Question

Greetings,

I’m looking for a method to do in-line result (output) document selecting in XSLT. I know of the method where one creates an xsl:result-document node to have one transformation apply to multiple documents. Usually this method uses several passes, such as:

<xsl:template match='/'>     <xsl:apply-templates select='*'/>     <xsl:result-document href='test.xml'>         <xsl:apply-templates select='*'/>     </xsl:result-document> </xsl:template> 

I’m looking for a way to do this inline so I can build two output documents in a single pass. The reason is I have a temporary tree that is built as the transformation is run that I want to output to a file.

<xsl:variable name='treeBase'>     <Base/> </xsl:variable>  <xsl:template match='/'>     <xsl:apply-templates select='*'/> </xsl:template>  <xsl:template match='these_elements'>     <xsl:param name='temp' select='$treeBase'/>   </xsl:template>  <xsl:template match='not_these_elements'>     <xsl:param name='temp' select='$treeBase'/>      <xsl:apply-templates select='@*|node()'>        <xsl:with-param name='temp'>            <Base>               <xsl:copy-of select='$temp/Base/*'/>               <Item>                   <xsl:value-of select='ThisItem'/>               </Item>            </Base>         </xsl:with-param> </xsl:template> 

Why would you want to do this? In my XSLT I’m building a temporary tree through recursive parameter calls. I want to output the temporary tree as it is being built to a separate document but still use the temporary tree built for flow of control. With the current method I’d have to run through a complex transformation twice.

Is there a way to do this in XSLT or is it single-pass, single-document only?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Here is a working example how to do this:

This transformation:

<xsl:stylesheet version='2.0'     xmlns:xsl='http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform'     xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'>     <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration='yes' indent='yes'/>   <!--                                               -->         <xsl:template match='/*'>       <xsl:variable name='vTop' select='.'/>   <!--                                               -->             <xsl:for-each-group select='num' group-by='xs:integer(.) mod 2'>           <xsl:result-document href='file:///C:/Temp/file{position()}.xml'>             <xsl:element name='{name($vTop)}'>               <xsl:copy-of select='current-group()'/>             </xsl:element>           </xsl:result-document>         </xsl:for-each-group>     </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet> 

when applied on this XML document

<nums>   <num>01</num>   <num>02</num>   <num>03</num>   <num>04</num>   <num>05</num>   <num>06</num>   <num>07</num>   <num>08</num>   <num>09</num>   <num>010</num> </nums> 

produces the wanted two files: file1.xml and file2.xml, which contain, correspondingly, the ‘num’ elements with odd and with even values.

Do note that there are no ‘multiplr passes’ and the code is ‘inline’, as required.