Question

I want to use identity template to transform XML->XML, while excluding certain nodes.

Those nodes would be at different levels of the document – example XML below:

<root>
.    <item1>
.       <contents>
.           <fieldA/>
.           ...
.           <fieldZ/>
.       </contents>
.    </item1>
.    <item2>
.       <field1/>
.       ...
.       <field9/>
.    </item2>
</root>

For example, I would like only to include “fieldC” from “root/item1/contents”
and “field2” from “root/item2”.

My XSLT is below. It doesnt work, I think its because I dont include parent elements of the field I want to include? But I am not sure how can I do that…

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" > 
<xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes" />
.    <xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>
.    <xsl:template match="@* | node()">
.        <xsl:copy>
.            <xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()" />
.        </xsl:copy>
.    </xsl:template>
.    
.    <xsl:template match="fieldC|field2">
.        <xsl:element name="{name()}">
.           <xsl:value-of select="text()" />
.        </xsl:element>
.    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

If anyone could help it would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Use:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
 <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>
 <xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>

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

 <xsl:template match=
 "item1/contents/*[not(self::fieldC)] | item2/*[not(self::field2)]"/>
</xsl:stylesheet>

When this transformation is applied on the following XML document (derived from the provided sketch):

<root>
    .    <item1>
    .       <contents>
    .           <fieldA/>
    .           <fieldB/>
    .           <fieldC/>
    .           ...
    .           <fieldZ/>
    .       </contents>
    .    </item1>
    .    <item2>
    .       <field1/>
    .       <field2/>
    .       ...
    .       <field9/>
    .    </item2>
</root>

the wanted, correct result (the specified elements deleted), is produced:

<root>
    .    <item1>
    .       <contents>
    .           
    .           
    .           <fieldC/>
    .           ...
    .           
    .       </contents>
    .    </item1>
    .    <item2>
    .       
    .       <field2/>
    .       ...
    .       
    .    </item2>
</root>