How to Use 'When' Within 'Translate'

JeffRob · October 12th, 2011, 11:37 AM

I'm very new to XSLT, and have inherited what is to me a difficult problem. We recieve XML output from a third-party application that is transformed so that it can be used in a COBOL copybook.

It contains a translate function to reduce the size of the input to one character. The translation needs a 'when' so that if <coverage-type> = 'COVA' and <loss-type> = 'Flood' then it is translated to 'F', but if <coverage-type> = 'COVA' and <loss-type> is anything else it translates to 'A'.

I've looked all over the net and in several XSLT books and I can't find anything on a translate function in this format. I've made a try to insert a 'when', but it isn't working.

Error: '<', hexadecimal value 0x3C, is an invalid attribute character. Line 247, position 24.

Saxon
Windows XP

Here's the original code snippet:

Code:

<CopyBookField>
<CopyBookName type="String">CWS-MAJOR-PERIL</CopyBookName>
		<FieldValue type="String" />
		<FieldType type="String">String</FieldType>
		<FieldSize type="int">1</FieldSize>
		<CopyBookPosition type="int">7</CopyBookPosition>
		<NeedsTransformation type="boolean">true</NeedsTransformation>
		<TransformationRule type="com.stoneriver.extract.entity.TranslationRule[]" Function="Translate">
		     <Rule From="COVA" To="A"/>
		     <Rule From="COVB" To="B"/>
		     <Rule From="COVC" To="C"/>
		     <Rule From="COVD" To="D"/>
		     <Rule From="COVE" To="E"/>
		     <Rule From="COVF" To="F"/>
		</TransformationRule>
		<Delegator type="String">XPATH</Delegator>
		<XpathField type="String">sr:Coverage-Type</XpathField>
</CopyBookField>

Here's my attempt to add the needed 'when':

Code:

<CopyBookField>
<CopyBookName type="String">CWS-MAJOR-PERIL</CopyBookName>
		<FieldValue type="String" />
		<FieldType type="String">String</FieldType>
		<FieldSize type="int">1</FieldSize>
		<CopyBookPosition type="int">7</CopyBookPosition>
		<NeedsTransformation type="boolean">true</NeedsTransformation>
		<TransformationRule type="com.stoneriver.extract.entity.TranslationRule[]" Function="Translate">
		     <Rule From="COVA" To="
                                  <xsl:choose>
                                  <xsl:when test="@Coverage-Type='COVA'"     and="@Loss-Type='Terrorism'">
                                   "T"
                                   </xsl:when>    
                                   <xsl:otherwise>
                                   "A"
                                   </xsl:otherwise>
                                   </xsl:choose>"/>
		     <Rule From="COVB" To="B"/>
		     <Rule From="COVC" To="C"/>
		     <Rule From="COVD" To="D"/>
		     <Rule From="COVE" To="E"/>
		     <Rule From="COVF" To="F"/>
		</TransformationRule>
		<Delegator type="String">XPATH</Delegator>
		<XpathField type="String">sr:Coverage-Type</XpathField>
</CopyBookField>

I appreciate any help.
Thanks,
JR

Martin Honnen · October 12th, 2011, 11:43 AM

If you really want to put XML markup in an attribute value then you need to escape any "<" as

Code:

&lt;

.

Whether that has any meaning then in the context of your XML format with transformation rules I have no idea.

JeffRob · October 12th, 2011, 12:03 PM

Hi Martin,
I'm not sure it needs to be inside and attribute, I just don't know any other way to do it.

I'm wide open to any suggestions.

Thanks.

Martin Honnen · October 12th, 2011, 12:12 PM

My suggestion is to find someone (probably in some forum dedicated to the technology you use) that is familiar with that XML format you use and knows whether and if so how you can integrate some XSLT in it. I don't know that format and I have never seen it used to mentioned in this forum so chances are low you will find help here.