I am using xslt filter for importing/exporting data from Calc worksheet. Is it possible to refer to a specific cell address ? For example, if we want to export data from cell B2, how do we refer to this cell address in export xslt ?
Without knowing much about Openoffice or their xslt filter function, I can tell you that you're probably going to need a fairly simple XPath to reference a specific Cell's data - I doubt it would be as simple as calling getCell('B2') unless they have provided you with some custom xslt functions (I'm assuming they've put you in a raw XSLT environment).
Anyway, I think this question may be more about XSLT and xpath, than it is about openoffice. With that in mind, I'm going to fashion my own sample xml and examples and hopefully that will be enough to get you started.
For an input xml that looks something like this:
<ooo_calc_export>
<ooo_sheet num="1" name="sheet1">
<ooo_row num="2">
<fisrtCell>Oh</firstCell>
<secondCell>Hai</secondCell>
<thirdCell>There</thirdCell>
</ooo_row>
<ooo_row num="3">
<fisrtCell>Oh</firstCell>
<secondCell>Hello</secondCell>
<thirdCell>Back!</thirdCell>
</ooo_row>
</ooo_sheet>
</ooo_calc_export>
An absolute XPath to access cell B2's data would look like this ooo_calc_export/ooo_sheet/ooo_row[#num='2']/secondCell/text()
But the above is an absolute path and in XSLT, we would often author relative xpaths as we are in the midst of processing a document. Imagine you're in a template which matches on the ooo_calc_export node and you wanted to store Cell B2's data in a variable for later use. Consider this example:
<xsl:template match="/ooo_calc_export">
<!-- a relative xpath does not being with a forward slash -->
<xsl:variable name="B2" select="ooo_sheet/ooo_row[#num='2']/secondCell/text()" />
</xsl:template>
Now lets imagine you wanted a template to match on the cell B2 node itself:
<xsl:template match="ooo_row[#num='2']/secondCell">
<!-- a relative xpath does not being with a forward slash -->
<xsl:variable name="B2_text" select="text()" />
</xsl:template>
This is a good tutorial on XSLT to get you started. Also, the W3 Schools references on XPath and XSLT aren't the worst.
Related
love the stuff - newbie Æthelred here
I have a XSLT 1.0 file pulling in a secondary XML (to a variable) to build a table
<xsl:variable name="table_values" select="document('./table_variants/external_table.xml')/xml/channel_1"/>
I then get the values i need from the variable, eg:
<xsl:value-of select="$table_values/monkey/tennis/#medals"/>
<xsl:value-of select="$table_values/monkey/tennis/#bananas"/>
What i want to do is have the first XML trigger/steer where to look for the table data.
I hoped i could, within the triggered XML, state the last part of the xpath - the 'channel_1' or 'channel_2',
<xsl:value-of select="xml/external_table_channel_to_use"/>
but apparently i cannot create a xpath on the fly like that
Please - What can i do?
What i want to do is have the first XML trigger/steer where to look
for the table data. I hoped i could, within the triggered XML, state
the last part of the xpath - the 'channel_1' or 'channel_2',
<xsl:value-of select="xml/external_table_channel_to_use"/> but
apparently i cannot create a xpath on the fly like that
Please - What can i do?
This can easily be done just extending the code that you already have.
Change this:
<xsl:variable name="table_values" select=
"document('./table_variants/external_table.xml')/xml/channel_1"/>
to this:
<xsl:variable name="table_values" select=
"document('./table_variants/external_table.xml')
/xml/*[name() = $channelName"/>
Needless to say, the variable (or global, external param) $channelName should have a value that is the (string) name of the element you want to use in the last location step of the XPath expression.
Goal
(XSLT 1.0). My goal is to take a set of elements, S, and produce another set, T, where T contains the unique elements in S. And to do so as efficiently as possible. (Note: I don't have to create a variable containing the set, or anything like that. I just need to loop over the elements that are unique).
Example Input and Key
<!-- My actual input consists of a bunch of <Result> elements -->
<AllMyResults>
<Result>
<someElement>value</state>
<otherElement>value 2</state>
<subject>Get unique subjects!</state>
</Result>
</AllMyResults>
<xsl:key name="SubjectKey" match="AllMyResults/Result" use="subject"/>
I think the above works, but when I go to use my key, it is incredibly slow. Below is the code for how I use my key.
<xsl:for-each select="Result[count(. | key('SubjectKey', subject)[1]) = 1]">
<xsl:sort select="subject" />
<!-- Do something with the unique subject value -->
<xsl:value-of select="subject" />
</xsl:for-each>
Additional Info
I believe I am doing this wrong because it slowed down my XSL considerably. As some additional info, the code shown above is in a separate XSL file from my main XSL file. From the main XSL, I am calling a template that contains the xsl:key and the for-each shown above. The input to this template is an xsl:param containing my node-set (similar to the example input shown above).
I can't see any reason from the information given why the code should be slow. It might be worth seeing if the slowness is something that happens on all XSLT processors, or if it's peculiar to one.
Try substituting
count(. | key('SubjectKey', subject)[1]) = 1
with:
generate-id() = generate-id(key('SubjectKey', subject)[1])
In some XSLT processors the latter is much faster.
I am using a variable say xpathvar in the XSLT whose value will be supplied at the time of call to XSLT. How can i achieve this?
My XSLT file looks like -
<xsl:param name="xpathvar"/>
<xsl:param name="keyxpath"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<listofResults>
<xsl:for-each select="$xpathvar">
<keyvalues><xsl:value-of select="xalan:evaluate(substring-before($keyxpath,'||'))"/></keyvalues>
<keyvalues><xsl:value-of select="xalan:evaluate(substring-after($keyxpath,'||'))"/></keyvalues>
</xsl:for-each>
</listofResults>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
If I mention the variable in the for-each, it throws error. Please guide how can I achieve this.
Thanks!
According to Global xsl:param containing xpath expression string it can't be done purely with plain old XSLT, you need to use the evaluate extension see: Xalan evaluate expression
I dont think this can be done like this you must use xpath so example would be
<template match="Node[name=$xpathvar]" />
<xsl:for-each select="*[name()=$xpathvar]">
</xsl:for-each>
I think it does not let you use the variable directly because it is not a nodeset.
If I mention the variable in the
for-each, it throws error
In XSLT 1.0 (it looks you are using Xalan), you can iterate over node sets, only. So $xpathvar should be an instance of node set data type.
In XSLT 2.0 you can iterate over sequence (including scalar values).
Also, if the string containing the "dynamic" XPath expression is simple enough (only QName test step, maybe positional predicates) this could be done (as is already answered in SO) with standar XSLT.
Can anybody who has worked with XSLT help me on this?
I am using XSL version 1.0.
I have declared a parameter in XSL file like:
<xsl:param name="HDISageHelpPath"/>
Now I am assigning the value to this parameter from an asp page . The value which I assign is "document('../ChannelData/Sage/help/ic/xml/HDI.xml')/HelpFiles/Help". Now I want to assign this parameter to the <xsl for each> like
<xsl:for-each select="msxsl:node-set($HDISageHelpPath)" > (This does not work)
But it does not work. I checked the parameter value by debugging it as below
<debug tree="$HDISageHelpPath">
<xsl:copy-of select="$HDISageHelpPath"/>
</debug>
I'm able to print the value and it seems correct. In fact when I assign the static path ("document('../ChannelData/Sage/help/ic/xml/HDI.xml')/HelpFiles/Help") by hard-coding it, it works
<xsl:for-each select="document('../ChannelData/Sage/help/ic/xml/HDI.xml')/HelpFiles/Help"> (This works)
Can anyone please let me know why assigning the parameter to xsl:for-each does not work?
Note: I have referred the site "http://www.dpawson.co.uk/xsl/sect2/N1553.html"
You can't easily evaluate dynamic strings as XPath expressions in XSLT 1.0. They must be hard-coded, normally.
There's EXSLT's dyn:evaluate(), but I doubt you can use that with the MXSML processor.
As an alternative approach, you could either try passing the file path only:
<xsl:param name="HDISageHelpFilePath"/>
<!-- ... -->
<xsl:for-each select="document($HDISageHelpFilePath)/HelpFiles/Help">
</xsl:for-each>
or making placeholder, replacing it with search-and-replace before you load the actual XSL code into the processor (as a string). This is a bit messy and error-prone, but it could give you the possibility to use an actual dynamic XPath expression.
<xsl:for-each select="%HELP_FILE_XPATH%">
</xsl:for-each>
Load the file as text, replace %HELP_FILE_XPATH% with your actual XPath, feed it to the processor. If it loads, you are fine, if it doesn't, your input XPath was malformed.
I've read with interest the techniques available on the web to extract a unique list of items from a XML file containing duplicates using XSL.
These range into 2 categories:
1) The Muenchian method (example: http://www.jenitennison.com/xslt/grouping/)
2) Or the previous-sibling look-up
These both rely on an XPath expression to select the data to group by.
However, in the XML file that I'm trying to work out, the data is not present "natively" in the XML file. I am using a xsl:template to compute some aggregated data from my elements. And I would like to group based on the aggregated data.
For example I have:
<filmsreview>
<record><data name='movie'>Star Wars</data><data name='ratings'>John:Good, Mary:Good</data></record>
<record><data name='movie'>Indiana Jones</data><data name='ratings'>John:Good, Mary:Bad, Helen:Average</data></record>
<record><data name='movie'>Titanic</data><data name='ratings'>John:Bad, Helen:Good</data></record>
</filmsreview>
I know that the structuration of data is not perfect and that by creating sub-elements I could do something easier, but I cannot change the data source easily, so let's take this as a challenge.
And I would like to build a recap where I have John's distinct ratings:
John's ratings:
Good
Bad
I have a xsl:template that can take a record element and return John's rating for this record:
Example:
<xsl:template name="get_rating">
<xsl:param name="reviewer" />
<!-- I use some string manipulation, and xsl:value-of to return the review for John-->
</xsl:template>
I can just call it under a xsl:for-each to get the exhaustive list of John's review. But I cannot combine this call with any of the methods to get unique values.
Do I have to use an intermediary XSL to convert my XML file to a more structured way? Or can I do in a single step?
Many thanks
Gerard
Hmm... This should be possible using xslt variables and the nodeset method, perhaps something like this:
<xsl:variable name="_johnsRatings">
<xsl:apply-templates select="/" mode="johnsRatings" />
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="johnsRatings" select="msxsl:node-set($_johnsRatings)" />
<xsl:template match="/" mode="johnsRatings">
<Ratings>
<xsl:for-each select="/filmsReview/record/data[#name='ratings']">
<Rating><xsl:call-template name="get_rating" /></Rating>
</xsl:for-each>
</Ratings>
</xsl:template>
At this point, it should be possible to query the $johnsRatings variable using standard XPath queries, and you can use either of the two methods you mentioned above to retrieve unique values from it...
Hope that helps
EDIT:
I don't know what XSLT engine you are using, I assumed you have access to the msxsl:node-set() function. However, most XSLT processors have similar methods, so you might have to search around for an equivalent method in your processor