XSLT: need to replace document('') - xslt

Question

I've the following xslt file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<!-- USDomesticCountryList - USE UPPERCASE LETTERS ONLY -->
<xsl:variable name="USDomesticCountryList">
<entry name="US"/>
<entry name="UK"/>
<entry name="EG"/>
</xsl:variable>
<!--// USDomesticCountryList -->
<xsl:template name="IsUSDomesticCountry">
<xsl:param name="countryParam"/>
<xsl:variable name="country" select="normalize-space($countryParam)"/>
<xsl:value-of select="normalize-space(document('')//xsl:variable[#name='USDomesticCountryList']/entry[#name=$country]/#name)"/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
I need to replace the "document('')" xpath function, what should I use instead?
I've tried to remove it completely but the xsl document doesn't work for me!
I need to to so because the problem is :
I am using some XSLT document that uses the above file, say document a.
So I have document a that includes the above file (document b).
I am using doc a from java code, I am do Caching for doc a as a javax.xml.transform.Templates object to prevent multiple reads to the xsl file on every transformation request.
I found that, the doc b is re-calling itself from the harddisk, I believe this is because of the document('') function above, so I wanna replace/remove it.
Thanks.

Answer 1

If you want to access the nodes inside a variable you normally use the node-set() extension function. The availability and syntax depends on the processor you use. For MSXML and Saxon you can use exsl:node-set(). To use the extension function you will have to include the namespace that defines the function.
E.g. (tested wiht MSXML, returns US for countryName = 'US'):
<xsl:stylesheet
version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:exsl="http://exslt.org/common"
extension-element-prefixes="exsl"
>
<xsl:output method="xml"/>
<!-- USDomesticCountryList - USE UPPERCASE LETTERS ONLY -->
<xsl:variable name="USDomesticCountryList">
<entry name="US"/>
<entry name="UK"/>
<entry name="EG"/>
</xsl:variable>
<!--// USDomesticCountryList -->
<xsl:template name="IsUSDomesticCountry">
<xsl:param name="countryParam"/>
<xsl:variable name="country" select="normalize-space($countryParam)"/>
<xsl:value-of select="exsl:node-set($USDomesticCountryList)/entry[#name=$country]/#name"/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Answer 2

If you're trying to make the IsUSDomesticCountry template work without using document(''), you could rewrite the template to
<xsl:template name="IsUSDomesticCountry">
<xsl:param name="countryParam"/>
<xsl:variable name="country" select="normalize-space($countryParam)"/>
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="$country='US'">true</xsl:when>
<xsl:when test="$country='UK'">true</xsl:when>
<xsl:when test="$country='EG'">true</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>false</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>
or
<xsl:template name="IsUSDomesticCountry">
<xsl:param name="countryParam"/>
<xsl:variable name="country" select="normalize-space($countryParam)"/>
<xsl:value-of select="$country='US' or $country='UK' or $country='EG'"/>
</xsl:template>
or even
<xsl:template name="IsUSDomesticCountry">
<xsl:param name="countryParam"/>
<xsl:variable name="country"
select="concat('-', normalize-space($countryParam),'-')"/>
<xsl:variable name="domesticCountries" select="'-US-UK-EG-'"/>
<xsl:value-of select="contains($domesticCountries, $country)"/>
</xsl:template>
Personally, I find the variant using document('') to be more readable.