Question

I’m a bit stuck on how to proceed best with following XML example : What I have is the following :

<Story>
<Content para="div"><local>This is some (normal) text to start with.</local></Content>
<Content para="div"><local>Connect something (</local></Content>
<Content para="div"><local><refnr value="58236"/></local></Content>
<Content para="div"><local>) to something else (</local></Content>
<Content para="div"><local><refnr value="58237"/></local></Content>
<Content para="div"><local>), and make sure it's connected to this (</local></Content>
<Content para="div"><local><refnr value="58239"/></local></Content>
<Content para="div"><local>).</local></Content>
<Content para="div"><local>If that's ok do the same with this (</local></Content>
<Content para="div"><local><refnr value="58238"/></local></Content>
<Content para="div"><local>) also.</local></Content>
<Content para="div"><local>This is some normal text.</local></Content>
<Content para="div"><local>This also.</local></Content>
</Story>

and the output I’d like to get is as follows :

<Story>
<Content para="div"><local>This is some (normal) text to start with.</local></Content>
<Content para="div"><local>Connect something (<refnr value="58236"/>) to something else (<refnr value="58237"/>), and make sure it's connected to this (<refnr value="58239"/>).</local></Content>
<Content para="div"><local>If that's ok do the same with this (<refnr value="58238"/>) also.</local></Content>
<Content para="div"><local>This is some normal text.</local></Content>
<Content para="div"><local>This also.</local></Content>
</Story>

Or, to ‘code’ it : Any [Content para=div][local] node ending with an open bracket, needs to be merged with the following [Content para=div][local] nodes untill the node containing the last closing bracket and the end of the sentence (identified by closing dot). I was able to do some things, but it became overly complex and slow and without all wanted results. Any advice using xslt2 ?

Answer 1

This XSLT 2.0 transformation (can easily be translated to XSLT 1.0):

<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
 <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>

 <xsl:template match="/*">
  <Story>
   <xsl:apply-templates select="Content[1]/local"/>
  </Story>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="Content/local[not(ends-with(., '('))]">
  <Content para="div"><local><xsl:apply-templates/></local></Content>
  <xsl:apply-templates select="../following-sibling::Content[1]"/>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="Content/local[ends-with(., '(')]">
  <Content para="div"><local><xsl:apply-templates/>
   <xsl:apply-templates mode="inGroup" select="../following-sibling::Content[1]"/>
  </local></Content>

  <xsl:apply-templates select=
   "../following-sibling::Content
             [local[starts-with(.,')') and ends-with(.,'.')]][1]
               /following-sibling::Content[1]"/>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="Content/local" mode="inGroup">
    <xsl:apply-templates/>
    <xsl:apply-templates mode="#current"
         select="../following-sibling::Content[1]"/>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template mode="inGroup" match="Content/local[starts-with(.,')') and ends-with(.,'.')]">
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="refnr"><xsl:copy-of select="."/></xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

when applied on the provided XML document:

<Story>
 <Content para="div"><local>This is some (normal) text to start with.</local></Content>
 <Content para="div"><local>Connect something (</local></Content>
 <Content para="div"><local><refnr value="58236"/></local></Content>
 <Content para="div"><local>) to something else (</local></Content>
 <Content para="div"><local><refnr value="58237"/></local></Content>
 <Content para="div"><local>), and make sure it's connected to this (</local></Content>
 <Content para="div"><local><refnr value="58239"/></local></Content>
 <Content para="div"><local>).</local></Content>
 <Content para="div"><local>If that's ok do the same with this (</local></Content>
 <Content para="div"><local><refnr value="58238"/></local></Content>
 <Content para="div"><local>) also.</local></Content>
 <Content para="div"><local>This is some normal text.</local></Content>
 <Content para="div"><local>This also.</local></Content>
</Story>

produces the wanted, correct result:

<Story>
   <Content para="div">
      <local>This is some (normal) text to start with.</local>
   </Content>
   <Content para="div">
      <local>Connect something (<refnr value="58236"/>) to something else (<refnr value="58237"/>), and make sure it's connected to this (<refnr value="58239"/>).</local>
   </Content>
   <Content para="div">
      <local>If that's ok do the same with this (<refnr value="58238"/>) also.</local>
   </Content>
   <Content para="div">
      <local>This is some normal text.</local>
   </Content>
   <Content para="div">
      <local>This also.</local>
   </Content>
</Story