Can an XSLT parse a string of text?
Question
This is my first time using XSLT. I'm trying to create a file that will convert an XML data file exported from a program I use to an HTML report.
One of the element's value is path to an image file, but the path generated is an absolute path such as
C:\Documents and Settings\me\Desktop\xml export\cd000402.jpg
but I want a relative path to just the file name.
Is there some way through the XLST file to parse out the file name?
Solution
XPath contains the substring-after
function which returns the string following the first occurrence of another string. This isn't enough by itself, but a template such as the following might do it:
<xsl:template name="filename-only">
<xsl:param name="path" />
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="contains($path, '\')">
<xsl:call-template name="filename-only">
<xsl:with-param name="path" select="substring-after($path, '\')" />
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:value-of select="$path" />
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>
The set of string functions available is not terribly extensive, but I've found that it is good enough for most applications that you'll need in XSLT.
OTHER TIPS
This is a little beyond the scope of the question, but Michael Kay has an excellent paper on using XSLT 2 to parse pure text into XML.
Yes, see a general LR(1) parser implemented in XSLT 2.0. (just in 245 lines).
I have implemented with it a parser for JSON and a parser for XPath 2.0 -- entirely in XSLT.
XSLT with the help of XPath 2.0 and its various string functions helps it deal with this type of things.
Example:
Assuming the path [to jpg file] mentioned in question comes from an xml snippet similar to
...
<For_HTML>
<Image1>
<Path>C:\Documents and Settings\me\Desktop\xml export\cd000402.jpg</Path>
<Description>Photo of the parking lot</Description>
<Width>123</Width>
...
</Image1>
</For_HTML>
XSLT snippet would look something like
<xsl:template match='//For_HTML/Image1'>
<img src='http://myNewServer.com/ImageBin/{substring-after(./Path,"\xml export\")}'
alt='{./Description}'
width=' .... you got the idea'
/>
</xsl:template>
Note: didn't have time to test; but that looks about right.
It is possible. I've developed the following script: http://barsand.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/can-an-xslt-parse-a-string-of-text/