Question

I have the following XML:

    <DropDownList id="Dropdown">
        <Label text="Dropdown"/>
        <ListItem value="Test1"/>
        <ListItem value="Test2"/>
    </DropDownList>

    <ListBox id="Listbox1" >
        <Label text="SingleSelect"/>
        <ListItem value="Test1"/>
        <ListItem value="Test2"/>
    </ListBox>

Then I have the following XSLT for the listbox:

<xsl:template match="ListBox">
    <th>
        <xsl:apply-templates select="./Label" />
    </th>
    <td>
        <asp:ListBox runat="server" ID="{@id}">
            <Items>
                <xsl:for-each select="./ListItem">
                    <asp:ListItem Value="{@value}">
                        <xsl:attribute name="Text">
                            <!-- fill text accordingly to text attribute or same as value when not specified-->
                            <xsl:choose>
                                <xsl:when test="@text">
                                    <xsl:value-of select="@text"/>
                                </xsl:when>
                                <xsl:otherwise>
                                    <xsl:value-of select="@value"/>
                                </xsl:otherwise>
                            </xsl:choose>
                        </xsl:attribute>

                        <xsl:if test="@selected">
                            <xsl:attribute name="selected">
                                <xsl:value-of select="@selected"/>
                            </xsl:attribute>
                        </xsl:if>
                    </asp:ListItem>
                </xsl:for-each>
            </Items>
        </asp:ListBox>
    </td>
    <td>
        <xsl:apply-templates select="./*[contains(name(), 'Validation')]" />
    </td>
    <xsl:copy-of select="$br"/>
</xsl:template>

Using this approach, I would have to duplicate the whole looping for the DropDownList element too.

Now, to avoid a lot of the duplication I understand I can do something like this:

<xsl:template match="ListBox">
    <th>
        <xsl:apply-templates select="./Label" />
    </th>
    <td>
        <asp:ListBox runat="server" ID="{@id}">         
            <Items>
                <xsl:apply-templates select="./ListItem" />
            </Items>
        </asp:ListBox>
    </td>
    <td>
        <xsl:apply-templates select="./*[contains(name(), 'Validation')]" />
    </td>
    <xsl:copy-of select="$br"/>
</xsl:template>


<!-- Helper template for list items -->
<xsl:template match="ListItem">
    <asp:ListItem Value="{@value}">
        <xsl:attribute name="Text">
            <!-- fill text accordingly to text attribute or same as value when not specified-->
            <xsl:choose>
                <xsl:when test="@text">
                    <xsl:value-of select="@text"/>
                </xsl:when>
                <xsl:otherwise>
                    <xsl:value-of select="@value"/>
                </xsl:otherwise>
            </xsl:choose>
        </xsl:attribute>

        <xsl:if test="@selected">
            <xsl:attribute name="selected">
                <xsl:value-of select="@selected"/>
            </xsl:attribute>
        </xsl:if>
    </asp:ListItem>
</xsl:template>

But what I don’t like about this is the

            <Items>
                <xsl:apply-templates select="./ListItem" />
            </Items>

pattern I would have to duplicate. Is there a way to put the <Items> {loop through ListItems}</Items> part completely into a template and use <xsl:apply-templates select="??" /> to group all ListItem child nodes together and stuff them into the looping template?

Answer 1

Why not using a named template?

<td>
        <asp:ListBox runat="server" ID="{@id}">
         <xsl:call-template name="LoopItems"/>
        </asp:ListBox>
</td>

with named template:

<xsl:template name="LoopItems">
  <Items>
    <xsl:apply-templates select="ListItem" />
  </Items>
</xsl:template>