XSL Newbie Question.

Hi,

Im (very) new to XSL. Im just trying to learn about XSL, XSLT and XPATH after finding XML a pleasure to use.

Im trying to create an XSL file that produces a X/HTML file. The original XML document is an XML version of an exported multiple choice quiz. Here is a sample of the code:


<presentation>
<flow class="Block">
<flow class="QUESTION_BLOCK">
<flow class="FORMATTED_TEXT_BLOCK">
<material>
<mat_extension>
<mat_formattedtext type="SMART_TEXT">Which of the following Java statements contains a syntax error?</mat_formattedtext>
</mat_extension>
</material>
</flow>
<flow class="FILE_BLOCK">
<material/>
</flow>
<flow class="LINK_BLOCK">
<material>
<mattext charset="us-ascii" texttype="text/plain" uri="" xml:space="default"/>
</material>
</flow>
</flow>
<flow class="RESPONSE_BLOCK">
<response_lid ident="response" rcardinality="Single" rtiming="No">
<render_choice maxnumber="0" minnumber="0" shuffle="No">
<flow_label class="Block">
<response_label ident="790ACB00F89E11D687E1687F532E803D" rarea="Ellipse" rrange="Exact" shuffle="Yes">
<flow_mat class="FORMATTED_TEXT_BLOCK">
<material>
<mat_extension>
<mat_formattedtext type="SMART_TEXT">int studentAge;</mat_formattedtext>
</mat_extension>
</material>
</flow_mat>
<flow_mat class="FILE_BLOCK">
<material/>
</flow_mat>
<flow_mat class="LINK_BLOCK">
<material>
<mattext charset="us-ascii" texttype="text/plain" uri="" xml:space="default"/>
</material>
</flow_mat>
</response_label>
</flow_label>
<flow_label class="Block">
<response_label ident="790ACB01F89E11D687E1687F532E803D" rarea="Ellipse" rrange="Exact" shuffle="Yes">
<flow_mat class="FORMATTED_TEXT_BLOCK">
<material>
<mat_extension>
<mat_formattedtext type="SMART_TEXT">studentAge int;</mat_formattedtext>
</mat_extension>
</material>
</flow_mat>
<flow_mat class="FILE_BLOCK">
<material/>
</flow_mat>
<flow_mat class="LINK_BLOCK">
<material>
<mattext charset="us-ascii" texttype="text/plain" uri="" xml:space="default"/>
</material>
</flow_mat>
</response_label>
</flow_label>
<flow_label class="Block">
<response_label ident="790ACB02F89E11D687E1687F532E803D" rarea="Ellipse" rrange="Exact" shuffle="Yes">
<flow_mat class="FORMATTED_TEXT_BLOCK">
<material>
<mat_extension>
<mat_formattedtext type="SMART_TEXT">int studentAge = 21;</mat_formattedtext>
</mat_extension>
</material>
</flow_mat>
<flow_mat class="FILE_BLOCK">
<material/>
</flow_mat>
<flow_mat class="LINK_BLOCK">
<material>
<mattext charset="us-ascii" texttype="text/plain" uri="" xml:space="default"/>
</material>
</flow_mat>
</response_label>
</flow_label>
<flow_label class="Block">
<response_label ident="790ACB03F89E11D687E1687F532E803D" rarea="Ellipse" rrange="Exact" shuffle="Yes">
<flow_mat class="FORMATTED_TEXT_BLOCK">
<material>
<mat_extension>
<mat_formattedtext type="SMART_TEXT">int studentAge; //declare studentAge as an integer</mat_formattedtext>
</mat_extension>
</material>
</flow_mat>
<flow_mat class="FILE_BLOCK">
<material/>
</flow_mat>
<flow_mat class="LINK_BLOCK">
<material>
<mattext charset="us-ascii" texttype="text/plain" uri="" xml:space="default"/>
</material>
</flow_mat>
</response_label>
</flow_label>
</render_choice>
</response_lid>
</flow>
</flow>
</presentation>


That is the source code for a single question!

From this, I now need to display just the question and the four possible answers. Any ideas/suggestions? I have been told that I need to use the position() function...

any help would be much appreciated.

same answer here as in my previous post.. can't give u an answer without actually doing it 100% for you, which isn't going to help you in the longer term.

No offense, but you should spend some time on xsl/xslt tutorials, for instance those on w3schools. They're easy to read, don't take long, and if you find xml easy to use, you'll easily gain experience on xsl/xslt.

In a few words, the best thing I can explain you is that xsl works with templates, which are user defined, and consists in rules that you define to process your xml tags.

A quick example, if in XML you have a tag called <AnyTag>, you're going to write a it's template into xsl like this :

<xsl:template match="AnyTag">
... any html code in here
</xsl:template>

This is the most important thing to understand, all the rest comes naturally afterwards

ow, and one last word.. you "might" have to use position() in your solution.. but this is only a function, and it's far from being the answer to all the problems you'll face while writing your code

Well, after some reading and looking at the w3schools.com website, this is what Ive come up with, but it still dont work! Any ideas where Im going wrong?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">
<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<body>
<h2>Quiz 1</h2>
<script type="text/vbscript">

set xmlDoc=CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
xmlDoc.async="false"
xmlDoc.load("pool1source.xml")

path="/questestinterop/assesment/section/item/presentation/flow/flow/flow/material/mat_extension/mat_formattedtext[type=SMART_TEXT]"
set nodes=xmlDoc.selectNodes(path)

for each x in nodes
document.write("<xmp>")
document.write(x.xml)
document.write("</xmp>")
next

</script>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

If you're only looking for the question and the 4 possible answers, then this will be enough:

xsl:


explanation: I've created two templates, the first one takes care of the root element in xml (presentation) and creates the basic structure of an html document.
In the middle of it, I ask xslt to apply the templates for all the nodes named mat_formattedtext, no matter where they are in the document (this is done using the //)

The second template is used to process the selected nodes, everytime a mat_formattedtext is encountered, it's text content will be displayed, and followed by an html BR.

You can of course enhance your page at will..

Grtz