Hi all, well I am fairly new to XSLT but I managed to write a stylesheet that takes in some proprietary XML code and converts it to cleaner, DITA-compliant code. Below I have pasted in a sample of the source, as well as my XSLT. Everything is working great, except my XSLT simply outputs code in the same order as it appears in the source code. I need to sort the ouput based on the <category> tag. For example, all "beans" in the Feeds category should be grouped together, all beans in the misc category should be grouped together, all beans without a value for category should be grouped together, etc. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Source Code:

<bean id="com.j2fe.feeds.activities.FileSplitBase">
        <displayName>FileSplitBase</displayName>
        <shortDescription id="com.j2fe.feeds.activities.FileSplitBase#shortD escription"/>
        <implements>java.beans.BeanInfo</implements>
        <category>Feeds</category> (need to sort on this value)
        <properties>
            <property id="com.j2fe.feeds.activities.FileSplitBase#proper ty#businessFeed">
                <displayName>Business Feed</displayName>
                <shortDescription id="com.j2fe.feeds.activities.FileSplitBase#proper ty#businessFeed#shortDescription"/>
                <output>no</output>
                <input>yes</input>
                <required>yes</required>
                <type>java.lang.String</type>
            </property>
</bean>

My XSLT:

<xsl:template match="documentation">

<topic>

<xsl:attribute name="id">JavaBeans</xsl:attribute>

<title>JavaBeans Documentation</title>

<xsl:apply-templates select="bean"/>

</topic>

</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="bean">

<bean>

<xsl:attribute name="id"><xsl:value-of select="@id"/></xsl:attribute>

<title><xsl:value-of select="displayName"/></title>

<shortdesc><xsl:value-of select="shortDescription"/></shortdesc>

<beanbody>

<properties>

<xsl:attribute name="id"><xsl:value-of select="@id"/>Props</xsl:attribute>

<prophead>

<propdisplaynamehd>Display Name</propdisplaynamehd>
<propdeschd>Description</propdeschd>
<proptypehd>Type</proptypehd>
<propinputhd>Input</propinputhd>
<propdependsonhd>Dependencies</propdependsonhd>

</prophead>

<property>

<propdisplayname><xsl:value-of select="displayName"/></propdisplayname>
<propdesc><xsl:value-of select="shortDescription"/></propdesc>
<proptype><xsl:value-of select="type"/></proptype>
<propinput><xsl:value-of select="input"/></propinput>
<propdependson><xsl:value-of select="dependsOn"/></propdependson>

</property>

</properties>

</beanbody>

</bean>

</xsl:template>

Just change

<xsl:apply-templates select="bean"/>

to

<xsl:apply-templates select="bean">
  <xsl:sort select="category"/>
</xsl:apply-templates>


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

Holy smokes - a reply from Yoda himself !! I have your XSLT book right in front of me Mr. Kay. Thanks so much for your help - worked like a charm!!