Question

How to copy xml document skipping some top level nodes. For example:

Input:

<root>
 <subroot>
   <nodeX id="1">
     <!-- inner structure -->
   </nodeX>
   <nodeX id="2">
     <!-- inner structure -->
   </nodeX>
   <!-- other nodes -->
  </subroot>
<root>

Output:

   <nodeX id="1">
     <!-- inner structure -->
   </nodeX>
   <nodeX id="2">
     <!-- inner structure -->
   </nodeX>

Answer 1

<xsl:template match="@* | node()">
  <xsl:copy>
    <xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()"/>
  </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="root | subroot">
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>

should. If you want or need something more generic then make the second template

<xsl:template match="/* | /*/*">
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>