Re: [xsl] Can't get output from xml -> text transformation

[Josh Canfield <joshcanfield@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hmm... actually after closing the featuredGame element the provided
XSL does work, although there was a lot of unwanted space.

The built-in template rules allow for processing nodes deep within the
tree without having to account for every parent node in the tree. It's
only when you catch a node in a template match that you have to worrry
about deeper nodes getting processed.

It seems like what you are describing is the behavior of xsl:value-of,
which is often confused for xsl:copy-of

> It seems that what you are expecting to happen is for every node (every child of
> a child of a child etc...) to be processed according to document order and when
> there is not matching template it will simply move to the next child or
> grandchild until it finds a match.

This is exactly what happens... except that there is always a matching
template because of the built-in template rules...

See http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt#built-in-rule

Josh          

On Wed, 11 Aug 2004 12:25:06 -0600, M. David Peterson
<m.david@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi Todd,
> 
> Understanding what nodes are being processed and matched to a template will help
> in your understanding of whats happening.  <xsl:apply-templates /> is the same
> thing as <xsl:apply-templates select="*"/> which will select all the children of
> the current context (root) and seek out a template to match them to (in your
> case there are no matching templates to the children of context - one node by
> the name of "allGamesDownloadable" - and as such the "value" of each child node
> is simply sent to the output "as is" until there are no more children left to
> process.  The "blank" lines you are seeing are most likely the newline
> characters that exist as child "text" nodes of "allGamesDownloadable" in your
> source XML.
> 
> It seems that what you are expecting to happen is for every node (every child of
> a child of a child etc...) to be processed according to document order and when
> there is not matching template it will simply move to the next child or
> grandchild until it finds a match.  While this is in no way an uncommon mistake
> - in fact its a VERY common mistake - it is fundamentally flawed from an XSLT
> template matching perspective and as such will not provide you the results you
> are looking for.  If you try to think of it from the perspective that to gain
> access to the children of the current context node you must begin the recursive
> nature of apply-templates when the desired children are in context you will find
> yourself catching your errors quite easily... for example, the following will
> select the children of the root node, find the best matching template, process
> it accordingly, and then begin the recursive process on the children of the
> current context node ("allGamesDownloadable") by once again calling
> apply-templates at a time when the children are in context.  Because we are
> using "*" for our match value the same template will match the children
> currently being processed which means any children of these children will be
> recursively processed and matched to the same template and this process will
> continue until every node in the source document has gone through "the ringer"
> so to speak...
> 
> so this....
> 
> <?xml version="1.0"?>
> <xsl:stylesheet
> version="1.0"
> xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";>
> <xsl:output method="text" />
> 
> <xsl:template match="/">
> <xsl:text>
> GAMEID,GAMENAME
> </xsl:text>
> <xsl:apply-templates/>
> </xsl:template>
> 
> <xsl:template match="*">
> <xsl:value-of select="@gameId"/>,
> <xsl:apply-templates/>
> </xsl:template>
> 
> Will output the value of @gameId for every node that is processed by this
> template that has an attribute gameId.
> 
> While this particular case will not give you the CSV output you are in desire of
> this should give you just enough information to help move you in the right
> direction...
> 
> Best of luck to you!
> 
> <M:D/>
> 
> 
> 
> Todd Alexander wrote:
> > I have an xsl I'm running through xalan against an xml file, with the
> > output going to a csv file. My problem is that I get the output
> > expected for the first template rule in the csv file but I canot get
> > anything output for the second. I'm getting blank spaces for each
> > node I'm expecting to hit for the second rule, so I know I'm getting
> > there, but no matter what I put inside the rule (xsl:text , xsl:value-
> > of etc) I cannot get any text of any kind.
> >
> > The source xml file looks like:
> >
> > <?xml version="1.0"?>
> > <allGamesDownloadable>
> > <featuredGameList title="Featured Downloads">
> > <featuredGame featuredHeadline="blah blah blah"
> > gameId="gameOne">
> > </featuredGameList>
> > <gameGroupList>
> > <gameGroup title="Action Games">
> > <gameItem gameID="gameOne"/>
> > <gameItem gameID="gameTwo"/>
> > </gameGroup>
> > <gameGroup title="Arcade">
> > <gameItem gameID="gameThree"/>
> > <gameItem gameID="gameFour"/>
> > </gameGroup>
> > </gameGroupList>
> > </allGamesDownloadable>
> >
> > The XSL in question is:
> > <?xml version="1.0"?>
> > <xsl:stylesheet
> > version="1.0"
> > xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";>
> > <xsl:output method="text" />
> >
> > <xsl:template match="/">
> > <xsl:text>
> > GAMEID,GAMENAME
> > </xsl:text>
> > <xsl:apply-templates/>
> > </xsl:template>
> >
> > <xsl:template match="gameItem">
> > <!-- for debugging -->
> > <xsl:text>cracker</xsl:text>
> > </xsl:template>
> >
> > </xsl:stylesheet>
> >
> > What I get output is:
> >
> > GAMEID,GAMENAME
> >
> > {then the expected numner of lines with varying numbers of spaces}
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Todd Alexander
> > heeznow@xxxxxxx