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Question

XSLT for displaying XML as HTML

Answer 1

A:

I am about to test it but I found this link:

here

EDIT: Found out only works wiht (some) vresions of IE.grr!

Russell 2010-02-18 03:36:52

Answer 2

+1 A:

The stylesheet you are trying to use only works in modern browsers and won't work in any version of IE. Doing such things in modern browsers is trivial but in IE you need to call MSXML through javascript and .NET stuff in order to do the same transformations native to other far more modern browsers (Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, K-Meleon, Konqueror, Epiphany, Flock....you get the idea). This is all part of the problem IE causes by not implementing XHTML which, essentially, is what you want to do and every other browser does.

I'll check back in the morning if you still haven't solved this with javascript I use.

Rob 2010-02-18 04:12:59

Thanks Rob - I think I will have to create a simple XSL for my elements specifically if I cant find this utopian document. It would be great to be able to mimick this display and with JQuery and CSS it should be possible to do.

Russell 2010-02-18 04:20:35

Turns out, I'm told I can't give out that js code for reasons I can't fathom, but this link is where I found out how to do this:http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms762796(VS.85).aspxand http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms753804(VS.85).aspxI'll give my actual code later after I argue with someone.

Rob 2010-02-18 14:47:31

Answer 3

A:

I decided my best approach (for my situation) was to write 2 simple C# methods to generate HTML from the XML on the server side. This helps reduce any reliance on browser displaying XML (Opera is Crazy!)

(This example uses pretty simple formatting, which was fine for my situation. I loosely modelled it on IE's display of XML. For others' reference, here are the methods:

        /// <summary>
    /// Does a simple convert to display an Xml document in HTML.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="xmlString"></param>
    private static string ConvertXmlToHtml(string xmlString)
    {
        StringBuilder html = new StringBuilder();

        html.AppendLine("<HTML>");
        html.AppendLine("<HEAD><TITLE>Xml Document</TITLE></HEAD>");

        XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
        doc.LoadXml(xmlString);

        html.AppendLine(ConvertXmlElementToHTML(1, doc.DocumentElement));

        html.AppendLine("</HTML>");


        return html.ToString();
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Converts an XML element (and all of its children) to HTML.
    /// This is a recursive method.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="element"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    private static string ConvertXmlElementToHTML(int level, XmlNode element)
    {
        int padding = level; // padding (cm == level).

        StringBuilder returnHTML = new StringBuilder();
        if (element is XmlElement)
        {
            // Formatting for symbols to simplify code below.
            string close_bracket = "<SPAN style=\"color: blue\">&gt;</SPAN>";
            string close_bracket_no_children = "<SPAN style=\"color: blue\"> /&gt;</SPAN>";
            string open_bracket = "<SPAN style=\"color: blue\">&lt;</SPAN>";
            string open_bracket_end_el = "<SPAN style=\"color: blue\">&lt;/</SPAN>";
            string el_name = "<SPAN style=\"color: brown\">" + element.Name + "</SPAN>";
            string quote = "<SPAN style=\"color: blue\">\"</SPAN>";
            string equals_sign = "<SPAN style=\"color: blue\">=</SPAN>";

            // Open Element.
            returnHTML.AppendLine("<DIV style=\"margin-left: " + padding + "cm\">" + open_bracket + el_name);

            // Print element attributes.
            foreach(XmlAttribute att in element.Attributes)
            {
                returnHTML.AppendLine(" <SPAN style=\"color: brown\">" + att.Name + "</SPAN>" + equals_sign + quote + "<SPAN style=\"color: black; text-weight: bold\">" + att.Value + "</SPAN>" + quote);
            }

            // If no children, we end the element here with a '/ >'
            // otherwise, we close the element and start to write children '>'
            if (element.ChildNodes.Count == 0)
            {
                returnHTML.AppendLine(close_bracket_no_children + "</DIV>");
            }
            else
            {
                returnHTML.AppendLine(close_bracket + "</DIV>");
            }

            // Print Children. (Recursive call). Note location is IMPORTANT: we need child elements
            // to print after the element is opened and before the element is closed.
            foreach (XmlNode child in element.ChildNodes)
            {
                returnHTML.AppendLine(ConvertXmlElementToHTML(level + 1, child));
            }

            // If we have printed child elements, we need to print a closing element tag.
            if (element.ChildNodes.Count > 0)
            {
                returnHTML.AppendLine("<DIV style=\"margin-left: " + padding + "cm\">" + open_bracket_end_el + el_name + close_bracket + "</DIV>");
            }
        }

        // Return a string of HTML that will display elements at this level and below (child nodes).
        return returnHTML.ToString();
    }

Russell 2010-02-19 02:40:49

Thanks everyone for your help, this has been an interesting investigation!

Russell 2010-02-19 02:41:14

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XSLT for displaying XML as HTML

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