xslt question re transforming XML to HTML

[Ari]

How do you get the list of elements in an xml
document using xslt?

I am trying to find a generic way to create an html table that also
contains column captions (element name) without knowing the element
names in the xml file.

for example:

THIS XML file, using XSLT

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<products>
<tool>
<name>Hammer</name>
<price>9.99</price>
</tool>
<tool>
<name>Hammer Deluxe</name>
<price>14.99</price>
</tool>
<tool>
<name>Wrench</name>
<price>11.49</price>
</tool>
</products>

TO PRODUCE HTML file that looks like this

tool name price
Hammer 9.99
Hammer 14.99
Wrench 11.49



xslt like this
<xsl:apply-templates select="tool/*" />

gives back

9.99
14.99
11.49

genericly gets values, but no element names


Thanks,

Ari

[Russell Jones]

This template produces exactly the output you requested, but you should
understand that it's not exactly generic, because of the blank column. I
should think a generic version would use the second-level tag name as the
table caption rather than a header for a blank column. Better yet, you could
pass a parameter for the table caption. But this should get you started.

Note that it works only with XML documents that hold two-dimensional data in
this form--like your example document.

<root>
<col1name>
<col2name>col2 data</col2name>
<col3name>col3 data</col3name>
</col1name>
</root>

Russell Jones
Sr. Web Development Editor,
DevX.com

"Ari " <amenase@fhcrc.org> wrote in message news:3b6f3fce$1@news.devx.com...
>
> How do you get the list of elements in an xml
> document using xslt?
>
> I am trying to find a generic way to create an html table that also
> contains column captions (element name) without knowing the element
> names in the xml file.
>
> for example:
>
> THIS XML file, using XSLT
>
> <?xml version="1.0" ?>
> <products>
> <tool>
> <name>Hammer</name>
> <price>9.99</price>
> </tool>
> <tool>
> <name>Hammer Deluxe</name>
> <price>14.99</price>
> </tool>
> <tool>
> <name>Wrench</name>
> <price>11.49</price>
> </tool>
> </products>
>
> TO PRODUCE HTML file that looks like this
>
> tool name price
> Hammer 9.99
> Hammer 14.99
> Wrench 11.49
>
>
>
> xslt like this
> <xsl:apply-templates select="tool/*" />
>
> gives back
>
> 9.99
> 14.99
> 11.49
>
> genericly gets values, but no element names
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ari
>

[Russell Jones]

Oops--here's the template that was supposed to accompany my last post.

<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
version="1.0">
<xslutput method="html"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<table border="1">
<!-- write the headers -->
<xsl:apply-templates select="*[1]"/>

<!-- write the data -->
<xsl:for-each select="child::*/child::*">
<tr><td>&#160;</td>
<xsl:for-each select="child::*">
<td><xsl:value-of select="."/></td>
</xsl:for-each>
</tr>
</xsl:for-each>
</table>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="child::*[1]">
<tr>
<xsl:for-each select="child::*[1]">
<th><xsl:value-of select="name()"/></th>
<xsl:for-each select="child::*">
<th><xsl:value-of select="name()"/></th>
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:for-each>
</tr>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

"Russell Jones" <arj1@northstate.net> wrote in message
news:3b6f605c$1@news.devx.com...
> This template produces exactly the output you requested, but you should
> understand that it's not exactly generic, because of the blank column. I
> should think a generic version would use the second-level tag name as the
> table caption rather than a header for a blank column. Better yet, you
could
> pass a parameter for the table caption. But this should get you started.
>
> Note that it works only with XML documents that hold two-dimensional data
in
> this form--like your example document.
>
> <root>
> <col1name>
> <col2name>col2 data</col2name>
> <col3name>col3 data</col3name>
> </col1name>
> </root>
>
> Russell Jones
> Sr. Web Development Editor,
> DevX.com
>
> "Ari " <amenase@fhcrc.org> wrote in message
news:3b6f3fce$1@news.devx.com...
> >
> > How do you get the list of elements in an xml
> > document using xslt?
> >
> > I am trying to find a generic way to create an html table that also
> > contains column captions (element name) without knowing the element
> > names in the xml file.
> >
> > for example:
> >
> > THIS XML file, using XSLT
> >
> > <?xml version="1.0" ?>
> > <products>
> > <tool>
> > <name>Hammer</name>
> > <price>9.99</price>
> > </tool>
> > <tool>
> > <name>Hammer Deluxe</name>
> > <price>14.99</price>
> > </tool>
> > <tool>
> > <name>Wrench</name>
> > <price>11.49</price>
> > </tool>
> > </products>
> >
> > TO PRODUCE HTML file that looks like this
> >
> > tool name price
> > Hammer 9.99
> > Hammer 14.99
> > Wrench 11.49
> >
> >
> >
> > xslt like this
> > <xsl:apply-templates select="tool/*" />
> >
> > gives back
> >
> > 9.99
> > 14.99
> > 11.49
> >
> > genericly gets values, but no element names
> >
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Ari
> >
>
>

[Ari]

Thank you!,

Ari


"Russell Jones" <arj1@northstate.net> wrote:
>Oops--here's the template that was supposed to accompany my last post.
>
><xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
>version="1.0">
><xslutput method="html"/>
><xsl:template match="/">
> <table border="1">
> <!-- write the headers -->
> <xsl:apply-templates select="*[1]"/>
>
> <!-- write the data -->
> <xsl:for-each select="child::*/child::*">
> <tr><td>*</td>
> <xsl:for-each select="child::*">
> <td><xsl:value-of select="."/></td>
> </xsl:for-each>
> </tr>
> </xsl:for-each>
> </table>
></xsl:template>
><xsl:template match="child::*[1]">
> <tr>
> <xsl:for-each select="child::*[1]">
> <th><xsl:value-of select="name()"/></th>
> <xsl:for-each select="child::*">
> <th><xsl:value-of select="name()"/></th>
> </xsl:for-each>
> </xsl:for-each>
> </tr>
></xsl:template>
></xsl:stylesheet>
>
>"Russell Jones" <arj1@northstate.net> wrote in message
>news:3b6f605c$1@news.devx.com...
>> This template produces exactly the output you requested, but you should
>> understand that it's not exactly generic, because of the blank column.
I
>> should think a generic version would use the second-level tag name as
the
>> table caption rather than a header for a blank column. Better yet, you
>could
>> pass a parameter for the table caption. But this should get you started.
>>
>> Note that it works only with XML documents that hold two-dimensional data
>in
>> this form--like your example document.
>>
>> <root>
>> <col1name>
>> <col2name>col2 data</col2name>
>> <col3name>col3 data</col3name>
>> </col1name>
>> </root>
>>
>> Russell Jones
>> Sr. Web Development Editor,
>> DevX.com
>>
>> "Ari " <amenase@fhcrc.org> wrote in message
>news:3b6f3fce$1@news.devx.com...
>> >
>> > How do you get the list of elements in an xml
>> > document using xslt?
>> >
>> > I am trying to find a generic way to create an html table that also
>> > contains column captions (element name) without knowing the element
>> > names in the xml file.
>> >
>> > for example:
>> >
>> > THIS XML file, using XSLT
>> >
>> > <?xml version="1.0" ?>
>> > <products>
>> > <tool>
>> > <name>Hammer</name>
>> > <price>9.99</price>
>> > </tool>
>> > <tool>
>> > <name>Hammer Deluxe</name>
>> > <price>14.99</price>
>> > </tool>
>> > <tool>
>> > <name>Wrench</name>
>> > <price>11.49</price>
>> > </tool>
>> > </products>
>> >
>> > TO PRODUCE HTML file that looks like this
>> >
>> > tool name price
>> > Hammer 9.99
>> > Hammer 14.99
>> > Wrench 11.49
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > xslt like this
>> > <xsl:apply-templates select="tool/*" />
>> >
>> > gives back
>> >
>> > 9.99
>> > 14.99
>> > 11.49
>> >
>> > genericly gets values, but no element names
>> >
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> >
>> > Ari
>> >
>>
>>
>
>