Improvement to XSL pages.

[Steve Waring]

I think the help given by W3schools is excellent, but the pages on XSL were a little sparse. I managed to work out what I needed to do, by using the reference material, but I did struggle a little.An addition that would be very welcome would be to show how to transform XML into a link. For example:

<xsl:if test="./attribute::ref != ''">   Ref: <a><xsl:attribute name="href"><xsl:value-of select="./attribute::ref" /></xsl:attribute><xsl:value-of select="./attribute::ref" /></a></xsl:if>

Other examples might be to show how to colour alternate rows in a table:

<tr>   <xsl:attribute name="style">	  <xsl:choose>		 <xsl:when test="position() mod 2 = 1">			background-color:#f0f0f0		 </xsl:when>		 <xsl:otherwise>			background-color:#e6f1f7		 </xsl:otherwise>	  </xsl:choose>   </xsl:attribute>

[boen_robot]

Let me just generalize what you're suggesting - Explanation of attribute creation in XSLT.This is currently only covered in the XSLT FAQ which of course not everyone reads (as is with all FAQs) and I completely agree this should be added into the tutorial. I've written to kaijim for that a long time ago and it's still not done. I guess they simply haven't decided to make improvements and this will be left as is until they do.

[kgun]

An addition that would be very welcome would be to show how to transform XML into a link. For example:

Isn't that covered by XLink?For those that understand Norwegian, at the top of page 3 you can read:"Et vilkårlig element kan gjøres om til link-element". Translated to English, an arbitrary element can be transformed to a link element.Related documentation:XML Linking language.For additional information, see my posts in this thread.Without knowing the details, I also think that xml:base is important in this respect - xml:base is according to my favourite PHP / XML book referred to in the posts above primarily used for XLink to describe linking between resources. You may also see it used in other contexts, such as with XInclude and XSLT.

[boen_robot]

Isn't that covered by XLink?

No. XLink is for defining links in new XML dialects. A sort of generic linking language, the same way for example XInclude is a genertic inclusion language. What Steve Waring means to say is to transform something into an HTML link, and THAT you can't do with XLink. You may convert XLink to an HTML link though, but that's not the point here.

[kgun]

You may convert XLink to an HTML link though, but that's not the point here.

Yes, via XML's transforamtion language XSL as he suggests. Templates are the key. XML without, XSL(T), XPath, XLink... is like a regatta without wind.