Transforming a sequence of tags using XSL

Question

I'm kind of new to using XSL. I'm trying to convert an XML file into another XML file with a different structure using XSL. The input section of the XML goes like this:

<tag>
    <Keyword>Event: Some Text</Keyword>
    <Keyword>Group: Some Text</Keyword>
    <Keyword>Other: Some Text</Keyword>
</tag>

I would like the desired output to be:

<tag>
    <event> Some Text </event>
    <group> Some Text </group>
    <other> Some Text </other>
</tag>

My current XSL file:

<xsl:for-each select="tag">
    <xsl:if test="starts-with(Keyword, 'Event: ')">
        <event>
          <xsl:value-of select="substring-after(Keyword, 'Event: ')"/>
        </event>
    </xsl:if>
    <xsl:if test="starts-with(Keyword, 'Group: ')">
        <group>
          <xsl:value-of select="substring-after(Keyword, 'Group: ')"/>
        </group>
    </xsl:if>
    <xsl:if test="starts-with(Keyword, 'Other: ')">
        <other>
          <xsl:value-of select="substring-after(Keyword, 'Other: ')"/>
        </other>
    </xsl:if>
</xsl:for-each>

The current output only shows the event node and does not display the remaining nodes:

<tag>
    <event> Some Text </event>
</tag>

I tried switching the 'group' section with the 'event' section in the XSL, however all the child nodes are not displayed probably due to the ordering of the keyword nodes in the input XML. So how can I read all the keyword nodes and convert them to the respective new nodes for display?

Answer 1

Here is my solution. You don't have to create all those if statements by using xsl:element

<xsl:template match="tag">
<xsl:apply-templates select="Keyword"/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="Keyword">
 <xsl:variable name="tag" select="normalize-space(substring-before(.,':'))"/>
 <xsl:value-of select="concat('&lt;',$tag,'&gt;')" disable-output-escaping="yes"/>
 <xsl:value-of select="normalize-space(substring-after(.,':'))"/>
 <xsl:value-of select="concat('&lt;/',$tag,'&gt;')" disable-output-escaping="yes"/>
</xsl:template>

Answer 2

@Pierre: I understand initial question and your solution correctly ;) Your way for XML elements construction IMHO bit of hackly. XSLT have special set for dynamic construction of xml elements. So your template match="Keyword" can look like this

<xsl:template match="Keyword">
  <xsl:variable name="tag" select="normalize-space(substring-before(.,':'))"/>
  <xsl:element name="{$tag}">
    <xsl:value-of select="normalize-space(substring-after(.,':'))"/>
  </xsl:element>
</xsl:template>

So you have option to easily add attributes to output XML elements if you need, and won't bother with disable-output-escaping etc.

Answer 3

Thanks! Now I'd like to convert the XML file into another XML file since the input section of the XML goes like this:

<set>
    <object> Value </object>
        <name> Value </name>
        <tag>
            <event> Value </event>
            <group> Value </group>
            <other> Value </other>
        </tag>
    <object>
    <object>...</object>
</set>

And the output to be:

<set>
    <event>
        <group>
            <object name="value">
                <tag>
                    <other> Value </other>
                </tag>
            </object>
        <group>
        <group>...</group>
    <event>...</event>
</set>

Meaning to say how do I search through the input xml and group the objects according to say the 'event' nodes followed by the 'group' nodes with the same value instead?