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RE: XSLT/XPATH jargon

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Is this for the very beginner? because if so, I think several of
them need some work (: but I do have some suggestions...

Sara

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pawson, David [mailto:DPawson@xxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2000 12:14 PM
> To: 'xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'
> Subject: XSLT/XPATH jargon
> 
> 
> RTF and AVT finally did it.
> 
> I've 'lifted' various definitions from various places to try and put
> together
> a jargon buster for XSLT.  Comments please prior to my putting it in
> the FAQ.
> What would you like in it / whats missing.
> Can you improve on the definitions?
> I'd appreciate any help.
> 
> Intent is clarity of understanding, not exactness.
> 
> Regards, DaveP
> 
> 
> 
> 
> XSLT Terminology:
> Source: W3C Recommendation 16 November 1999
> Revision: Draft 0.a
> 
> @: The @ character is an abbreviation for the attribute:: axis. 

I would also add "Combined with the name of an attribute, it identifies 
that attribute for the current node."

> 
> .. : The string .. is an abbreviation for parent::node(). 

I would also add "It identifies the parent element of the
current node."

> 
> 
> * : A * matches all of the element children of the context node.

You've already gotten a comment about attributes, but this is 
really tricky since it identifies a set of elements/attributes
at many levels if you use it within a more complex expression or
path. I would say instead: 

"An *, by itself, identifies all of the element children of the 
context node. It can also be used with @ to identify all attributes,
or in other expressions as a general wildcard for 'all'."

> 
> . : The . character is an abbreviation for self::node(). 

I would also add: "It identifies the current node." self::node()
may be perfectly clear to the knowing, but it definitely is not
to a novice.

> 
> / : the / character at the start of a location path makes it
> absolute, i.e. starting at the root node of a document.
> 
> 
> // : The string // is an abbreviation for descendant-or-self::node(). 

I would add: "This identifies the current node, its children, and all
descendants."

> 
> ATTRIBUTE VALUE TEMPLATE: An expression can be used by
> surrounding the expression with curly braces ({}). The
> attribute value template is instantiated by replacing the
> expression together with surrounding curly braces by the
> result of evaluating the expression and converting the
> resulting object to a string as if by a call to the string
> function.  Plain English version please someone????

How about this?
"This is an expression surrounded by curly braces ({}) and used in a
template as the value of an attribute. Attribute value templates allow you 
to assign a value to an attribute in the output using an expression, 
rather than a fixed value. The final value output for the attribute 
is determined by evaluting the expression, changing it to a string 
and replacing both the expression and the curly braces with the string."

> 
> 
> AXIS: There are 13 axes defined in XPath:
> 
> child, descendant, parent, ancestor, following-sibling,
> preceding-sibling, following, following, preceding,
> attribute, namespace, descendant-or-self,
> ancestor-or-self. Each specifies a 'direction' relative to
> the context node and can be used to provide an initial
> selection of nodes.
> 
> 
> CONTEXT NODE:
> The context node is where XPATH addressing starts. 
> 
> 
> CURRENT NODE: When a template is instantiated, it is always
> instantiated with respect to a current node and a current
> node list. Plain English version please??

"The current node is the element, or node in a list of elements, 
that is currently being 'styled' (maybe processed would be a better
word here) by a template. Current nodes may also be attributes or
namespaces rather than elements."

> 
> DOCUMENT ORDER: Normally top down, left to right traversal
> of the document tree. The ancestor and preceding axes use
> reverse document order and the attribute and namespace axes
> are unordered. If parentheses are used for grouping, you
> will always get forward document order.

I wouldn't personally think of this as top-to-bottom, left-to-right or 
right-to-left -- I think of it as start to end, in written order.  
This also helps since it doesn't assume a Western direction 
pattern and most people can related to 'written order'. 

> 
> EXPRESSION: Expressions are used in XSLT for a variety of
> purposes including:
> 
> selecting nodes for processing; 
> specifying conditions for different ways of processing a node; 
> generating text to be inserted in the result tree. 
> 
>  
> LOCATION PATH: There are two kinds of location path:
> relative location paths and absolute location paths. A
> location path describes how a specific part of a document
> may be found. Location paths describe the address of one
> node with respect to another. A location path is composed of
> a series of steps. Each step consists of an axis, a node
> test and optional predicates . The syntax for a location
> step is the axis name and node test separated by a double
> colon, followed by zero or more expressions each in square
> brackets. For example, in child::para[position()=1], child
> is the name of the axis, para is the node test and
> [position()=1] is a predicate.
> 
> NODE TEST: A node test identifies a type of node in the
> document, the simplest type being an element name.

I would change this to: 

"A node test identifies nodes in the document that meet
the criteria of the test. The simplest type of test is nodes
that match an element name."

> 
> NODE TYPE: There are seven node types: element, attribute,
> text, processing instruction, comment, namespace, and
> root. These are: the elements, attributes, text, processing
> instructions, and comments in a document. Namespace nodes
> represent the namespaces used in the document. The root node
> is the root of the document. In every XML document, there is
> exactly one root node, which the node that contains the
> (optional) prologue and the document element.
> 
> 
> PREDICATE: A predicate occurs in square brackets after the 
> node test. For example, para selects all of the para
> children of the context node. Adding the predicate [3]:
> para[3] selects only the third para element.  XPATH section
> 4 and XSLT section 12 enumerate all the functions.

I would add: "for use in predicates" to the last sentence.
The definition doesn't mention functions anywhere except the
last sentence and it is not clear what the relationship is
-- at least it could be confusing to someone new.

> 
> ROOT NODE: The root node is the root of the document tree.
> 
> RESULT TREE FRAGMENT: Some part of the output resulting from
> triggering a template.
> 
> 
> RTF: See Result Tree Fragment
> 
> 
> 
> STEP: Steps may be joined with slashes to form a complete
> location path.
> 
> XPATH: XPath is a language that describes how to locate
> specific elements (and attributes, processing instructions,
> etc.) in a document. It allows you to locate specific
> content within an XML document. XPATH treats an XML document
> as a logical ordered tree,
> 
> 
>  XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
> 


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