[xsl] Getting an image from base64-encoded data

[Jeni Tennison <jeni at jenitennison dot com>]

Hi,

I've been asked off list what the best approach is in the following
situation:

You have an XML document that contains an element that contains a
base64-encoded image, something like:

<Document_Type>
  <IMAGE xmlns:dt="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:datatypes"
         dt:dt="bin.base64">SUkqAAgAAAAPAP4ABAABAAAAAA...</IMAGE>
</Document_Type>

You need to get a .tif file that contains the binary data encoded
within the XML.

I suggested writing the content of the IMAGE file out into a text file
with XSLT and then converting from base64 to binary through an
external process. I wondered if anyone else had other suggestions
about how to deal with it? For example, using extensions?

And thinking further than that... XML Schema has a couple of binary
data types - is this (decoding and writing out binary) going to be a
requirement that we encounter in future versions of XPath/XSLT? Is it
ever going to be XSLT's job?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts,

Jeni
---
Jeni Tennison
http://www.jenitennison.com/


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