Question

Say I have XMLise the book The Complete Reference – Java. Now instead of writing the contents of the book, I (rather everybody) would like to generate it from the tags. So..

Following is the XML structure –

<Books>
  <Book>
   <Part n="1" h="The Java Language">
    <SubHead h="Basics">
     <Topic n="1" h="The History and Evolution of Java">
     .....
     </Topic>
     <Topic n="2" h="An overview of Java">
     .....
     </Topic>
     <Topic n="3" h="Data Types, Variables, and Arrays">
     .....
     </Topic>
    </SubHead>
    <SubHead h="Intermediate">
     <Topic n="4" h="Operators">
     .....
     </Topic>
     <Topic n="5" h="Control Statements">
     .....
     </Topic>
     <Topic n="6" h="Looping">
     .....
     </Topic>
    </SubHead>
   </Part>
   <Part n="2" h="OOPS">
    <SubHead h="Basics">
     <Topic n="7" h="Introduction to Classes">
     .....
     </Topic>
     <Topic n="8" h="Inheritance">
     .....
     </Topic>
    </SubHead>
    <SubHead h="Intermediate">
     <Topic n="8" h="Packages and Interfaces">
     .....
     </Topic>
     <Topic n="9" h="Exception Handling">
     .....
     </Topic>
    </SubHead>
   </Part>
 </Book>
</Books>

The dotted lines means the content of the book. Now How to get the following output in HTML, along with the detailed description of the contents of the Topic Tag. I mean to say that, I am looking for the Content section of any book.

Part 1 - The Java Language
   Basics
      1. The History and Evolution of Java
      2. An overview of Java
      3. Data Types, Variable, and Arrays
   Intermediate
      4. Operators
      5. Control Statements
      6. Looping
Part 2 - OOPS
   Basics
      7. Introduction to Classes
      8. Inheritance
   Intermediate
      9. Packages and Interfaces
      10. Exception Handling

Answer 1

Following Xsl gives you an output data you’re asking:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
    xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
    <xsl:output method="html"/>

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

    <xsl:template match="Part" >
        Part <xsl:value-of select="@n"/> - <xsl:value-of select="@h"/>
        <xsl:apply-templates/>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="SubHead">
        <xsl:value-of select="@h"/>
        <xsl:apply-templates/>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="Topic" >
        <xsl:value-of select="@n"/>. <xsl:value-of select="@h"/>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

The output will be:

Part 1 - The Java Language
        Basics
            1. The History and Evolution of Java
            2. An overview of Java
            3. Data Types, Variables, and Arrays

        Intermediate
            4. Operators
            5. Control Statements
            6. Looping



Part 2 - OOPS
        Basics
            7. Introduction to Classes
            8. Inheritance

        Intermediate
            8. Packages and Interfaces
            9. Exception Handling