Question

Thanks in advance for your time. I have a deeply nested XML whose XSLT 1.0 transformation I need to perform (for pdf generation). I’m pasting the XML partially and I apologize for it already!

I have re-tweaked the XML as below based off a couple of answers and I realized I bumped into more issues. Thank you for your patience.

Please let me know if any additional clarification is needed.

INPUT XML:

 <Reports>
  <Report>
    <ReportID>R123</ReportID>
    <ReportName>R123Name</ReportName>
    <PurchaseTypes>
      <PurchaseType>
        <Name>Purchase Type 2</Name>
        <Areas>
          <Area>
            <AreaType>American</AreaType>
            <AreaName>IL</AreaName>
            <SaleDetails>
              <SaleDetail>
                <SaleDetailID>
                  SD45
                </SaleDetailID>
                <Amount>
                  177.3
                </Amount>
              </SaleDetail>
              <SaleDetail>
                <SaleDetailID>
                  SD56
                </SaleDetailID>
                <Amount>
                  123
                </Amount>
              </SaleDetail>
            </SaleDetails>
          </Area>
          <Area>
            <AreaType>American</AreaType>
            <AreaName>MN</AreaName>
            <SaleDetails>
              <SaleDetail>
                <SaleDetailID>
                  SD19
                </SaleDetailID>
                <Amount>
                  19
                </Amount>
              </SaleDetail>

            </SaleDetails>
          </Area>
        </Areas>
      </PurchaseType>
    </PurchaseTypes>
  </Report>
</Reports>

Output needed similar to the image below

Sample Image 2:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/hxTUY6Qv_9eJyvxQ-UhQutMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

@DevNull, this is what I was trying:

  <xsl:template match="Report">
        <xsl:apply-templates select="ReportID|PurchaseTypes/PurchaseType"></xsl:apply-templates>
      </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="PurchaseType">
    <xsl:apply-templates select="Name|Areas/Area/AreaType"></xsl:apply-templates>
  </xsl:template>

But I’m seeing the area type American twice.
Something like this:
R123
Purchase Type 2
American
American

Answer 1

Looking at your input XML and the excel image of the desired output, it still doesn’t look like you need grouping. The XML seems to already be organized the way you need your report(s) to be formatted.

Here’s an example using XSL-FO to create the PDF.

Your XML input:

<Reports>
  <Report>
    <ReportID>R123</ReportID>
    <ReportName>R123Name</ReportName>
    <PurchaseTypes>
      <PurchaseType>
        <Name>Purchase Type 2</Name>
        <SaleDetails>
          <SaleDetail>
            <SaleDetailID>
              SD45
            </SaleDetailID>
            <Amount>
              177.3
            </Amount>
          </SaleDetail>
          <SaleDetail>
            <SaleDetailID>
              SD56
            </SaleDetailID>
            <Amount>
              123
            </Amount>
          </SaleDetail>
        </SaleDetails>
      </PurchaseType>
    </PurchaseTypes>
  </Report>
  <Report>
    <ReportID>R234</ReportID>
    <ReportName>R234Name</ReportName>
    <PurchaseTypes>
      <PurchaseType>
        <Name>Purchase Type 1</Name>
        <SaleDetails>
          <SaleDetail>
            <SaleDetailID>
              SD456
            </SaleDetailID>
            <Amount>
              17.3
            </Amount>
          </SaleDetail>
          <SaleDetail>
            <SaleDetailID>
              SD556
            </SaleDetailID>
            <Amount>
              23
            </Amount>
          </SaleDetail>
        </SaleDetails>
      </PurchaseType>
      <PurchaseType>
        <Name>Purchase Type 2</Name>
        <SaleDetails>
          <SaleDetail>
            <SaleDetailID>
              SD451
            </SaleDetailID>
            <Amount>
              12.2
            </Amount>
          </SaleDetail>
        </SaleDetails>
      </PurchaseType>
    </PurchaseTypes>
  </Report>
</Reports>

Transformed with this stylesheet:

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

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

  <xsl:attribute-set name="reportBorder" use-attribute-sets="reportPadding">
    <xsl:attribute name="border">solid 1pt black</xsl:attribute>
  </xsl:attribute-set>

  <xsl:attribute-set name="reportPadding">
    <xsl:attribute name="padding-left">4pt</xsl:attribute>
    <xsl:attribute name="padding-right">4pt</xsl:attribute>
    <xsl:attribute name="padding-top">2pt</xsl:attribute>
    <xsl:attribute name="padding-bottom">2pt</xsl:attribute>    
  </xsl:attribute-set>

  <xsl:template match="Reports">
    <fo:root xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">
      <fo:layout-master-set>
        <fo:simple-page-master master-name="my-page" page-width="8.5in" page-height="11in">
          <fo:region-body margin="1in" margin-top="1.5in" margin-bottom="1.5in"/>
        </fo:simple-page-master>
      </fo:layout-master-set>
      <fo:page-sequence master-reference="my-page">
        <fo:flow flow-name="xsl-region-body">
          <xsl:apply-templates/>
        </fo:flow>
      </fo:page-sequence>
    </fo:root>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="Report">
    <fo:table margin-bottom="12pt" border="solid 2pt black" width="2.5in">
      <fo:table-column column-number="1" width="1.5in"/>
      <fo:table-column column-number="2" width="1in"/>
      <fo:table-body>
        <xsl:apply-templates select="ReportID|PurchaseTypes/PurchaseType/Name"/>
      </fo:table-body>
    </fo:table>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="ReportID">
    <fo:table-row>
      <fo:table-cell background-color="#FFFF00" border-top="solid 2pt black" border-left="solid 2pt black" xsl:use-attribute-sets="reportPadding">
        <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="."/></fo:block>
      </fo:table-cell>
      <fo:table-cell border-top="solid 2pt black" border-right="solid 2pt black">
        <fo:block>&#xA0;</fo:block>
      </fo:table-cell>
    </fo:table-row>    
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="Name">
    <xsl:if test="ancestor-or-self::PurchaseType[preceding-sibling::PurchaseType]">
      <fo:table-row border-left="solid 2pt black">
        <fo:table-cell>
          <fo:block>&#xA0;</fo:block>
        </fo:table-cell>
        <fo:table-cell>
          <fo:block>&#xA0;</fo:block>
        </fo:table-cell>
      </fo:table-row>
    </xsl:if>
    <fo:table-row>
      <fo:table-cell background-color="#DDA0DD" border-left="solid 2pt black" xsl:use-attribute-sets="reportPadding">
        <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="normalize-space(.)"/></fo:block>
      </fo:table-cell>
      <fo:table-cell border-right="solid 2pt black">
        <fo:block>&#xA0;</fo:block>
      </fo:table-cell>
    </fo:table-row>    
    <fo:table-row background-color="#8FBC8F">
      <fo:table-cell xsl:use-attribute-sets="reportBorder">
        <fo:block>Sale Detail ID</fo:block>
      </fo:table-cell>
      <fo:table-cell xsl:use-attribute-sets="reportBorder">
        <fo:block>Amount</fo:block>
      </fo:table-cell>
    </fo:table-row>
    <xsl:apply-templates select="following-sibling::SaleDetails/SaleDetail"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="SaleDetail">
    <fo:table-row>
      <fo:table-cell xsl:use-attribute-sets="reportBorder">
        <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="normalize-space(SaleDetailID)"/></fo:block>
      </fo:table-cell>
      <fo:table-cell xsl:use-attribute-sets="reportBorder" text-align="right">
        <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="normalize-space(Amount)"/></fo:block>
      </fo:table-cell>
    </fo:table-row>    
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Produces this PDF:

Hopefully what’s happening isn’t lost in the FO markup.