Hello, i am new to xsl transformation. i tried to convert small xml file to another xml file by changing element names. more or less i succeeded, but the final output looks like that:
[u]output</u>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><new-class><new-classitem><identifier><new-name>Sales </new-name><new-code>1234</new-code></identifier></new-classitem><new-classitem><identifier><new-name> Tax</new-name><new-code>5678</new-code></identifier></new-classitem></new-class>

[u]my xsl file</u>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
<xsl:output method="xml" />
<xsl:template match="class">
        <new-class>
            <xsl:apply-templates />
        </new-class>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="classitem">
        <new-classitem>
            <xsl:apply-templates />
        </new-classitem>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="name">
        <new-name>
            <xsl:apply-templates/>
        </new-name>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="code">
        <new-code>
            <xsl:apply-templates/>
        </new-code>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="identifier">
        <identifier>
            <xsl:apply-templates />
        </identifier>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="new-name">
            <xsl:value-of select="."/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="new-code">
            <xsl:value-of select="."/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

my problem is that i dont want all elements be in one line, i want each element to start from a new line. ex:

<identifier>
    <new-name>Sales </new-name>
    <new-code>1234</new-code>
</identifier>

what am i missing here?
thank you for your time,

alex

I suspect you are using the Microsoft XSLT processor, which (contrary at least to the spirit of the W3C specs) removes white space from your source document without being asked. If you invoke the processor from the API there's an option to prevent this. In your case the whitespace is only cosmetic, so the simplest solution is to generate new whitespace in the output using <xsl:output indent="yes"/>.

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

Hello mhkay, thank you for your reply. yes you were right indent did the job.
thank you.

another question i wanted to ask you and other members:

lets say i have xml file with many different elements. when i transforming this xml file to another xml, i am changing only 2 or 3 elemnt names and the rest i want to keep and copy to new xml as it is.

is there a way to do it quick? or i have to include in my xsl each of the elements, even if i am changing the name of it?

i hope i was clear enough here.

regards,
alex

There's a standard coding pattern for this kind of transformation. You define an identity template rule:

<xsl:template match="*">
  <xsl:copy>
  <xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>

which copies elements unchanged, and then you override it with specific template rules for the elements you want to modify. E.g. to strip <b>...</b> tags from the document (but not their content), add the rule

<xsl:template match="b">
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>

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

Hi mhkay, yes that worked... but i encountred a problem in one of the elements:

<stack-trace><![CDATA[ ... at System.IO.__ bla bla ... ]]></stack-trace>
how can i keep the "CDATA" tag and also how can i copy attributes that come with the element being copied?

thank you,
regards,
alex

ok sorry - the same logic i applied to attributes and it worked,
but i am still facing the problem:

<stack-trace><![CDATA[ ... at System.IO.__ bla bla ... ]]></stack-trace>

i want to keep the "<![CDATA"

thank you
alex

You can't keep CDATA - it's not part of the data model, because it isn't considered to be information-bearing. It's just a keyboard shortcut, like using the CAPS LOCK key.

If you want to copy attributes, use xsl:copy-of select="@*".

I hope though you're not going to use this list as your only way of getting such information. Elsewhere on this site you will find references to some good books...

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

Thank you for your time and help Michael

I thought I answered that. You can't. The CDATA is gone long before the XSLT processor swings into action, it's not regarded as significant and is not notified by the XML parser to the XSLT processor. If the CDATA section boundaries are being used to represent significant information then you need to change your XML document design - that's what elements are for.

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