preceding-sibling

thradtke · July 22nd, 2015, 07:43 AM

Hi,

I have a problem with numbering through XSLT. My first approach, something like

Code:

<xsl:number level="any" format="1. " from="nliste[@reset='reset']" count="nliste"/>

failed as the different XSLT-interpreters behave differently on the first element. E.g., Xalan starts with 1, Xerces with nothing and whatever is used by Firefox with 0 oder vice versa. As it was only used to create FO code for Apache FOP, I could live with a custom FOP version on our server.

Now, I create HTML from the very same XML to be presented on the clients browsers, so I have to figure out a different way for numbered lists without changing the DTD.

I came up with

Code:

<xsl:value-of select="count(preceding-sibling::nliste)+1"/>

what works perfectly on Firefox and IE (it stops counting on a preceding sibling that's not the element in focus. However, Epiphany on a Raspberry Pi failed miserably by numbering all nliste-siblings, no matter if there is a different element between them.

My question: What's right, what's wrong, and what is a good approach on numbering. I know my nliste element was never a good idea, but it's quite late to change that.

TIA

Thomas

Edit: Now that I've written it down, I see I'm in error. All parsers count all siblings. Sorry :-(.

mhkay · July 22nd, 2015, 09:16 AM

During the development of XSLT 2.0 the working group found that there were many discrepancies in the way that XSLT 1.0 processors interpreted the 1.0 spec of xsl:number, especially in edge cases involving the "from" and "count" attributes. The XSLT 2.0 spec was therefore rewritten to be much more precise. The 2.0 spec represents the WG's view of what constitutes "correct" behaviour, but 1.0 processors can't be expected to take that interpretation. If you want interoperability, you have to avoid the edge cases. In many cases it's simpler anyway to use constructs like count(preceding-sibling::x).

thradtke · July 22nd, 2015, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mhkay

If you want interoperability, you have to avoid the edge cases. In many cases it's simpler anyway to use constructs like count(preceding-sibling::x).

Yes, but my problem is that I cannot (easily) have different sets of lists like in e.g.

Code:

<doc>
  <nliste reset='reset'>first entry of the first list</nliste>
  <nliste>second entry of the first list</nliste>
  <absatz>This is a paragraph</absatz>
  <nliste reset='reset'>first entry of the second list</nliste>
  <nliste>second entry of the second list</nliste>
</doc>

which should translate to

Code:

  1. first entry of the first list
  2. second entry of the first list

This is a paragraph

  1. first entry of the second list
  2. second entry of the second list

TBH, I don't know how to proceed. I'd appreciate any help, especially a pointer to a good tutorial on these matters.

thradtke · July 23rd, 2015, 04:43 AM

Solved it by generating html on the server and using xsl:number. Seems to be the best solution.

Very sad browsers do not adopt the latest technologies