XSL: choosing another node if one is not available

[APB]

I am working on an XSL to transform RSS/RDF feeds into HTML

I have come across a bunch of feeds that only have a <description> for each
<item> but no <title>.

In this event I would like to use the <description> node as if it where the
<title> node. I tried something like the following fragment, but it doesn't
change anything. How can I obtain what I require while keeping one single
universal XSLT? Thanks!

<xsl:template match="item">
<xsl:variable name="item_link" select="link"/>
<xsl:variable name="item_descr" select="description"/>
<xsl:variable name="item_title" select="title"/>
<li >
<a href="{$item_link}" target="_blank" >
<xsl:if test="$item_title=''">
<xsl:value-of select="description" />
</xsl:if>
<xsl:value-of select="title"/>
</a>
<br /><div style="display:none"><xsl:value-of select="description"
disable-output-escaping="yes" /></div>
</li>
</xsl:template>

Alex.

 

[peterpeter]

Hi.

I'm not sure, but if the <title> element doesn't exist at all, its
value is rather invalid than an empty string. This would mean, that
your comparison never will be true because there is no value to
compare with. You have to test if the value exists anyway. Try the
following change:

....
<xsl:if test="$item_title">
....

If you also want avoid empty strings, you have to combine both
comparisons.


Bye
Peter

 

[APB]

Looks like I'm getting somewhere with this, thanks!

<xsl:if test="not($item_title)">

does the trick.

Alex.