attributes auto ordering

imshriram · January 17th, 2012, 10:06 AM

Hi Masters,
I am using saxon 9.

When I create an element in XSLT like this,

Code:

<xsl:template match="/">
        <w:document mc:Ignorable="w14 wp14" xmlns:wpc="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingCanvas" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:r="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships" xmlns:m="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/math" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml">
<some code...../>
</w:document>

When the input XML is transformed using this XSL, the output contains the required elements, but the order of the attributes (namespaces) is changed and order randomly.

Code:

<w:document xmlns:wpc="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingCanvas" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:r="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships" xmlns:m="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/math" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" mc:Ignorable="w14 wp14">
<some code...../>
</w:document>

Though this doesn't harm anything, I am not able to see the required output in Word.

Can someone help me on how to retain the order of the attributes as mentioned in the XSL?

joefawcett · January 17th, 2012, 10:32 AM

That's not usually possible (although I can't swear to it).
Why would you want to, attribute ordering is not relevant in an XML document?

joefawcett · January 17th, 2012, 10:36 AM

Sorry, I didn't see that you meant the namespace declarations (which are no counted as attributes). However the same argument applies, the ordering of them is irrelevant. I would be very surprised if Word needed them in a certain order as this is contrary to the XML Namespaces specifications.

mhkay · January 17th, 2012, 12:48 PM

XSLT itself gives you no way of controlling attribute order, and neither does Saxon (unless you write Java code to customize the serializer -- which is definitely possible). The order of attributes is cosmetic only (but I have some sympathy, because serialized output is supposed to be human readable, and this can contribute to readability.)