I need to merge, sort, and filter records from a master XML file based on data in another XML document (one of many). I want to capture the entire contents of a "header" section, and all node information that match by category. While this isn't the real situation, I think the Top seller by category Book example will illustrate.

Suppose I want to generate an XML file that list top seller books by category, based on the interests of each subscriber. That file will have a common greeting, and all the details for only the categories of Books the subscriber is interested in, sorted by their ranking. We have a master XML file that is structured something like this:

<Greeting>... stuff... </Greeting>
<Top Sellers>
<Top Seller>
<category>Art</category>
<Title>...</Title>
</Top Seller>
<Top Seller>
<category>Suspense</category>
<Title>...</Title>
</Top Seller>
<Top Seller>
<category>Chemical Engineering</category>
<Title>...</Title>
</Top Seller>
<Top Seller>
<category>Drama</category>
<Title>...</Title>
</Top Seller>
</Top Sellers>


Then, there is a subscriber specific file that looks something like this:


<USERPREFS>
<preference>
<Category>Suspense</Category>
<Rank>1</Rank>
</preference>
<preference>
<Category>Sports</Category>
<Rank>2</Rank>
</preference>
<preference>
<Category>Humor</Category>
<Rank>3</Rank>
</preference>
<preference>
</preference>
</USERPREFS>


The result I'm wanting to have is something like this

<Greeting>... stuff... </Greeting>
<Top Sellers>
<Top Seller>
<category>Suspense</category>
<Title>...<Title>
</Top Seller>
<Top Seller>
<category>Sorts</category>
<Title>...<Title>
</Top Seller>
<Top Seller>
<category>Humor</category>
<Title>...<Title>
</Top Seller>
</Top Sellers>

where the contents of the greeting node contains all the details in the first file, ranked based on the second, and the content of all the matching top sellers nodes is also in the result file.

There will be many different "preference files" that will be applied to the same XML "master", so hard-coding the file name in an XSLT doesn't seem to be an option.

Seems like I might need to transform the second XML file into an intermediate XSLT, then apply that one to the first file. If this is the best approach, I'm having a hard time visualizing what the intermediate XSLT should look like (thus far, my XSLT experience is limited to relatively simple "for each" type transforms).

A code snippet or link to another topic that has a working example would be greatly appreciated.

I have found a way to address this issue- transforming the two files into a single file first using one XSLT, then looking for following-siblings in a second one. Sorting the result has not been addressed, is less critical and should be fairly easy.

I do have one new, related question-

The first XSLT involves a parameter (the second file name). If anyone has a working example of how msxml2 can be sent XSLT paramters from VB6, that would be appreciated. Sources I've found on the web thus far are from a pre-release version of MSXML and don't work with current code.. Not a show stopper. If I need to I can shell out to MSXSL.exe and pass the paramter there.

The sdk for version 4 is available by going to msdn.com/xml and hunting on the first page.
There are two methods of passing a parameter, the official way and the hackers' way.

Official way: use the addParameter method:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...68e8c032b7.asp

Hackers' way: Open the XSLT in a domdocument. Assign the namespace prefix "xsl" to the standard URI using "setProperty" and "SelectionNamespaces" (See sdk if you are unfamiliar with this. Search for your parameter element, selectSingleNode("xsl:param[@name = 'myParamName']"). Modify select attribute or text value depending on how you set up the param.



--

Joe (Microsoft MVP - XML)

Thanks, that works great...