Using XSLT parameters in a browser transform

[David (archive)]

I would like to be able to re-sort data in an HTML table on the without returning to the server. It seems like an XSLT should be able to accomplish this, but I can't find enough information...

I have am XML file generated on the server that looks something like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="search.xsl"?>
<AlbumSearch version="3.0" time="02Apr04 10:54:31 EST"> <SearchResults field="artist" string="Barenaked Ladies"> <Album artist="Barenaked Ladies" title="Born On A Pirate Ship" released="1996"/> <Album artist="Barenaked Ladies" title="Gordon" released="1992"/> <Album artist="Barenaked Ladies" title="Maroon" released="2000"/> <Album artist="Barenaked Ladies" title="Maybe You Should Drive" released="1994"/> </SearchResults> </SalesSearch>

Here's my stylesheet:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> <xslutput method="html"/>

<xsl:template match="/AlbumSearch">
<html>
<body>
<xsl:for-each select="SearchResults">
<table border="1">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Artist</th>
<th>Title</th>
<th>Release Date</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<xsl:apply-templates>
<xsl:sort select="@artist"/>
</xsl:apply-templates>
</tbody>
</table>
</xsl:for-each>

</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="Album">
<tr>
<td><xsl:value-of select="@artist"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="@title"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="@released"/></td>
</tr>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

The idea is to transform this into HTML on the client, placing the album list into an HTML table. What I'd like to accomplish is to include links or buttons in each column header that would allow the user to click on them and resort the album list by that column without round-tripping to the server. The stylesheet I currently have obvisouly hardcodes the sort order; I'd like to determine the sort order based on the user's selection.

Anyone have any ideas? Would using a little bit of script to kick off a new transform work, passing a parameter based on which column the user kicked?
Where can I find an example?

 

[Martin Honnen]

I would like to be able to re-sort data in an HTML table on the without returning to the server. It seems like an XSLT should be able to accomplish this, but I can't find enough information...

I have an example at
http://home.arcor.de/martin.honnen/xslt/tableSorting/tdf-winnersXSLTTableSort.html but note that the document is an HTML document that does all transformations with scripting. And I haven't used <xslaram> elements as I think that you need to manipulate the DOM of the stylesheet if you want to sort on different elements or attributes, a param would only help to change the sort order (e.g. ascending vs. descending). The example has been tested to work with IE6, Netscape 7.1, Mozilla 1.1, Firefox 0.8.

Of course there are different approaches possible, for instance you could (as you have in your example) let the browser do the initial transformation with <?xsl-stylesheet?> and then use script only to sort the table. And for sorting there you could not even use XSLT but use DOM scripting to perform the sort.