Question

Preserve formatting in xsl file

Asked by: b_levitt

I have an xslt that I'm trying to use as template for a plain text file.  I would like to keep the xsl down to a minimum in order to make the template as clear as possible.  That said I'd like to avoid beggining and ending xsl:text elements every place there is a variable.

I'd like xsl/xml below to output the following:
Hello Bob Smith,

This is a sample email.

Thanks for your time,
Admin

I realize I could do some preprocessing and transform the transform, but I'm wondering if there's an easier way.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<Users>
  <User>
    <User_Name>Bob Smith</TABLE_NAME>
  </User>
</Users>
 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
  <xsl:output method="text" version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"/>
 
  <xsl:template match="/Users/User">
Hello <xsl:value-of select="User_Name"/>,
 
This is a sample email.
 
Thanks for your time,
Admin
  </xsl:template>
 
</xsl:stylesheet>

                                  
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Asked On
2009-10-22 at 06:33:46ID24834400
Tags

xml xslt transform whitespace newline

Topics

Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT)

,

Extensible Markup Language (XML)

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
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Answers

 

by: kmartin7Posted on 2009-10-22 at 06:41:10ID: 25634021

Try:

<xsl:template match="/Users/User">
<xsl:text>Hello </xsl:text><xsl:value-of select="User_Name"/><xsl:text>,
 
This is a sample email.</xsl:text><xsl:text>
 
Thanks for your time,</xsl:text><xsl:text>
Admin</xsl:text>
  </xsl:template>

 

by: GertonePosted on 2009-10-22 at 06:46:07ID: 25634085

The best thing to do to not get too much troubles with white-space,
is put the "template in one XML tag in a seperate file, like this

<text>Hello ###USER###,

This is a sample email.

Thanks for your time,
Admin</text>

note that I have a placeholder for the dynamic part, could as well be a PI or comment and then you can get XSLT deal with it without string manipulation

Here is the XSLT that goes with this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
    <xsl:output method="text" version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"/>
    <xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>
    <xsl:variable name="mail-template" select="document('file:///C:/Documents and Settings/User/Desktop/untitled3.xml')/text"/>
    <xsl:template match="/Users/User">
        <xsl:value-of select="substring-before($mail-template, '###USER###')"/>
        <xsl:value-of select="."/>
        <xsl:value-of select="substring-after($mail-template, '###USER###')"/>
    </xsl:template>
    
</xsl:stylesheet>
                                              
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by: GertonePosted on 2009-10-22 at 06:48:32ID: 25634108

XSLT is not sensitive enough for white-space, so opening the XSLT in another editor or IDE might allready ruin kmartins suggestion
Managed and monitored well, kmartin is giving you a perfectly valid solution, one I would not use however.

 

by: kmartin7Posted on 2009-10-22 at 06:52:48ID: 25634153

;-)

 

by: b_levittPosted on 2009-10-22 at 07:12:54ID: 25634412

unfortunately kmartins response is exactly what I meant when I said I want to "avoid beggining and ending xsl:text elements every place there is a variable" but it's probably what I'm stuck using.  I can't use your option gertone as I can't assume the template will only use the variable once.

 

by: GertonePosted on 2009-10-22 at 07:51:22ID: 25634908

I felt allready you wanted to avoid the xsl:text elements

You could then still use my solution in two ways
1. instead of the text markers, put empy element markers in there and do an apply-templates instead of a value-of
2. instead of using substrings, run through the text recursively, so you catch all markers

If you have specific output templates, be it text as in this example, or HTML or whatever,
I am usually very much in favour of having the template outside the stylesheet
and parse through it for placeholders, either them being text markers or element markers

I still don't see a reason not to follow my approach

 

by: kmartin7Posted on 2009-10-22 at 07:54:53ID: 25634953

b_levitt: my bad for not reading your original post. I was posting from my phone.

 

by: GertonePosted on 2009-10-22 at 07:55:28ID: 25634962

eg.
<text>Hello <marker-user/>,

This is a sample email.

Thanks for your time,
Admin

printed for: <marker-user/>
</text>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
    <xsl:output method="text" version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"/>
    <xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>
    <xsl:variable name="mail-template" select="document('file:///C:/Documents and Settings/User/Desktop/untitled3.xml')/text"/>
    <xsl:template match="/Users/User">
        <xsl:apply-templates select="$mail-template">
            <xsl:with-param name="user" select="."/>
        </xsl:apply-templates>
    </xsl:template>
    
    <xsl:template match="marker-user">
        <xsl:param name="user"/>
        <xsl:value-of select="$user"/>
    </xsl:template>
    
</xsl:stylesheet>
                                              
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by: b_levittPosted on 2009-11-02 at 12:31:39ID: 31644492

As you could probably tell, I was creating a templating solution.  I ended up going a completely different route (NVelocity http://www.castleproject.org/others/nvelocity/index.html).  Thank you for your effort at least.

 

by: GertonePosted on 2009-11-02 at 12:35:39ID: 25723437

welcome

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