Namespace problems in an identity transform

CanOfBees · April 16th, 2012, 02:52 PM

Hi all --

Many thanks for reading. I have a problem with running an identity transform on XML documents with namespaces. I can pre-process outside of XSLT and avoid the issue, but I'd like to be able to do this entirely inside XSLT 2.0.

Note: to simplify the examples, I've created XML documents that aren't schema-conformant. Avoid testing the transform in a schema-aware processor or you'll get errors!

Sample input (also available here: http://pastebin.com/RFAQaY3w)

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<ead xsi:schemaLocation="urn:isbn:1-931666-22-9 http://www.loc.gov/ead/ead.xsd" xmlns:ns2="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-22-9" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

    <eadheader findaidstatus="Ready_for_online" repositoryencoding="iso15511" countryencoding="iso3166-1" dateencoding="iso8601" langencoding="iso639-2b">	
	<eadid>01234</eadid>
	<filedesc>
		<AAA>1</AAA>
		<BBB>2</BBB>
	</filedesc>
	</eadheader>
	<archdesc>
		<bib>
			<CCC>1</CCC>
			<DDD>2</DDD>
		</bib>
	</archdesc>
</ead>

Here is the XSLT:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
    xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
    exclude-result-prefixes="xs"
    version="2.0"
    xsi:schemaLocation="urn:isbn:1-931666-22-9 http://www.loc.gov/ead/ead.xsd"
    xmlns:ns2="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" 
    xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-22-9"  
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    
    <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes" standalone="no"/>
    
    <!-- The identity transform -->
    <xsl:template match="@* | node()">
        <xsl:copy>
            <xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()"/>
        </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>
    
    <xsl:template match="filedesc">
        <xsl:copy>
            <header>Subjects</header>
            <xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()"/>
        </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

Desired output:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<ead xsi:schemaLocation="urn:isbn:1-931666-22-9 http://www.loc.gov/ead/ead.xsd" xmlns:ns2="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-22-9" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

<eadheader findaidstatus="Ready_for_online" repositoryencoding="iso15511" countryencoding="iso3166-1" dateencoding="iso8601" langencoding="iso639-2b">  
    <eadid>01234</eadid>
    <filedesc>
        <header>Subjects</header>
        <AAA>1</AAA>
        <BBB>2</BBB>
    </filedesc>
</eadheader>
<archdesc>
    <bib>
        <CCC>1</CCC>
        <DDD>2</DDD>
    </bib>
</archdesc>
</ead>

Again, if I strip out all of the <ead> namespace values, the transform works. With the namespace values in the XSL, the transform reproduces an exact copy without the new <header> element.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks again for reading and your suggestions!

mhkay · April 16th, 2012, 04:25 PM

match="filedesc" matches an element whose local name is filedesc in no namespace. To match a filedesc element in namespace urn:isbn:1-931666-22-9", you need

Code:

<xsl:template match="u:filedesc" xmlns:u="urn:isbn:1-931666-22-9">

This is the most commonly asked question about XSLT by a very large margin.

CanOfBees · April 17th, 2012, 09:38 AM

hi Michael --

thanks so much for the reply. I'm testing my stylesheets in the oXygen XML Editor, using Saxon-HE 9.3.0.5. The following error comes up:

Code:

Attribute @namespace is not allowed on element <xsl:template>

Running the transform with Saxon 9.1.0.8J gives the same error.

However, using

Code:

<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
    xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
    exclude-result-prefixes="xs"
    version="2.0"
    xsi:schemaLocation="urn:isbn:1-931666-22-9 http://www.loc.gov/ead/ead.xsd"
    xmlns:ns2="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" 
    xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-22-9"  
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xpath-default-namespace="urn:isbn:1-931666-22-9">

attribute seems to make everything happy. Or, I could use the xpath-default-namespace in individual

Code:

<xsl:template select="filedesc" xpath-default-namespace="...">

. If I'm understanding this correctly, the xpath-default-namespace establishes a global namespace in the stylesheet. Is that correct? Namespaces are intense. :)

Thanks again for your assistance.
Cheers!