Merge XML files into a xml file using xslt

lxu · October 14th, 2003, 12:22 PM

I have over 20 xml schema files and want to generate a xml file. I have to use xslt. Any suggestion?

Thanks in advance.

LX

joefawcett · October 17th, 2003, 08:56 AM

What do you mean?
You want to merger the 20 files to one large schema or create an xml that satisfies all the schemas?

Joe (MVP - xml)

lxu · November 3rd, 2003, 10:53 AM

Thanks for the response. I have solved the problem.

I am looking for the solution or idea of coverting flat files into a xml file. Using Java programming would be easier for me. But my boss wants me to use xslt. I have converted each flat files into a .xml file. What is the better way for the next step?

Thanks again,

LX

joefawcett · November 3rd, 2003, 11:16 AM

If you want to convert a number of separate xml documents into one then you need to create a new master document and have each old document as a child. The easiest way I can think of is to create a config file such as this with a list of all the documents you need merging:

Code:

<mergeData newRoot="newRoot">
  <fileList>
    <fileItem>myFile1.xml</fileItem>
    <fileItem>myFile2.xml</fileItem>
    <fileItem>myFile3.xml</fileItem>
  </fileList>
</mergeData>

With msxml you can use a path relative to the stylesheet but with some processors you may need the full url, file:///c:/myFolder/myFile.xml for example.
Your stylesheet looks like:

Code:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
  <xsl:template match="/">
    <xsl:element name="{mergeData/@newRoot}">
      <xsl:apply-templates select="mergeData/fileList/fileItem"/>
    </xsl:element>
  </xsl:template>
  <xsl:template match="fileItem">    
    <xsl:copy-of select="document(.)"/>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Replace the newRoot attribute value with your choice of new document element.

This simple merger won't work with source xml files that have embedded DTDs but given that you created these files from flat files this seems unlikely.

Joe (MVP - xml)

lxu · November 6th, 2003, 06:01 PM

Thanks.