Question

Hey Friends
I’ve got another xsl/xpath problem. Sure a beginners problem, but I’m thinking still too “imperative”.

<!-- XML -->
<Module>
    <WideTeaserElement>
      <Headline>Bla bla 1</Headline>
    </WideTeaserElement>
    <WideTeaserElement>
      <Headline>Bla bla 2</Headline>
    </WideTeaserElement>
</Module>

<!-- XSL -->
<!-- You are already in the Node Module -->
<xsl:template match="WideTeaserElement">
    <ul class="TabbedPanelsTabGroup">
        <xsl:for-each select=".">
            <li class="TabbedPanelsTab"><a href="#"><xsl:value-of select="pub:Headline"/></a></li>
         </xsl:for-each>
    </ul>
</xsl>

And what I wanna get as output:

<ul class="TabbedPanelsTabGroup">
     <li class="TabbedPanelsTab"><a href="#">Bla bla 1</a></li>
     <li class="TabbedPanelsTab"><a href="#">Bla bla 2</a></li>
</ul>

With my XSL I get an output with two <ul> Elements. So my question includes two things:
1) How has to be the transformation for my probleme above?
2) How can you handle loops like for-each in XSL, to have it more “under control”?

Answer 1

You almost never need to use for-each in XSL, and if you find yourself using it, you’re probably missing an important bit of XSL’s power.

Your case could be much more idiomatically expressed by giving a template for the HeadLine element (containing your <li>...</li> element), and then using <xsl:apply-templates/> within the <ul> element within the WideTeaserElement template.

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
                xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
  <xsl:template match='Module'>
    <ul class='TabbedPanelsTabGroup'>
      <xsl:apply-templates/>
    </ul>
  </xsl:template>
  <xsl:template match='Headline'>
    <li class='TabbedPanelsTab'><a href='#'><xsl:apply-templates/></a></li>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>