Re: [xsl] Can't get id() and key() to work

["J.Pietschmann" <j3322ptm at yahoo dot de>]

Aaron Optimizer Digulla wrote:
> What I basically need is:
>
>     <xsl:variable name="infodoc" select="document('infodoc.xml')"/>
>     <xsl:variable name="info" select="$infodoc/id($key)"/>
>
> ie. I have an XML document in $infodoc which has IDs and I want to
> lookup elements in $infodoc.
The id() and key() functions work on the document which the
current context  node is from. A standard technique to change
the document is to use xsl:for-each:
   <xsl:variable name="infodoc" select="document('infodoc.xml')"/>
   <xsl:for-each select="$infodoc">
     <xsl:variable name="info" select="id($key)"/>
     ... do something with $info ...
   </xsl:for-each>

> I tried to use key() and it actually works but I can't use the
> result:
>
>     <xsl:variable name="info-fragment">
> 	<xsl:for-each select="$imginfo">
> 	    <xsl:copy-of select="key('imgInfoKey', $path-key)"/>
> 	</xsl:for-each>
>     </xsl:variable>
...
> so apparently there is something in $info-fragment but what?
If you use xsl:variable without select, it will be an RTF (result
tree fragment). A RTF has always exactly one root node, same like
every XML document has. This is what causes the count()=1. OTOH,
the root node never has any attribute, therefore
 exslt:node-set($info-fragment)/@width
is empty. You should try exslt:node-set($info-fragment)/*/@width
or something replacing the * with the element name of one of the
elements copied into the RTF.
I suspect that "key didn't work", i.e. didn't select anything,
because it tried to look up the key in the original document
rather than the $infodoc document.

J.Pietschmann


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