Question

Following is sample XML File –

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Catalog>
<Book>
   <AName>Steven Holzner</AName>
   <BName>Using XSLT</BName>
   <Pub>ABC Publication </Pub>
   <Web>http://www.ABCPub.com</Web>
</Book>
<Book>
   <AName>Steven Holzner</AName>
   <BName>Using HTML</BName>
   <Pub>XYZ Publication </Pub>
   <Web></Web>
</Book>
</Catalog>

I want to hyperlink the Pub name if Web address is given, other wise only Pub name w/o a link…

My XSL code is here –

<xsl:template match="Catalog">
    <xsl:for-each select="Book">
    <p><a>
    <xsl:attribute name="href">
      <xsl:value-of select="Web"/>
    </xsl:attribute>

    <xsl:value-of select="Pub"/>
    </a></p>
    </xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>

I want following HTML source –

<p><a href=”http://www.ABCPub.com”>ABC Publication</a></p>
<p>XYZ Publication</a></p>

Rightnow, this XSL gives hyperlink tag even if Web addr is not given..
What piece of code will do the needful..?

have a nice day –
John

Answer 1

This can be achieved with a very short and simple transformation — no <xsl:for-each>, no <xsl:if>, <xsl:choose>, <xsl:when>,no <xsl:attribute> at all:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
 xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
 <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>
 <xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>

 <xsl:template match="Book[Web/text()]">
     <p>
      <a href="{Web}">
       <xsl:value-of select="Pub"/>
      </a>
     </p>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="Book">
     <p>
       <xsl:value-of select="Pub"/>
     </p>
 </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

when this transformation is applied on the provided XML document:

<Catalog>
    <Book>
        <AName>Steven Holzner</AName>
        <BName>Using XSLT</BName>
        <Pub>ABC Publication </Pub>
        <Web>http://www.ABCPub.com</Web>
    </Book>
    <Book>
        <AName>Steven Holzner</AName>
        <BName>Using HTML</BName>
        <Pub>XYZ Publication </Pub>
        <Web></Web>
    </Book>
</Catalog>

the wanted, correct result is produced:

<p>
   <a href="http://www.ABCPub.com">ABC Publication </a>
</p>
<p>XYZ Publication </p>

Explanation: Template pattern matching.