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Re: [xsl] Problem retaining HTML tags during XSL transformation

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Abel Braaksma wrote:

Ambika.Das@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Hi All,
I am facing some problem in retaining the HTML tags during XSL transformation.
Given below are the details.

May I summarize that as follows? The input is the output with &#10; replaced by <br /> elements and the whole content inside two quotes (with some elements stripped, but not their content)?

Hi Ambika,

Since you appear to do text node matching, I thought to try something new (well, in XSLT 2.0 it is not so new, but I haven't seen it myself before in XSLT 1).

I call it "stringized template matching" (where you can apply template rules for ordinary strings from substring-before() etc.), to prevent complex recursive call-template calls. It is very easy to implement and it is applicable to almost all replace-string situations. There's one drawback: it only works with the extension function fn:node-set(). However, there are only few processors that have not implemented it for XSLT 1. But there's also a big advantage: it becomes tremendously easier to read.

I know, I know, it was not your problem: you already have your replace-string function in place (replacing newlines with <br>). But, if I am right about your question (confirm, please), you can solve it very simply by using the following solution (creates your requested output). I took the liberty to add an additional rule for removing whitespace-only nodes. Not sure you want that.

It is easy enough to add matches for replacing double quotes, too. If it gets more complex, I advice to use modes for the more generic matches, so as to not make it too complex.

Happy coding!

Cheers,
-- Abel Braaksma
  http://www.nuntia.nl

On the following XML:
<elem id="11" date="10 Jan 2007" time="16:55">
   Non Title
   <title>Title Here</title>
   <text>
       <p>without newline</p>
       <PRE> (Start of pre tag)
           <p>
               Within P
           </p>
           After P tag
           (End of pre tag)
       </PRE>
   </text>
</elem>

It creates (second line one line):

Elem id, New details
11,"<br>Non Title<br><title>Title Here</title><p>without newline</p><PRE>(Start of pre tag)<br><p><br>Within P<br></p><br>After P tag<br>(End of pre tag)<br></PRE>"



Here's the XSLT that does it all:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:exslt="http://exslt.org/common"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="text" indent="yes"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:text>Elem id, New details&#10;</xsl:text>
<xsl:apply-templates />
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="elem">
<xsl:value-of select="@id"/>
<xsl:text>,"</xsl:text>
<xsl:apply-templates select="node()" />
<xsl:text>"&#10;</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>
<!-- general rule: keep these nodes -->
<xsl:template match="*">
<xsl:value-of select="concat('&lt;', name(), '&gt;')"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="node()" />
<xsl:value-of select="concat('&lt;/', name(), '&gt;')"/>
</xsl:template>
<!-- specific rule: 'throw away' these nodes, but keep content -->
<xsl:template match="text">
<xsl:apply-templates select="node()" />
</xsl:template>
<!-- throws away whitespace only text nodes -->
<xsl:template match="text()[normalize-space(.) = '']" />
<!-- matches text nodes with newline -->
<xsl:template match="text()[contains(., '&#10;')][not(normalize-space(.) = '')]">
<xsl:variable name="before">
<xsl:value-of select="substring-before(., '&#10;')" />
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="after">
<xsl:value-of select="substring-after(., '&#10;')" />
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:apply-templates select="exslt:node-set($before)/node()" />
<xsl:text>&lt;br&gt;</xsl:text>
<xsl:apply-templates select="exslt:node-set($after)/node()" />
</xsl:template>
<!-- matches text nodes without newline -->
<xsl:template match="text()[not(contains(., '&#10;'))]">
<xsl:value-of select="normalize-space(.)"/>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

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