RE: [xsl] Transforming Tables - repost

["Michael Kay" <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It might be just me, but I'm finding that the lexical issues of non-XML
markup get in the way of understanding the structural transformation issues.
I would be inclined to split the problem into two: first get the structure
right with a regular XML-to-XML transformation, then do a second phase to
produce the proprietary markup syntax. 

I think I would tackle the rowspans with a multi-pass approach: do a
pre-pass of the data in which any cell with a rowspan is copied into the
subsequent rows, with some kind of attribute to mark it as such. The logic
would be something like:


<xsl:template match="row" mode="expand-rowspan">
  <xsl:variable name="new-cells">
    <xsl:copy-of select="cell">
    <xsl:for-each select="preceding-sibling::row/cell[f:row-number(..) +
@rowspan -1 gt f:row-number(current()) ]">
       <xsl:copy>
         <xsl:copy select="@col"/>
         <xsl:attribute name="copied" select="true()"/>

where f:row-number computes the number of a row.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeff Sese [mailto:jsese@xxxxxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: 16 May 2006 07:58
> To: Xsl-List
> Subject: [xsl] Transforming Tables - repost
> 
> Good day!
> 
> I'm transforming a table xml into a InDesign tagged text 
> table using XSLT 2.0 on Saxon and i'm having a problem when 
> it comes to spanning. In InDesign tagged text a cell is 
> constructed this way: 
> <clStart:x,y>data<clEnd:>, x is the number of rows and y the 
> number columns occupied by the cell. However, if the table 
> has 5 columns then each row must have 5 cell entries as well 
> regardless if there exist a cell the spans the rest of the 
> column or a previous cell that spans the row position.
> 
> So if you have a table xml like this:
> <table row="4" col="5">
> <row>
> <cell col="1">Data</cell>
> <cell col="2" colspan="3">Data</cell>
> <cell col="5">Data</cell>
> </row>
> <row>
> <cell col="1" rowspan="3">Data</cell>
> <cell col="2">Data</cell>
> <cell col="3">Data</cell>
> <cell col="4">Data</cell>
> <cell col="5">Data</cell>
> </row>
> <row>
> <cell col="2" rowspan="2">Data</cell>
> <cell col="3">Data</cell>
> <cell col="4">Data</cell>
> <cell col="5">Data</cell>
> </row>
> <row>
> <cell col="3">Data</cell>
> <cell col="4">Data</cell>
> <cell col="5">Data</cell>
> </row>
> </table>
> 
> I should have a InDesign tagged text like this:
> <tStart:4,12>
> <rStart:>
> <cStart:1,1>Data<cEnd:>
> <cStart:1,3>Data<cEnd:>
> <cStart:1,1><cEnd:>
> <cStart:1,1><cEnd:>
> <cStart:1,1>Data<cEnd:>
> <rEnd:>
> <rStart:>
> <cStart:3,1>Data<cEnd:>
> <cStart:1,1>Data<cEnd:>
> <cStart:1,1>Data<cEnd:>
> <cStart:1,1>Data<cEnd:>
> <cStart:1,1>Data<cEnd:>
> <rEnd:>
> <rStart:>
> <cStart:1,1><cEnd:>
> <cStart:2,1>Data<cEnd:>
> <cStart:1,1>Data<cEnd:>
> <cStart:1,1>Data<cEnd:>
> <cStart:1,1>Data<cEnd:>
> </row>
> <rEnd:>
> <cStart:1,1><cEnd:>
> <cStart:1,1><cEnd:>
> <cStart:1,1>Data<cEnd:>
> <cStart:1,1>Data<cEnd:>
> <cStart:1,1>Data<cEnd:>
> <rEnd:>
> <tEnd:>
> 
> I can get my xslt to handle column spanning, but i'm having 
> trouble with rowspanning. Here is my template for the cell element:
> 
> <xsl:template match="cell">
> <xsl:variable name="col" select="if (exists(@colspan) then 
> @colspan else 1)"/> <xsl:variable name="row" select="if 
> (exists(@rowspan) then @rowspan else 1)"/> <xsl:value-of 
> select="concat('<cStart:',$row,',',$col,'>')"/>
> <xsl:apply-templates/>
> <xsl:value-of select="'<cEnd:'"/>
> <xsl:if test="exists(@colspan)">
> <xsl:value-of select="for $x in (1 to @colspan-1) return 
> '<cStart:1,1><cEnd:>'"/> </xsl:if> </xsl:template>
> 
> The template above generates empty cell markers based on the 
> value of $col along the same row, because it is for the 
> colspan. My problem is generating the empty cell markers for 
> the rowspan. For example:
> 
> <row>
> <cell col="1" rowspan="3">Data</cell>
> <cell col="2">Data</cell>
> <cell col="3">Data</cell>
> <cell col="4">Data</cell>
> <cell col="5">Data</cell>
> </row>
> <row>
> <cell col="2" rowspan="2">Data</cell>
> <cell col="3">Data</cell>
> <cell col="4">Data</cell>
> <cell col="5">Data</cell>
> </row>
> <row>
> <cell col="3">Data</cell>
> <cell col="4">Data</cell>
> <cell col="5">Data</cell>
> </row>
> 
> If i'm processing the 1st cell in the 2nd row, i must first 
> insert an empty cell marker before it because the cell above 
> it spans to 3 rows. 
> Same goes for the 1st cell in the 3rd row only i must still 
> add another empty marker before it because of the rowspan on 
> the 1st cell in row 2. 
> I having trouble referencing the preceding cellm element that 
> span the particular row so that i can generate the 
> corresponding empty cell markers. I tried using 
> preceding::cell[1] but with i can't reference the
>   other rowspan.
> 
> Can someone help me with generating the empty cells for row spanning?
> 
> Thanks,
> Jeff