XSL multiple files in table (nested for-each ?)

pedoublety · August 17th, 2007, 08:27 AM

Hi

im a newbie so be kind. I am trying to create a slightly complicated table where the columns represent different xml files. The rows represent the columns of data.

The file being translated is a very simple element which contains a number of report elements that point to different xml files with @file.

I'm reading the first file outputting columns for each weapon name. Within this loop i am trying to loop through each file looking for data about that weapon.

The inner loop never returns any result. Could anyone help explain why

Code:

<xsl:template name='Weapons'>
    <tr>
            <xsl:for-each select="/SeagoingTrimReportSummary/report[1]">
                <xsl:variable name="first_report" select="@file"/>
                <xsl:value-of select="@file"/>
                    <th colspan="1"><xsl:attribute name="rowspan" select="count(sg:weapon)+1"/>Weapons</th>
                    <tr>
                        <xsl:for-each select="sg:weapon">        
                            <xsl:variable name="weapon_type" select="@type"/>
                            <th colspan="1"><xsl:attribute name="rowspan"><xsl:value-of select="count(sg:weapon)+1"/></xsl:attribute><xsl:value-of select="@type"/></th>
                            <tr>
                                <xsl:for-each select="/SeagoingTrimReportSummary/report">
                                    <td><xsl:value-of select="document(@file)/sg:SeagoingTrimReport/sg:weapons_payload/sg:weapon[@type = $weapon_type]/@amount"/></td>
                                </xsl:for-each>
                            </tr>
                        </xsl:for-each>
                    </tr>
                </xsl:for-each>
            </xsl:for-each>
    </tr>
</xsl:template>

pedoublety · August 17th, 2007, 02:30 PM

Hi sorry. Please ignore the last code segment, this is what i am currently trying.

Reading the first report and within the for-each weapon loop, going in another for-each loop reading data about each weapon type across all files.

(The table is represented with data headings on the left, and columns of data for each report)

<xsl:for-each select="/SeagoingTrimReportSummary/report[1]">
<xsl:for-each select="document($first_report)/sg:SeagoingTrimReport/sg:weapons_payload">
<th colspan="1"><xsl:attribute name="rowspan" select="count(sg:weapon)+1"/>Weapons</th>
    <tr>
        <xsl:for-each select="sg:weapon">
             <xsl:variable name="weapon_type" select="@type"/>
             <th colspan="1"><xsl:attribute name="rowspan"><xsl:value-of select="count(sg:weapon)+1"/></xsl:attribute><xsl:value-of select="@type"/></th>
             <tr>
                 <xsl:for-each select="/SeagoingTrimReportSummary/report">
                     <td><xsl:value-of select="document(@file)/sg:SeagoingTrimReport/sg:weapons_payload/sg:weapon[@type = $weapon_type]/@amount"/></td>
                 </xsl:for-each>
             </tr>
        </xsl:for-each>
     </tr>
</xsl:for-each>

mhkay · August 18th, 2007, 11:43 AM

It's difficult to debug this for you without seeing the source documents, but this version looks a lot more sane than the previous version.

Are you sure the prefix sg: is used or omitted correctly in all cases?

Quite apart from anything relating to the source document, it's generating invalid HTML: you can't have a <tr> element as a child of another <tr>. I suspect there is a missing td/table.

Your outer xsl:for-each is doing select="document($first_report)/sg:SeagoingTrimReport/sg:weapons_payload".

So, if it selects anything, then it selects a node in a document whose outermost element is called sg:SeagoingTrimReport.

The next for-each does select="sg:weapon", so you are still in the same document.

The next for-each does select="/SeagoingTrimReportSummary/report". We know that the outermost element is called sg:SeagoingTrimReport, so /SeagoingTrimReportSummary can't possibly select anything.

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

pedoublety · August 19th, 2007, 04:23 AM

Hi thanks for the reply.

I appreciate its hard to debug especially with the strange html. Ignoring that for a sec i will show you some source.

There are 2 types of file - SeagoingTrimReport and SeagoingTrimReportSummary.

heres an example of the SeagoingTrimReport (which defines the namespace refered to in the summary translation as sg):

Code:

<SeagoingTrimReport>
    <weapons_payload>
        <weapon type="gun" amount="3"/>
        <weapon type="grenade" amount="2"/>
        <weapon type="bomb" amount="1"/>
    </weapons_payload>
<SeagoingTrimReport>

The SeagoingTrimReportSummary is just a list of SeagoingTrimReport docs:

Code:

<SeagoingTrimReportSummary>
    <report file="C:\report1.xml"/>
    <report file="C:\report2.xml"/>
    <report file="C:\report3.xml"/>
</SeagoingTrimReportSummary>

My question is ... how can i output the types of each weapon listed in the first report, and for each of them go through all the other reports writing out the amount in each report.

If i cannot use a for-each in this way then could you help me figure out how this can be done?

Thanks for your help

mhkay · August 19th, 2007, 07:06 AM

When you're dealing with multiple documents, it's probably best to avoid path expressions starting with "/". Declare a variable bound to each document (e.g. a global variable <xsl:variable name="input" select="/"/> for the initial input document) and then use path expressions of the form $input/a/b/c. Otherwise it's very easy to inadvertently select within the wrong document.

Another tip: avoid using Windows filenames like file="C:\report1.xml" in XML documents. Instead, use URIs: file="file:/c:/report1.xml". The document() function is only defined to work with URIs. Some products allow you to get away with using a Windows filename where a URI is expected, but it's not standard.

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

samjudson · August 21st, 2007, 08:00 AM

As Michael says, its all about context.

If you'll pardon the bad namespace declaration this should be something like what you are after.

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0"
    xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
    xmlns:sg="http://sg">

  <xsl:template match="/">
    <xsl:variable name="context" select="." />
    <html>
      <body>

        <table>
        <xsl:for-each select="/SeagoingTrimReportSummary/report[1]">
            <xsl:variable name="first_report" select="document(@file)" />
            <tr>
                <th><xsl:attribute name="rowspan"><xsl:value-of select="count($first_report//sg:weapon)+1" /></xsl:attribute>Weapons</th>
            </tr>
            <xsl:for-each select="$first_report//sg:weapon">
                <xsl:variable name="type" select="@type" />
                <tr>
                <th><xsl:value-of select="$type" /></th>

                <xsl:for-each select="$context//report">
                    <xsl:variable name="report" select="document(@file)" />
                    <td><xsl:value-of select="$report//sg:weapon[@type = $type]/@amount" /></td>
                </xsl:for-each>
                </tr>
            </xsl:for-each>
        </xsl:for-each>

        </table>
      </body>
    </html>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

You'll notice at the top I declared the $context variable, and then when in the inner-most for-each loop I use that again, so replacing your "/SeagoingTripReportSummary/report" with "$context//report". "/SeagoingTripReportSummary/report" wont work as you are effectively 'inside' the "weapon" element of the loaded document.