Hi all,

I'm tyring to create an stylesheet that generates a purchase order and I am using a mix of XSL and JavaScript to control the pagination. I have an external JavaScript file (PrintedForm.js, see below) that contains a few simple functions and two variables (a row count and a maximum number of lines on the page). I increment the row count using a JavaScript function each time a <TR> is created and the row count variable in the external JavaScript file is correctly updated:


<TR></TR>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
   incRowCount();
</SCRIPT>

I would like to test the row count value in the XSL, but I do not know how to execute the getRowCount() function and store that value in an XSL variable. I tried this:

<xsl:variable name="curRowCount" select="JavaScript:getRowCount();"/>

but I get an error saying that "JavaScript must be a name space", and I see why I got this error. I also tried this:

<xsl:variable name="curRowCount">
   <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
      getRowCount();
   </SCRIPT>
</xsl:variable>

but this just returns the string "getRowCount();" and does not execute the function. Does anyone know a way to set that XSL variable using the JavaScript function or is there another way around it?

Thanks,
Tom

================================================== ========

PrintedForm.js:
// Create global variables here
var rowCount = 0;
var bodyLength = 0;

// Sets the number of rows in the body of the form
function setBodyLength(param)
{
   bodyLength = param;
}

// Initializes the row count to zero
function initRowCount()
{
   rowCount = 0;
}

function getRowCount()
{
   return rowCount;
}

function incRowCount()
{
   rowCount++;
}

function incRowCountByAmt(incBy)
{
   rowCount += incBy;
}

function addBlankRows()
{
   var diff = bodyLength - rowCount;

   document.write('<TABLE BORDER="0">');
   var i;
   for(i = 0; i < diff; i++)
   {
      document.write('<TR><TD CLASS="TDCELL"><TD></TR>');
      rowCount++;
   }
   document.write("</TABLE>");
}

function showRowCount()
{
   document.write("The row count is now "+rowCount);

You've got confused about the processing model (you're not the first). Writing the following in your stylesheet

   <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
      getRowCount();
   </SCRIPT>

just causes a SCRIPT element to be written to the result tree. The XSLT processor doesn't treat it any differently from a <PRITSTICK> element. It's only the HTML browser, when it comes to render the generated page, that recognizes SCRIPT as something special. So you can't execute the script at transformation time and capture the result in an XSLT variable.

Some XSLT processors do allow you to call extension functions written in Javascript at transformation time. These are called from within XPath expressions in the same way as standard system functions. In MSXML for example you declare such functions using <msxsl:script>.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
Author, XSLT Programmer's Reference and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference

Thank you for your input, Michael.

Does anyone know if JavaScript extensions are allowed using LIBXSLT? I used them successfully with MSXML but wanted to try it with a non-Microsoft library.

Thanks.

I can only assume that as libxslt is a C library it would allow you to write extension functions in C.

http://xmlsoft.org/XSLT/extensions.html

__________________
/- Sam Judson : Wrox Technical Editor -/

Think before you post: What have you tried?

Thanks, Sam. I was hoping to use the much more straight-forward JavaScript :( Oh well. Thanks for your time.