[xsl] Calling java in xsl.

[Kamal Bhatt <kbhatt@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi
This is probably not the right language to use to describe what I want 
to do, but I am not that familiar with java (or for that matter xslt), 
so please bear with me.

We are  making calls to java in xml (using cocoon) and I am working on a 
generic template to get the current date, add an offset to it and then 
get the value-of the date in a specified format. Here is the code:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
       xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml";
       xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";
       xmlns:java="http://xml.apache.org/xslt/java";
       xmlns:cal="java.util.Calendar"
       xmlns:sf="java.text.SimpleDateFormat"
       exclude-result-prefixes="java"
       >
<!--
Gets current date + offset in form ddMMMyy

Params: offset        days to add to current date
-->   

<xsl:template name="offset_date_ddMMMyy">
   <xsl:param name="offset">
  
   <xsl:variable name="today" select="cal:getInstance()"/>
   <xsl:variable name="todayPlus" select="cal:add($today, 6, $offset)"/>
   <xsl:value-of select="java:format(sf:new('ddMMMyy'), 
cal:getTime($today))"/>
</xsl:template>  

<!--
Gets current date in form MM/dd/yyyy
-->   
<xsl:template name="offset_date_MMddyyyy">
   <xsl:variable name="today" select="cal:getInstance()"/>
   <xsl:variable name="todayPlus" select="cal:add($today, 6, $offset)"/>
   <xsl:value-of select="java:format(sf:new('MM/dd/yyyy'), 
cal:getTime($today))"/>
</xsl:template>  

</xsl:stylesheet>

Now, what bothers me about this is the variable todayPlus which serves 
no purpose other than giving us an opportunity to call add. How can we 
avoid this useless call?

Cheers.

Kamal.