How format an RSS source with XSLT

stephanruhl · January 5th, 2011, 08:10 AM

Hello everyone

Here is my problem:

I have been trying to retrieve xml from an external RSS source and apply the XSLT that I have coded. Although everything seems normal, nothing was shown on the screen. But on the other hand, when I download the RSS source, my code is working perfectly with the offline xml file.

The source that I try to use is http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/id/24928286/device/rss/rss.xml, and I use

<xsl:variable name="ntv" select = "document('http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/id/24928286/device/rss/rss.xml')" />

this for pointing the remote file... but all I get is an empty page if there is no errors.

any ideas how to solve the problem? or am I missing some points?

Martin Honnen · January 5th, 2011, 08:24 AM

Please provide more details like the XSLT processor you are using, how exactly you run the XSLT transformation. For instance if you are using client-side XSLT in the browser then loading arbitrary documents is usually not allowed due to the same origin policy the browsers implement. Check the error console of your browser, it should tell you.

stephanruhl · January 5th, 2011, 08:49 AM

its xsltproc and i run it with a wrapper xml... i mean by using an empty xml file i call my xslt file and then by using document() to point the rss...

stephanruhl · January 5th, 2011, 08:52 AM

and error console says :
no element found @line1

Martin Honnen · January 5th, 2011, 09:06 AM

Consider to post minimal but complete samples that allow us the reproduce the problem or at least understand it. First you said "but all I get is an empty page", no you get an error "no element found @line1".
I am not really an xsltproc user but I have a version here on Windows XP, when I use

Code:

<xsl:stylesheet
  xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
  version="1.0">
  
  <xsl:template match="/">
    <xsl:copy-of select="document('http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/id/24928286/device/rss/rss.xml')"/>
  </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

with xsltproc against any XML input xsltproc outputs nothing but a warning: 'warning: failed to load external entity "http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/id/24928286/dev
ice/rss/rss.xml'

Saxon 6.5.5 does fine with the same stylesheet, I am not sure how to configure xsltproc to load the document successfully, maybe we have others here that are more familiar with that processor and know how to use it to pull files over HTTP.

stephanruhl · January 5th, 2011, 09:21 AM

Well thats nearly the same code with me actually... I am new to xslt stuff and only used xsltproc till now... I was confused when the offline rss was working as a standalone and thought that i was making a mistake somewhere, but I guess its because of processor differences...
thank you for your help