek!
<M:D/>
----- Original Message -----
From: "Vivek Shinde" <Vivek.Shinde@xxxxxxx>
To: <xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2004 12:01 PM
Subject: RE: [xsl] Retaining value of a Global variable
Hi,
I'll post it soon. I am trying to find simpler solution. Michael had
suggested position() but since I may have the article(s) at any position,
that would not work. I am trying with xsl:key.
My main problem is:
I have an XML that contains multiple articles for a newsletter. There could
or could not be some articles with article-classification as 'Webcasts'. If
I find even a single article with classification of 'Webcast', then I want
to print a title 'Webcasts' and then list all the articles. I have done the
code for listing the articles. The problem I am having is identifying if
there's even one article of that classification and then print 'Webcast'
title only once. That's why I was looking to set the global variable and
then increment it once I hit the first webcast article and then go for
listing the articles of that type. But it seems that's not possible.
Therefore I am trying xsl:key. Any other input on doing it simpler way?
The XML sample:
<article>
<class>News</class>
<teaser>AAAAAAAAAA</teaser>
</article>
<article>
<class>Webcast</class>
<teaser>BBBBBBBBBB </teaser>
</article>
<article>
<class>News</class>
<teaser>CCCCCCCCCCC </teaser>
</article>
<article>
<class>Webcast</class>
<teaser>DDDDDDDD </teaser>
</article>
Thanks
Vivek
-----Original Message-----
From: Wendell Piez [mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2004 11:05 AM
To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [xsl] Retaining value of a Global variable
I'm going to leave this one aside for a bit. Until we hear again from
Vivek, it's not clear to me that this is -- quite -- a standard grouping
problem, due to the requirement to group according to string containment,
not just string equality.
It'd be much easier if we could see a representative example of the input.
Vivek, could you post a bit of it, along with a restatement of what kind of
output you want for your input? That way it's all in one email -- less to
guess, less confusing to track.
On the other hand, maybe our haphazard comments and hints have been enough
to help Vivek find the solution on his own.
Cheers,
Wendell
At 10:32 AM 7/19/2004, M.David wrote:
After being "woken up" to a fresh breath of "oh my goodness did I
really
swing and miss before the ball even crossed the plate"....
======================================================================
Wendell Piez mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc. http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street Direct Phone: 301/315-9635
Suite 207 Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD 20850 Fax: 301/315-8285
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in SGML and XML
======================================================================