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Re: [xsl] Imbbeding text files

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Hi Gilles,

At 08:41 PM 5/30/01, you wrote:

I have used the document() function to access data from a separate xml file.
Is there a way to have the document() function read the data in a simple
text file and imbed this data as text for an element in the output file?

Not exactly, as such. The expectation of document() is that "the data resulting from the retrieval action is parsed as an XML document and a tree is constructed..." (XSLT 12.1), and as you know, an XML document has to have at least a (single) root element.

On the other hand, as long as there are no pesky open-markup-delimiters (i.e. '<' or '&') in it, a plain text file can be included in an XML document as an external parsed entity. So if you had:

file.txt:
Here's some text I want to include

file.xml:
<!DOCTYPE shell [
<!ENTITY file SYSTEM file.txt>
]>
<shell>&file;</shell>

You could use document('file.xml') from your XSL and get your text back (it would be wrapped in the <shell> element).

Of course, you could also include the external parsed entity in your stylesheet and not even have to use document(). (Be sure and wrap the entity reference, though, as in <xsl:text>&file;</xsl:text>.)

Hope that helps,
Wendell

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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street                    Direct Phone: 301/315-9635
Suite 207                                          Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD  20850                                 Fax: 301/315-8285
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  Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in SGML and XML
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