linking CSS file to XSL file

gib65 · March 24th, 2014, 12:38 PM

Hello,

How can I link my xsl file to a css file? I have a stylesheet file: style.css, and the usual method of linking it to an HTML page doesn't seem to work in XSL. What I mean by the "usual method" is this:

<link href="style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>

But when I try to run the report, it tells me: "Top-level element 'link' may not have a null namespace URI."

I'm not sure what this means. I tried putting in a uri as follows: uri="style.css", but this didn't do anything.

How does one link an XSL file to a CSS file?

Martin Honnen · March 24th, 2014, 01:08 PM

If you want to have your XSLT create HTML where the HTML uses your CSS stylesheet then you can do that by making sure the XSLT creates a HTML "link" element in the "head" section of the result document e.g.

Code:

<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">

<xsl:template match="/">
  <html>
     <head>
       <title>Example</title>
       <link href="style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
     </head>
     <body>
         <h1>Example</h1>
         <xsl:apply-templates/>
     </body>
  </html>
</xsl:template>

...
</xsl:stylesheet>

That is the way I can think of that makes sense and is doable. Trying to put a HTML link directly into a stylesheet to "link CSS file to XSL file" does not make sense to me, you would need to explain what you want to achieve that way.

gib65 · March 24th, 2014, 01:57 PM

Sorry Martin, but that doesn't quite seem to work for some reason.

What I'm trying to do is style my tables, rows, cells, and cell content using a CSS file. In my template, I have something like this:

<xsl:template name="myTemplate">

<table class="myCSSClass">
...
</table>

</xsl:template>

So, in other words, I have a table and I want to apply the style in style.css to the table (particularly, the myCSSClass style class). I'm expecting it to work just like it does in HTML, but maybe this is my mistake.

Martin Honnen · March 24th, 2014, 02:11 PM

If your XSLT creates HTML output then I think my suggestion does work, as long as you create a complete HTML document where you create a head section in which you can place the "link" element.

You seem to want to create a "table" result element, is that a HTML table? If so why can't you use my suggestion to make sure your XSLT as well creates a "html" root element with a "head" section where you place the "link" element?

If you don't want to create HTML then don't expect the HTML mechanisms like "class" attribute or "link" element to work.

samjudson · March 25th, 2014, 05:06 AM

The key is that you don't apply the CSS to your XSLT - there is no way to do that.

What you are doing is applying the XSLT to your input XML, which outputs HTML. You are including a stylesheet reference in that output HTML, which is then being applied, by the browser, to the rendered HTML.