copy-of / value-of select

hello,

i have an xml node with some html tags within it:
<myNode>This is <b>bold</b> and this is <i>italics</i> in HTML.</myNode>

i want to copy everything in the node, EXCEPT the node name.
if i use <xsl:copy-of select="myNode" />

my result is:
<myNode>This is <b>bold</b> and this is <i>italics</i> in HTML.</myNode>

(* as you can see, copy-of copies everything including the node element)

as for a note, if i use
<xsl:value-of select="myNode" disable-output-escaping="no" />
<xsl:value-of select="myNode" disable-output-escaping="yes" />
<xsl:value-of select="myNode"/>

the HTML tags are lost, so i would only get:
This is bold and this is italics in HTML.

is there a way to only get?:
This is <b>bold</b> and this is <i>italics</i> in HTML.

so that <myNode> </myNode> are not in the return string, and the html tags are part of the return string just like in the example from above.

Can't say i work with XSL, but maybe this can give you an idea. but the text element is actually a child of the node
so if this is your element is actually called myNode
<myNode>This is <b>bold</b> and this is <i>italics</i> in HTML.</myNode>

this is the child of myNode:
This is <b>bold</b> and this is <i>italics</i> in HTML.

so work with the child node of myNode instead of working with the myNode directly.

If <myNode> is just part of the PCData then i have no clue how to get ride of it, maybe try doing a substring(8,mynode.firstChild.length-10) or a split or something.....

The answer is actually quite simple, but I'agree that the logic of copy / copy-of is somewhat tricky in xsl. Here is the template you need:

<xsl:template match="myNode">
<xsl:copy-of select="text()|*"/>
</xsl:template>

The copy-of will copy the text-nodes of the element 'myNode' as well as all of its children elements (including their children).

NB! As I'm sure you know, most xsl-parsers will have a built-in default that copies all text nodes that has not been matched before. To override this default you also need this template:

<xsl:template match="text()">
</xsl:template>

If the transformation you describe in your message is the only thing you are doing in this stylesheet, you may use the default (and not put in the text-template above) and the only templates you will then need is this:

<xsl:template match="i | b">
<xsl:copy-of select="."/>
</xsl:template>

The rest of the text (outside the i and the b) will be copied automatically by the built-in default.

Bente