XSLT string replacement question

[J Trost]

I was wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to do basic string replacement using XSLT even though the strings being replaced may contain "<" and ">". Here is my problem:

I need to be able to convert XML like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<java version="1.4.2_03" class="java.beans.XMLDecoder"> <object class="javax.swing.JButton"> <string>Hello, world</string> </object> </java>

Into XML like this(notice each "<" is replaced with "&lt;" and each ">" has been replaced with "&gt; and then it was wrapped in a SOAP envelope"):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmln s:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"> <soap:Body> <SubmitRequest xmlns="http://apps.someurl.com/somePath/"> <xmlRequest> &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt; &lt;java version="1.4.2_03" class="java.beans.XMLDecoder"&gt; &lt;object class="javax.swing.JButton"&gt; &lt;string&gt;Hello, world&lt;/string&gt; &lt;/object&gt; &lt;/java&gt; </xmlRequest> </SubmitRequest> </soap:Body> </soap:Envelope>

I know it is possible to do this using just about any programming language, but I want to know if it can be done using XSLT stylesheets. If it is possible does anyone know how? Or could you direct me to a tutorial on how to do this?

Thank you,

--J

 

[Patrick TJ McPhee]

% I was wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to do basic string % replacement using XSLT even though the strings being replaced may % contain "<" and ">". Here is my problem:

What you're doing isn't really string replacement, since the things that need replacing aren't available to the style sheet as strings.

% <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

I don't think the XML declaration is available to XSLT at all.

% <java version="1.4.2_03" class="java.beans.XMLDecoder">

For the other things, you could do something like
<xsl:template match="*">
<xsl:text>&amp;lt;</xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select='name'/>
<xsl:for-each select='@*'>
<xsl:text> </xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select='name'/>
<xsl:text>="</xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select='.'/>
<xsl:text>"</xsl:text>
</xsl:for-each>
<xsl:text>&amp;gt;</xsl:text>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
<xsl:text>&amp;lt;/</xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select='name'/>
<xsl:text>&amp;gt;</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>

This will not give you your original document with <, &, and > replaced by entities, but it ought to give you an equivalent document.

I wouldn't even consider using XSLT for this task, by the way.

 

[Richard Tobin]

I need to be able to convert XML like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<java version="1.4.2_03" class="java.beans.XMLDecoder"> <object class="javax.swing.JButton"> <string>Hello, world</string> </object> </java>

Into XML like this

&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
&lt;java version="1.4.2_03" class="java.beans.XMLDecoder"&gt; &lt;object class="javax.swing.JButton"&gt; &lt;string&gt;Hello, world&lt;/string&gt; &lt;/object&gt; &lt;/java&gt;

You can't do the XML declaration, because XSLT doesn't see it. You can do the rest, but it will be tedious.

You need a template that matches any element. It should then output "<" as text, followed by the local-name of the element, and a space. Then apply-templates to the attributes. Output ">", then apply-templates to the children. Handle the end-tag in the same way.

The template for the attributes will be even more tedious, because you will need to handle the possibility of quotes in the attribute value.

Similarly, the template for text will have to handle & and < specially (you will need to output &amp;amp; and &amp;lt.

If your XML may use namespaces, you will need to look at the namespace nodes to determine appropriate prefixes for the element and attribute names, and you will have to output namespace declarations.

You really don't want to do this. Use sed instead.

-- Richard

 

[Richard Tobin]

You really don't want to do this. Use sed instead.

Of course, what I really meant was "use XInclude with parse='text'".

-- Richard