XSLT: search for specific nodes and nodes related to each

Hi,

Sorry this is going to be a long post but I felt it necessary to include source code.

Here's a very small portion of my xml document:

< xml version="1.0" >
<xtvd>
<stations>
<station id="10436">
<callSign>KERA</callSign>
<name>KERA</name>
<affiliate>PBS Affiliate</affiliate>
</station>
<station id="10830">
<callSign>KXAS</callSign>
<name>KXAS</name>
<affiliate>NBC Affiliate</affiliate>
</station>
<station id="16123">
<callSign>TVLAND</callSign>
<name>TV Land</name>
<affiliate>Satellite</affiliate>
</station>
<station id="11430">
<callSign>WFAA</callSign>
<name>WFAA</name>
<affiliate>ABC Affiliate</affiliate>
</station>
</stations>
<lineups>
<lineup id="TX42457:-" name="Time Warner Cable" location="Commerce" type="Cable" postalCode="75428">
<map station="10436" channel="13" />
<map station="10830" channel="5" />
<map station="11430" channel="8" />
<map station="16123" channel="44" from="2004-12-06" />
</lineup>
</lineups>
<schedules>
<schedule program="EP0019520018" station="16123" time="2006-12-18T09:00:00Z" duration="PT00H30M" tvRating="TV-G" />
<schedule program="EP0019520019" station="16123" time="2006-12-18T22:00:00Z" duration="PT00H30M" tvRating="TV-G" />
<schedule program="EP0019520020" station="16123" time="2006-12-18T16:30:00Z" duration="PT00H30M" tvRating="TV-G" />
<schedule program="EP0019730339" station="16123" time="2006-12-18T13:00:00Z" duration="PT01H00M" tvRating="TV-G" closeCaptioned="true" />
</schedules>

<programs>
<program id="EP0019520018">
<title>Green Acres</title>
<subtitle>Oh, Promise Me</subtitle>
<description>An error may mean Oliver and Lisa are not married.</description>
<showType>Series</showType>
<series>SH001952</series>
<originalAirDate>1969-03-05</originalAirDate>
</program>
<program id="EP0019520019">
<title>Green Acres</title>
<subtitle>Eb Uses His Ingenuity</subtitle>
<description>Eb involves the Douglases in a moneymaking scheme.</description>
<showType>Series</showType>
<series>SH001952</series>
<originalAirDate>1969-03-12</originalAirDate>
</program>
<program id="EP0019520020">
<title>Green Acres</title>
<subtitle>The Old Trunk</subtitle>
<description>The Douglases find a romantic tale in an old trunk.</description>
<showType>Series</showType>
<series>SH001952</series>
<originalAirDate>1969-03-19</originalAirDate>
</program>
<program id="EP0019730339">
<title>Gunsmoke</title>
<subtitle>Tatum</subtitle>
<description>Bitter townspeople don't want an elderly gunfighter buried next to his wife in their cemetery.</description>
<showType>Series</showType>
<series>SH001973</series>
<originalAirDate>1972-11-13</originalAirDate>
</program>
</programs>

</xtvd>

And here's the XSLT code I wrote:

< xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" >

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

<xsl:key name="progid" match="programs/program" use="@id" />

<xsl:key name="schprogid" match="schedules/schedule" use="@program" />

<xsl:key name="lineupstationid" match="lineups/lineup/map" use="@station"/>

<xsl:key name="stationid" match="stations/station" use="@id"/>

<xsl:template match="/">

<xsl:for-each select="//programs/program">

<br></br> <br></br>

Title: <xsl:value-of select="title[.='Green Acres']"/>

<br></br>

SubTitle: <xsl:value-of select="subtitle" />

Description: <xsl:value-of select="description" />

Series: <xsl:value-of select="series" />

RunTime: <xsl:value-of select="runTime" />

OriginalAirDate: <xsl:value-of select="originalAirDate" />

<xsl:for-each select="key('schprogid', @id)">

Time: <xsl:value-of select="@time"/>

Duration: <xsl:value-of select="@duration"/>

Repeat: <xsl:value-of select="@repeat"/>

TVRating: <xsl:value-of select="@tvRating"/>

<xsl:for-each select="key('lineupstationid', @station)">

Channel: <xsl:value-of select="@channel"/>

</xsl:for-each>

<xsl:for-each select="key('stationid', @station)">

CallSign: <xsl:value-of select="callSign"/>

Name: <xsl:value-of select="name"/>

Affiliate: <xsl:value-of select="affiliate"/>

</xsl:for-each>

</xsl:for-each>

</xsl:for-each>

</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

What happens is the html document I'm producing with XslCompiledTransform in my C# program displays each of the "Green Acres" with their detail information, then displays the "Gunsmoke" episode without a title.

What I want to do is use XPath select for my favorite shows and list the detailed information about each. How do I remove the "Gunsmoke" data from the output How do I search for a list of favorite program titles

> How do I remove the "Gunsmoke" data from the output

Replace:

<xsl:for-each select="//programs/program">

with:

> How do I remove the "Gunsmoke" data from the output

Replace:

<xsl:for-each select="//programs/program">

with:

Thanks so much for being patient with me.

I had tried this technique, but left the period between the [ and the = sign. Syntax makes such a difference! And, of course, I got no error message. I've been programming computers for 36 years and it sure is nice to have a compiler around to find those kinds of syntax errors. This is the reason I hate interpreted languages like Java script, HTML, XML, & XSLT. The interpreter in the browser is just not very helpful from a development perspective as compared to good old compilers.

I'll do some research on the XsltArgumentList class and see if I can get it to work, in the meantime I have one more question.

The time and duration (and the original air date to some extent) are coded in the original XML document in a not very user friendly manner. Are there any string functions I can use to clean these fields up Obviously I could post-process the XSLT output and use C# to do it, but that doesn't seem like a very clean approach.

The standard XPath 1.0 functions:

substring()

substring-after()

substring-before()

starts-with()

string-length()

translate()

are the usual ones used in "parsing" a date encoded as a string.

It may be useful to look up the XSLT FAQ of Dave Pawson.

Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev

perstam wrote:

I had tried this technique, but left the period between the [ and the = sign. Syntax makes such a difference! And, of course, I got no error message. I've been programming computers for 36 years and it sure is nice to have a compiler around to find those kinds of syntax errors. This is the reason I hate interpreted languages like Java script, HTML, XML, & XSLT. The interpreter in the browser is just not very helpful from a development perspective as compared to good old compilers.

The XSLT processor will tell you about syntax errors but doing //programs/program[. = 'Green Acres'] is not a syntax error.

perstam wrote:

The time and duration (and the original air date to some extent) are coded in the original XML document in a not very user friendly manner. Are there any string functions I can use to clean these fields up Obviously I could post-process the XSLT output and use C# to do it, but that doesn't seem like a very clean approach.

XslCompiledTransform supports two extension functions ms:format-date and ms:format-time in the namespace urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt, here is an example

<xsl:template match="schedule">

<xsl:value-of select="ms:format-date(@time, 'MMMM d yyyy', 'en-US')"/>

</xsl:template>

Documentation is on MSDN.

perstam wrote:

Thanks so much for being patient with me. I had tried this technique, but left the period between the [ and the = sign.

Could you, please, provide a complete (but the minimal possible example) of not getting a syntax error If reproed, this will constitute a bug in the current implementation.

Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev

OK.

When I code

<xsl:for-each select="//programs/program/title[.='Green Acres']">

Title: <xsl:value-of select="title"/>

The transformed HTML file looks like this:

Title:
SubTitle: Description: Series: RunTime: OriginalAirDate:

Title:
SubTitle: Description: Series: RunTime: OriginalAirDate:

Title:
SubTitle: Description: Series: RunTime: OriginalAirDate:

and I get no error message when this line executes in my C# program:

ct.Transform(@"..\..\xmltest.xml", @"..\..\TVSchedule.html");

On the other hand when I code like this:

<xsl:for-each select="//programs/program">

<br></br> <br></br>

Title: <xsl:value-of select="title[.='Green Acres']"/>

The transformed HTML file looks like this:

Title: Green Acres
SubTitle: Oh, Promise Me Description: An error may mean Oliver and Lisa are not married. Series: SH001952 RunTime: OriginalAirDate: 1969-03-05 Time: 2006-12-18T09:00:00Z Duration: PT00H30M Repeat: TVRating: TV-G Channel: 44 CallSign: TVLAND Name: TV Land Affiliate: Satellite

Title: Green Acres
SubTitle: Eb Uses His Ingenuity Description: Eb involves the Douglases in a moneymaking scheme. Series: SH001952 RunTime: OriginalAirDate: 1969-03-12 Time: 2006-12-18T22:00:00Z Duration: PT00H30M Repeat: TVRating: TV-G Channel: 44 CallSign: TVLAND Name: TV Land Affiliate: Satellite

Title: Green Acres
SubTitle: The Old Trunk Description: The Douglases find a romantic tale in an old trunk. Series: SH001952 RunTime: OriginalAirDate: 1969-03-19 Time: 2006-12-18T16:30:00Z Duration: PT00H30M Repeat: TVRating: TV-G Channel: 44 CallSign: TVLAND Name: TV Land Affiliate: Satellite

Title:
SubTitle: Tatum Description: Bitter townspeople don't want an elderly gunfighter buried next to his wife in their cemetery. Series: SH001973 RunTime: OriginalAirDate: 1972-11-13 Time: 2006-12-18T13:00:00Z Duration: PT01H00M Repeat: TVRating: TV-G Channel: 44 CallSign: TVLAND Name: TV Land Affiliate: Satellite

I get no error messages from either version of coding, just not the output I wanted.

perstam wrote:

OK. When I code <xsl:for-each select="//programs/program/title[.='Green Acres']"> Title: <xsl:value-of select="title"/> The transformed HTML file looks like this: Title: SubTitle: Description: Series: RunTime: OriginalAirDate: Title: SubTitle: Description: Series: RunTime: OriginalAirDate: Title: SubTitle: Description: Series: RunTime: OriginalAirDate: and I get no error message when this line executes in my C# program: ct.Transform(@"..\..\xmltest.xml", @"..\..\TVSchedule.html");