XSL parsing is shortening script tag causing issues in IE

Question

I have a C# application that generates an html document from transforming an xml file with an xsl file. In my xsl template I reference an external javascript file like this:

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://jqueryjs.googlecode.com/files/jquery-1.3.2.min.js" ></script>

after the transformation the previous line is being translated to:

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://jqueryjs.googlecode.com/files/jquery-1.3.2.min.js" />

For Firefox and Chrome this is no problem however IE throws an 'object not found' error and does not work. Any suggestions for getting IE to like this syntax? Or is there something I need to do in my xsl (or the C# XslCompiledTransform class) to preserve the syntax?

Solution: By placing <![CDATA[ <!-- Some Comment --> ]]> between the script tags the parser doesn't attempt to shorten the ending tag.

Answer 1

Just Missing the closing </script>.

Answer 2

Try putting an empty CDATA section inside. This should force the parser to not mess with your script tags.

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://jqueryjs.googlecode.com/files/jquery-1.3.2.min.js" ><![CDATA[ ]]></script>

Answer 3

Generate an XML comment inside <script>:

<script type="text/javascript" src="..." ><xsl:comment/></script>

The output will be:

<script type="text/javascript" src="..."><!-- --></script>

which is semantically equivalent to an empty <script>.

Answer 4

Actually, bobince is right. If you use...

<xsl:output method="html"/>

... you can get the right output for XslCompiledTransform, but you have to use its OutputSettings with the XmlWriter you use as output object:

XslCompiledTransform xslt = new XslCompiledTransform(true);

xslt.Load("stylesheetFile.xsl");

XmlWriter outputWriter = XmlWriter.Create("outputfile.html", xslt.OutputSettings);

xslt.Transform(input, null, outputWriter);

This way, the method="html" works, so script, textarea et al keep their closing tags.

Answer 5

had the same prob. right now, this is my solution:

<xsl:text disable-output-escaping="yes">
  <![CDATA[<script type="text/javascript" src="" ></script>]]>
</xsl:text>