Re: [xsl] Copy Child Elements

[Abel Braaksma <abel.online@xxxxxxxxx>]

Alice Wei wrote:
> Hi,
>
>  There is one obvious problem with your XSL here:
>
>  If you are using apply-templates, what it does is that it would 
> select any of the children of the template root. Use 
> <xsl:apply-templates select="section"> and and <xsl:apply-templates 
> select="//section">

I assume "and and" meant "and not" ;)
When he does that, he won't have any output left (the focus is 
<reference>, not <refbody>). Actually, though I agree it is usually a 
bad choice to use //, in his situation it doesn't change the output 
whether he uses // or refbody/section. However, because // is a very 
costly operation and it is in not necessary to use it, it should be removed.

> Quoting Rick Quatro <frameexpert@xxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>
> >  <xsl:template match="reference">
> >    <xsl:apply-templates select="//section">

Change this to <xsl:apply-templates select="refbody/section" >

> >  <xsl:template match="section">
> >    <xsl:for-each select="p[position()&lt;=2]">

Don't use for-each here. Instead, use

<xsl:apply-templates select="p" />

and follow up with matching templates like the following. The last one 
is a so-called throw-away template, it will be called when a <p> matches 
that did not match any more specific match:

<xsl:template match="p[id='Field_ShowAuthorJobTitle']>
   <dt>
       <xsl:copy-of select="text() | *" />
   </dt>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="p[id='Desc_ShowAuthorJobTitle']>
   <dd>
       <xsl:copy-of select="text() | *" />
   </dd>
</xsl:template>

<!-- throw away other <p> elements -->
<xsl:template match="p" />


Your own approach with xsl:if and position() is not necessarily wrong, 
but it is far harder to create, to maintain and to understand. Using 
matching templates you let the processor do the math for you.

Using copy-of instead of apply-templates in the children of <p> you make 
sure you copy all elements as well. Using apply-templates does only 
output the text value if you do not create a matching template for them 
(this is called an identity copy template). In your case you don't seem 
to need that, so copy-of suffices.

HTH,
Cheers,
-- Abel Braaksma