Question

I need to transform a lot of XML files (Fedora export) into a different kind of XML. Trying to do it with XSL stylesheets and checking with the msxsl transformer.

Supposedly I have xml file like this (assuming there are actually other nodes inside AAA, OBJ, amd all other nodes), Source.XML:

<DOC> <AAA>     <STUFF>example</STUFF>     <OBJ>         <OBJVERS id='A1' CREATED='2008-02-18T13:28:08.245Z'/>         <OBJVERS id='A2' CREATED='2008-02-19T10:42:41.965Z'/>         <OBJVERS id='A13' CREATED='2009-03-16T12:43:11.703Z'/>     </OBJ> </AAA> <FFF/> <GGG/> <DDD>     <FILE /> </DDD> </DOC> 

Which I need to look something like this (Target.XML):

    <MYOBJ>       <ELEM>contents of OBJVERS with the biggest id OR  creation date (whichever is easier to do) go here</ELEM>       <IMAGE> contents of <FILE> node go here</IMAGE>     </MYOBJ> 

The main problem that I have is that since I am new to XSL (and for this particular task do not have enough time to learn it properly) is that I can’t understand how to tell XSL processor not to process anything else, I keep getting output from , for example.

Update: basically, I solved this problem meanwhile. I will post my own answer and close the question.

Update2: OK, Andrew’s answer works, too, so I am just accepting it. 🙂

Answer 1

This question has been formulated very loosely and this is not helpful for providing a more meaningful solution.

This said, the below transformation:

<xsl:stylesheet version='1.0'  xmlns:xsl='http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform'>  <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration='yes' indent='yes'/>      <xsl:template match='/'>       <MYOBJ>         <ELEM>            <xsl:for-each select='/*/AAA/OBJ/OBJVERS'>              <xsl:sort select='@CREATED' order='descending'/>               <xsl:if test='position() = 1'>                 <xsl:copy-of select='.'/>              </xsl:if>            </xsl:for-each>         </ELEM>          <IMAGE>           <xsl:copy-of select='/*/DDD/FILE'/>         </IMAGE>       </MYOBJ>     </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet> 

when applied on the artificial and contrived provided XML document (that in fact has bad structuring and naming and goes against many principles of designing XML documents):

<DOC>     <AAA>         <STUFF>example</STUFF>         <OBJ>             <OBJVERS id='A1' CREATED='2008-02-18T13:28:08.245Z'/>             <OBJVERS id='A2' CREATED='2008-02-19T10:42:41.965Z'/>             <OBJVERS id='A13' CREATED='2009-03-16T12:43:11.703Z'/>         </OBJ>     </AAA>     <FFF/>     <GGG/>     <DDD>         <FILE />     </DDD> </DOC> 

produces what one could guess is the wanted result:

<MYOBJ>    <ELEM>       <OBJVERS id='A13' CREATED='2009-03-16T12:43:11.703Z'/>    </ELEM>    <IMAGE>       <FILE/>    </IMAGE> </MYOBJ>