Pass parameter from XSLT to ASP.NET

kwilliams · August 16th, 2005, 02:14 PM

My setup:
XML > XSLT > ASP.NET (using transformNode method)

My problem:
Is it possible to pull an XSLT parameter into the transformed ASP.NET page? If so, how do you do it?

Details:
I'm trying to create a dynamic page header using an XSLT stylesheet's parameter that's passed to an ASP.NET page using the transformNode method. This is what I have, but obviously it's not working:

1) XSLT stylesheet

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="html" encoding="UTF-8" indent="yes"/>
<xsl:param name="par_pageheader" select="'Forms #38; Document'" />
    <xsl:template match="/">
        <div id="screenleft">
            <xsl:value-of select="$par_pageheader" />
        </div>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

2) ASP.NET page

Code:

<%'Load XML
Dim xml = Server.CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
xml.async = false
xml.load("xmldoc.xml")

'Load XSL
Dim xsl = Server.CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
xsl.async = false
xsl.load("xsldoc.xsl")

'XSLT variable
Dim pageHeader = xsl.selectSingleNode("//xsl:param[@name='par_pageheader']")

'Transform file
Response.Write(xml.transformNode(xsl))

'Display page header from XSLT
Response.Write(pageHeader)%>

I don't receive any error messages with this setup, but the parameter doesn't get displayed, and I'm not sure why. Hopefully someone can see what I'm doing wrong. Thanks for any help.

KWilliams

joefawcett · August 17th, 2005, 02:08 AM

There are a number of issues with your code:

Why are you using COM in ASP.NET? The XmlDom is deprecated in this scenario and the .NET transforms are as easy to use.
If you must use COM then either install the latest parser, version 4 and use
Code:
```
Server.CreateObject("Msxml2.DomDocument.4.0")
```
or use version 3
Code:
```
"Msxml2.DomDocument.3.0"
```
in which case you will have to specify that you are using XPath for queries
Code:
```
xsl.SetProperty "SelectionLanguage", "XPath"
```
By using the older prog id you cannot be sure which version you are getting and you will be forced to use XSLPattern selection language which is no longer supported and quite different to XPath
Once all this is sorted you need to let the parser know what namespace is represented by "xsl"
Code:
```
xsl.SetProperty "SelectionNamespaces", "xmlns:xsl=""http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"""
```
I would also suggest you look at the XML SDK for the addParameter method which is the recommended way to set param elements

--

Joe (Microsoft MVP - XML)

kwilliams · August 17th, 2005, 08:29 AM

Quote:

quote:There are a number of issues with your code:
Why are you using COM in ASP.NET? The XmlDom is deprecated in this scenario and the .NET transforms are as easy to use.

As I stated in a previous post, that's because I used the transformNode method provided on the W3Schools website. If you know of a just as simple setup that uses .NET, please let me know.

Quote:

quote:If you must use COM then either install the latest parser, version 4 and use
Server.CreateObject("Msxml2.DomDocument.4.0")
or use version 3
"Msxml2.DomDocument.3.0"
in which case you will have to specify that you are using XPath for queries
xsl.SetProperty "SelectionLanguage", "XPath"

By using the older prog id you cannot be sure which version you are getting and you will be forced to use XSLPattern selection language which is no longer supported and quite different to XPath

Once all this is sorted you need to let the parser know what namespace is represented by "xsl"

xsl.SetProperty "SelectionNamespaces", "xmlns:xsl=""http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"""

I would also suggest you look at the XML SDK for the addParameter method which is the recommended way to set param elements

That's all well and good. If you can give me some good examples of how to use the .NET version of the transformNode method, please do. I do want to use what works best, but as a newbie, I'm only using what is shown on supposedly up-to-date XML/XSLT/ASP.NET tutorials. Please point me in the right direction. Thanks.

KWilliams

kwilliams · August 17th, 2005, 11:56 AM

Well, I found a great article through Microsoft's site on MSXML.DOMDocument and setting parameters from an XSLT stylesheet at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...ml06192000.asp.

But unfortunately I'm running into a strange result. This is my code:

Code:

<%
'Declare XML and XSL file paths
Dim xmlURL As String, xslURL As String
xmlURL = "xmlDoc.xml"
xslURL = "xslDoc.xsl"

'Pull in pageheaderNode parameter
Dim addRecordFilter = CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument")
addRecordFilter.async = false
addRecordFilter.load(xslURL)

Dim pageheaderNode = addRecordFilter.selectSingleNode("//xsl:param[@name='par_pageheader']")

Response.Write("<html><head>")
Response.Write("<title>")
Response.Write(pageheaderNode)
Response.Write("</title>")
Response.Write("</head><body>")

'Load XML
Dim xml = Server.CreateObject("MSXML.DOMDocument")
xml.async = false
xml.load(xmlURL)

'Load XSL
Dim xsl = Server.CreateObject("MSXML.DOMDocument")
xsl.async = false
xsl.load(xslURL)

'Transform file
Response.Write(xml.transformNode(xsl))

Response.Write("</body></html>")
%>

And this is the output:

Code:

<html>
<head>
<title>System.__ComObject</title>
<body>...</body>
</html>

Am I missing something?

KWilliams