relative XPath references

chroniclemaster1 · September 25th, 2007, 02:49 AM

I'm experimenting with ways of putting together a bibliography. In my XML file I have <item> objects which have a number of children including <title>, <series>, and <volume>. I want the output to appear as...

Title1. Series1. Volume 1.
Title2. Series1. Volume 2.
Title3. Series2. Volume 1.
Title4. Series3. Volume 1.
Title5. Series3. Volume 2.
etc.

Here is the template I've built so far in my XSLT...

<xsl:template match="/">
   <xsl:for-each select="/Bibliography/item/title">
      <p><xsl:value-of select="." />. <xsl:value-of select="/Bibliography/item/series" />. Volume <xsl:value-of select="/Bibliography/item/volume" />.</p>
   </xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>

I am successfully retrieving a list of titles. However, every single one is returning the very first series for the series and the number "1" for the volume number. How do I retrieve the sibling elements?

-------------------------

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.
-Johann von Goethe

When Two Hearts Race... Both Win.
-Dove Chocolate Wrapper

Chroniclemaster1, Founder of www.EarthChronicle.com
A Growing History of our Planet, by our Planet, for our Planet.

samjudson · September 25th, 2007, 03:41 AM

You don't specify how the title, series and volume elements are related. The following might work if you want the next series and volume elements.

Code:

<p><xsl:value-of select="." />. <xsl:value-of select="following-sibling::series" />. Volume <xsl:value-of select="following-sibling::volume" />.</p>

/- Sam Judson : Wrox Technical Editor -/

mhkay · September 25th, 2007, 04:41 AM

A path expression starting with "/" selects from the root of the document, not from the current node. So doing

for each /a/b/c
  select /a/b/c

is saying "for every c, process every c".

Which is exactly what you're seeing.

What you want is something more like

for each /Bibliography/item
  select title
  select series
  select volume

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

chroniclemaster1 · September 26th, 2007, 01:25 AM

Excellent, I have a variation on this that's working much better. I have a minor problem left in the sort though. A couple of the series I'm working with are quite long. When I sort them by volume I'm getting this...

Volume 1
Volume 10
Volume 11
Volume 2
.
.
.

I can make it work if I renumber all the single digit volume numbers into double digits (01, 02, 03...) but is there workable alternative?

-------------------------

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.
-Johann von Goethe

When Two Hearts Race... Both Win.
-Dove Chocolate Wrapper

Chroniclemaster1, Founder of www.EarthChronicle.com
A Growing History of our Planet, by our Planet, for our Planet.

samjudson · September 26th, 2007, 01:40 AM

<xsl:sort data-type="number"> should do it for you.

/- Sam Judson : Wrox Technical Editor -/

mhkay · September 26th, 2007, 03:45 AM

Saxon offers an alphanumeric collation that will get this right:

<xsl:sort select="."
collation="http://saxon.sf.net/collation?alphanumeric=yes"/>

If you sort keys are literally as you describe then a more portable alternative is to split them:

<xsl:sort select="substring-before(., ' ')"/>
<xsl:sort select="number(substring-after(., ' ')"/>

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

chroniclemaster1 · September 27th, 2007, 01:16 AM

:)Thanks for all the advice on how to apply these techniques.

-------------------------

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.
-Johann von Goethe

When Two Hearts Race... Both Win.
-Dove Chocolate Wrapper

Chroniclemaster1, Founder of www.EarthChronicle.com
A Growing History of our Planet, by our Planet, for our Planet.