Tag Layout

[Al]

I wrote a C tutorial that I covert to XML.

<tutorial>
<section id="1">
<title>Data Types</title>

<section id="1.1">
<title>Numeric Types</title>

<content>
Lots of Text......

<code_block>Some Example Code</code_block>

More Text...

</content>
</section>

 

[Andy Dingley]

<content>
Lots of Text......

<code_block>Some Example Code</code_block>

More Text...

</content>

I am trying to set it up so the formatted <code_block> outputs after "Lots of text..." and before "More Text...".

Is there a better way to set up my XML file or is it my XSL?

You _could_ fix this in XSL, but it's really awkward. Avoid "mixed content" models like this - they're troublesome.

Try this instead:

<content>

<p>
Lots of Text......
</p>

<code_block>Some Example Code</code_block>

<p>
More Text...
</p>

</content>

Or even better, look into the DocBook DTD. There are even pre-written XSL stylesheets for it.

 

[C. M. Sperberg-McQueen]

I wrote a C tutorial that I covert to XML.

...
<content>
Lots of Text......

<code_block>Some Example Code</code_block>

More Text...

</content>
...

... The problem is the
<xsl:value-of select="."/> ( . is the <content> node) includes the <code_block> values in the <content> value.

Yep, that's your problem, all right.

Is there a better way to set up my XML file or is it my XSL?

Your XML is fine. (Some people will tell you that you should avoid mixed content; when your schema is for documents, as opposed to database records, these people are, ah, wrong.)

If I were you, I'd change

<xsl:template match="content">

<xsl:element name="div">

<xsl:value-of select="." />
<xsl:apply-templates select="code_block"/>

</xsl:element>

</xsl:template>

to

<xsl:template match="content">
<xsl:element name="div">
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:element>
</xsl:template>

Since the default for apply-templates is to select the
child nodes of the current node, you'll get the initial text node, followed by the code block, followed by the final text node. One rule for processing mixed content is to let your data drive the stylesheet and not try to control everything using manual selects.

I hope this helps.

-C. M. Sperberg-McQueen
World Wide Web Consortium