ansaurus

Question

Grouping XML nodes by Month and Year in XSLT

Answer 1

+2 A:

As described by Jeni Tennison this would be a two-step method:

Identify the months with blog posts.
Get all the posts for a particular month.

We can get the first part using the following XPath expression:

BlogPost[not (substring(@createDate, 1, 7) 
    = substring(preceding-sibling::*[1]/@createDate, 1, 7))]

Then, for part two, we need to count the posts using the count() function:

BlogPost[not (substring(@createDate, 1, 7) 
    = substring(preceding-sibling::*[1]/@createDate, 1, 7))]

In our XSLT, we can use the expressions as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"&gt;
  <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>

  <xsl:template match="Room">
    <ul>
      <xsl:for-each select="BlogPost[not (substring(@createDate, 1, 7) = substring(preceding-sibling::*[1]/@createDate, 1, 7))]">
        <xsl:sort select="@createDate" order="descending"/>
        <li>
          <xsl:value-of select="substring(@createDate, 1, 7)"/>
          <xsl:text>(</xsl:text>
          <xsl:value-of select="count(//BlogPost[substring(@createDate, 1, 7) = substring(current()/@createDate, 1, 7)]) "/>
          <xsl:text>)</xsl:text>
        </li>
      </xsl:for-each>
    </ul>
  </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

The stylesheet above simply works month-based and doesn't consider multiple years. To support years, you can add an additional step to get the unique years first:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"&gt;
  <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>

  <xsl:template match="Room">
    <ul>
      <xsl:for-each select="BlogPost[not (substring(@createDate, 1, 4) = substring(preceding-sibling::*[1]/@createDate, 1, 4))]">
        <xsl:sort select="@createDate" order="descending"/>
        <li>
          <xsl:value-of select="substring(@createDate, 1, 4)"/>
          <ul>
            <xsl:for-each select="//BlogPost[substring(@createDate, 1, 4) = substring(current()/@createDate, 1, 4) and not (substring(@createDate, 1, 7) = substring(preceding-sibling::*[1]/@createDate, 1, 7))]">
              <xsl:sort select="@createDate" order="descending"/>
              <li>
                <xsl:value-of select="substring(@createDate, 1, 7)"/>
                <xsl:text>(</xsl:text>
                <xsl:value-of select="count(//BlogPost[substring(@createDate, 1, 7) = substring(current()/@createDate, 1, 7)]) "/>
                <xsl:text>)</xsl:text>
              </li>
            </xsl:for-each>
          </ul>
        </li>
      </xsl:for-each>
    </ul>
  </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

0xA3 2010-10-11 22:42:05

@0xA3 - this looks very promising. I'm just creating some test cases to make sure it's bulletproof.

Marko 2010-10-11 23:01:58

@0xA3, I've attempted to use your code but I was getting a very weird output. See my updated question for more information

Marko 2010-10-12 20:46:53

Answer 2

+3 A:

This transformation (141 lines but formatted for readability):

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
 xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
 xmlns:m="my:months" exclude-result-prefixes="m" >
 <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>

 <xsl:param name="currentPage" select="/*"/>

 <m:months>
   <m>January</m>
   <m>February</m>
   <m>March</m>
   <m>April</m>
   <m>May</m>
   <m>June</m>
   <m>July</m>
   <m>August</m>
   <m>September</m>
   <m>October</m>
   <m>November</m>
   <m>December</m>
 </m:months>

 <xsl:variable name="vMonthNames" select=
  "document('')/*/m:months/*"/>

 <xsl:key name="kPostsByYear" match="BlogPost"
  use="substring-before(
                    concat(archiveUnder,
                           @createDate[not(archiveUnder)]
                           ),
                    '-'
                        )"/>

 <xsl:key name="kPostsByYearMonth" match="BlogPost"
  use="substring(
                 concat(archiveUnder,
                        @createDate[not(archiveUnder)]
                        ),
                 1,7
                 )"/>

 <xsl:template match="/">
   <ul>
    <xsl:apply-templates mode="year" select=
     "$currentPage/*/*/BlogPost
          [generate-id()
          =
           generate-id(key('kPostsByYear',
                       substring-before(
                       concat(archiveUnder,
                              @createDate[not(archiveUnder)]
                              ),
                              '-'
                                         )
                            )[1]
                       )
              ]
     ">
       <xsl:sort order="descending" select=
        "substring-before(
                    concat(archiveUnder,
                           @createDate[not(archiveUnder)]
                           ),

                           '-'
                          )
        "/>
   </xsl:apply-templates>
  </ul>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="BlogPost" mode="year">
  <xsl:variable name="vYear" select=
    "substring-before(
                     concat(archiveUnder,
                            @createDate[not(archiveUnder)]
                            ),

                      '-')
    "/>
  <xsl:variable name="vyearBlogs"
                select="key('kPostsByYear',$vYear)"/>
  <li>
    <h3><xsl:value-of select="$vYear"/></h3>
    <ul>
      <xsl:apply-templates mode="month" select=
          "$vyearBlogs
             [generate-id()
             =
              generate-id(key('kPostsByYearMonth',
                          substring(
                        concat(archiveUnder,
                               @createDate[not(archiveUnder)]
                               ),

                        1,7
                                    )
                              )[1]
                          )
              ]
          ">
         <xsl:sort order="descending" select=
            "substring(
                 concat(archiveUnder,
                        @createDate[not(archiveUnder)]
                        ),

                 6,2)"
         />
      </xsl:apply-templates>
   </ul>
  </li>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="BlogPost" mode="month">
  <xsl:variable name="vMonth" select=
   "substring(
        concat(archiveUnder,
               @createDate[not(archiveUnder)]
               ),

        6,2)"/>

  <xsl:variable name="vmonthsBlogs" select=
    "key('kPostsByYearMonth',
         substring(
              concat(archiveUnder,
                     @createDate[not(archiveUnder)]
                     ),

              1,7)
         )"/>
  <li><xsl:value-of select=
        "concat($vMonthNames[position()=$vMonth],
                ' (',
                count($vmonthsBlogs),
                ')'
                )"/>
  </li>
 </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

when applied on the provided sample XML document (we are accessing every node off the $currentPage <xsl:param> as this will be in the real Umbraco case), formatted for readability and the createDate attribute of every BlogPost moved on the firs line after the element name:

<Blog id="1078" parentID="1049" level="2" writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1073" template="1089" sortOrder="7" createDate="2010-09-27T14:11:04" updateDate="2010-10-12T16:59:12" nodeName="Blog" writerName="Administrator" creatorName="Administrator" path="-1,1049,1078" isDoc="">
    <newPageTitle>The Lorem Ipsum Blog</newPageTitle>
    <BlogCentre id="1079" parentID="1078" level="3" writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1075" template="1076" sortOrder="1" createDate="2010-09-27T14:11:49" updateDate="2010-10-07T14:43:13" nodeName="Blog Centre 1" writerName="Administrator" creatorName="Administrator" path="-1,1049,1078,1079" isDoc="">
        <Room id="1081" parentID="1079" level="4" writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1077" template="0" sortOrder="1" createDate="2010-09-27T14:12:26" updateDate="2010-10-07T14:43:06" nodeName="Room 10" writerName="Administrator" creatorName="Administrator" path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081" isDoc="">
            <BlogPost id="1175" parentID="1081" level="5"
            createDate="2010-10-07T14:51:48"
            writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087"
            template="1192" sortOrder="1"
            updateDate="2010-10-12T21:30:53"
            nodeName="The first ever Blog post"
            writerName="Administrator"
            creatorName="Administrator"
            path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081,1175" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>The first ever blog</topicTitle>
                <archiveUnder/>
            </BlogPost>
            <BlogPost id="1180" parentID="1081"
             createDate="2010-10-08T15:52:20"
             level="5" writerID="0" creatorID="3"
             nodeType="1087" template="1089"
             sortOrder="2"
             updateDate="2010-10-12T16:57:00" nodeName="asdasd"
             writerName="Administrator" creatorName="ZX"
             path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081,1180" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
            </BlogPost>
            <BlogPost id="1181" parentID="1081" level="5"
             createDate="2010-10-08T17:50:19"
             writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087"
             template="1089" sortOrder="3"
             updateDate="2010-10-12T11:40:37"
             nodeName="condimentum"
             writerName="Administrator"
             creatorName="Administrator"
             path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081,1181" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
                <archiveUnder>2010-09-01T00:00:00</archiveUnder>
            </BlogPost>
            <BlogPost id="1194" parentID="1081" level="5"
            createDate="2010-10-12T11:41:50"
            writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087"
            template="1089" sortOrder="4"
            updateDate="2010-10-12T11:42:37"
            nodeName="Nam augue" writerName="Administrator"
            creatorName="Administrator"
            path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081,1194" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
                <archiveUnder>2010-08-05T00:00:00</archiveUnder>
            </BlogPost>
            <BlogPost id="1195" parentID="1081" level="5"
            createDate="2010-10-12T11:42:15"
            writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087"
            template="1089" sortOrder="5"
            updateDate="2010-10-12T11:42:25"
            nodeName="consequat nunc"
            writerName="Administrator"
            creatorName="Administrator"
            path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081,1195" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
                <archiveUnder>2010-08-12T00:00:00</archiveUnder>
            </BlogPost>
            <BlogPost id="1196" parentID="1081" level="5"
            createDate="2010-10-12T12:05:57"
            writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087"
            template="1089" sortOrder="6"
            updateDate="2010-10-12T12:08:40"
            nodeName="cursus congue"
            writerName="Administrator"
            creatorName="Administrator"
            path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081,1196" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
                <archiveUnder>2009-10-22T00:00:00</archiveUnder>
            </BlogPost>
            <BlogPost id="1197" parentID="1081" level="5"
             createDate="2010-10-12T12:08:54"
             writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087"
             template="1089" sortOrder="7"
             updateDate="2010-10-12T12:09:24"
             nodeName="inceptos" writerName="Administrator"
             creatorName="Administrator"
             path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081,1197" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
                <archiveUnder>2009-11-19T00:00:00</archiveUnder>
            </BlogPost>
            <BlogPost id="1198" parentID="1081" level="5"
            createDate="2010-10-12T12:09:45"
            writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087"
            template="1089" sortOrder="8"
            updateDate="2010-10-12T12:10:13"
            nodeName="inceptos himenaeos"
            writerName="Administrator"
            creatorName="Administrator"
            path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081,1198" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
                <archiveUnder>2009-12-16T00:00:00</archiveUnder>
            </BlogPost>
            <BlogPost id="1199" parentID="1081" level="5"
             createDate="2010-10-12T12:10:29"
             writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087"
             template="1089" sortOrder="9"
             updateDate="2010-10-12T12:10:56"
             nodeName="consequat" writerName="Administrator"
             creatorName="Administrator"
             path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081,1199" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
                <archiveUnder>2010-01-13T00:00:00</archiveUnder>
            </BlogPost>
            <BlogPost id="1200" parentID="1081" level="5"
            createDate="2010-10-12T12:11:08"
            writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087"
            template="1089" sortOrder="10"
            updateDate="2010-10-12T12:11:35"
            nodeName="himenaeos" writerName="Administrator"
            creatorName="Administrator"
            path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081,1200" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
                <archiveUnder>2010-02-09T00:00:00</archiveUnder>
            </BlogPost>
            <BlogPost id="1201" parentID="1081" level="5"
             createDate="2010-10-12T12:11:45"
             writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087"
             template="1089" sortOrder="11"
             updateDate="2010-10-12T12:12:35"
             nodeName="cursus congue" writerName="Administrator"
             creatorName="Administrator"
             path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081,1201" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
                <archiveUnder>2010-04-22T00:00:00</archiveUnder>
            </BlogPost>
            <BlogPost id="1202" parentID="1081" level="5"
            createDate="2010-10-12T12:12:18"
            writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087"
            template="1089" sortOrder="12"
            updateDate="2010-10-12T12:12:45" nodeName="pharetra"
            writerName="Administrator" creatorName="Administrator"
            path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081,1202" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
                <archiveUnder>2010-03-09T00:00:00</archiveUnder>
            </BlogPost>
            <BlogPost id="1203" parentID="1081" level="5"
            createDate="2010-10-12T12:13:05"
            writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087"
            template="1089" sortOrder="13"
            updateDate="2010-10-12T12:13:27"
            nodeName="inceptos himenaeos"
            writerName="Administrator"
            creatorName="Administrator"
            path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081,1203" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
                <archiveUnder>2010-05-26T00:00:00</archiveUnder>
            </BlogPost>
            <BlogPost id="1204" parentID="1081" level="5"
            createDate="2010-10-12T12:13:36"
            writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087"
            template="1089" sortOrder="14"
            updateDate="2010-10-12T12:13:56"
            nodeName="pharetra" writerName="Administrator"
            creatorName="Administrator"
            path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081,1204" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
                <archiveUnder>2010-06-11T00:00:00</archiveUnder>
            </BlogPost>
            <BlogPost id="1205" parentID="1081" level="5"
            createDate="2010-10-12T12:14:06"
            writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087"
            template="1089" sortOrder="15"
            updateDate="2010-10-12T12:14:41"
            nodeName="Fusce augue" writerName="Administrator"
            creatorName="Administrator"
            path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081,1205" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
                <archiveUnder>2010-07-08T00:00:00</archiveUnder>
            </BlogPost>
            <BlogPost id="1206" parentID="1081" level="5"
            createDate="2010-10-12T12:14:52"
            writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087"
            template="1089" sortOrder="16"
            updateDate="2010-10-12T12:15:19"
            nodeName="pharetra et fermentum"
            writerName="Administrator" creatorName="Administrator"
            path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081,1206" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
                <archiveUnder>2010-08-09T00:00:00</archiveUnder>
            </BlogPost>
            <BlogPost id="1207" parentID="1081"
            createDate="2010-10-12T12:15:31"
            level="5" writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087"
            template="1089" sortOrder="17"
            updateDate="2010-10-12T12:15:51"
            nodeName="Fusce augue purus" writerName="Administrator"
            creatorName="Administrator"
            path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081,1207" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
                <archiveUnder>2010-09-14T00:00:00</archiveUnder>
            </BlogPost>
            <BlogPost id="1208" parentID="1081" level="5"
            createDate="2010-10-12T12:16:25"
            writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087"
            template="1089" sortOrder="18"
            updateDate="2010-10-12T12:16:45"
            nodeName="Class aptent taciti" writerName="Administrator"
            creatorName="Administrator"
            path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081,1208" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
                <archiveUnder>2010-06-04T00:00:00</archiveUnder>
            </BlogPost>
            <BlogPost id="1209" parentID="1081" level="5"
            createDate="2010-10-12T12:17:01"
            writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087"
            template="1089" sortOrder="19"
            updateDate="2010-10-12T12:17:29" nodeName="Class aptent"
            writerName="Administrator" creatorName="Administrator"
            path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1081,1209" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
                <archiveUnder>2010-06-21T00:00:00</archiveUnder>
            </BlogPost>
        </Room>
        <Room id="1082" parentID="1079" level="4"
        createDate="2010-09-27T14:12:33"
        writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1077" template="0"
        sortOrder="2"
        updateDate="2010-10-07T14:43:09" nodeName="Test Blog"
        writerName="Administrator" creatorName="Administrator"
        path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1082" isDoc="">
            <BlogPost id="1182" parentID="1082" level="5" writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087" template="1089" sortOrder="1" createDate="2010-10-08T17:51:19" updateDate="2010-10-08T17:51:58" nodeName="Test Blog" writerName="Administrator" creatorName="Administrator" path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1082,1182" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
            </BlogPost>
        </Room>
        <Room id="1083" parentID="1079" level="4" writerID="0"
        createDate="2010-09-27T14:12:40"
        creatorID="0" nodeType="1077" template="1089" sortOrder="3"
        updateDate="2010-10-07T14:49:48" nodeName="Test Blog"
        writerName="Administrator" creatorName="Administrator"
        path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1083" isDoc="">
            <BlogPost id="1183" parentID="1083" level="5" writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1087" template="1089" sortOrder="1" createDate="2010-10-08T17:52:22" updateDate="2010-10-08T17:52:39" nodeName="Test Blog" writerName="Administrator" creatorName="Administrator" path="-1,1049,1078,1079,1083,1183" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
            </BlogPost>
        </Room>
    </BlogCentre>
    <BlogCentre id="1080" parentID="1078" level="3" writerID="0"
    createDate="2010-09-27T14:11:55"
    creatorID="0" nodeType="1075" template="1076" sortOrder="2"
    updateDate="2010-10-07T14:43:23" nodeName="Blog Centre 2"
    writerName="Administrator" creatorName="Administrator"
    path="-1,1049,1078,1080" isDoc="">
        <Room id="1084" parentID="1080" level="4" writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1077" template="0" sortOrder="1" createDate="2010-09-27T14:12:45" updateDate="2010-10-07T14:43:17" nodeName="Room 1" writerName="Administrator" creatorName="Administrator" path="-1,1049,1078,1080,1084" isDoc="">
            <BlogPost id="1184" parentID="1084" level="5" writerID="0"
            createDate="2010-10-08T17:53:05"
            creatorID="0" nodeType="1087" template="1089" sortOrder="1"
            updateDate="2010-10-08T17:53:29" nodeName="Blog Post 3"
            writerName="Administrator" creatorName="Administrator"
            path="-1,1049,1078,1080,1084,1184" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
            </BlogPost>
        </Room>
        <Room id="1085" parentID="1080" level="4" writerID="0"
        createDate="2010-09-27T14:12:50"
        creatorID="0" nodeType="1077" template="0" sortOrder="2"
        updateDate="2010-10-07T14:43:19" nodeName="Room 2"
        writerName="Administrator" creatorName="Administrator"
        path="-1,1049,1078,1080,1085" isDoc="">
            <BlogPost id="1185" parentID="1085" level="5" writerID="0"
            createDate="2010-10-08T17:53:51"
            creatorID="0" nodeType="1087" template="1089" sortOrder="1"
            updateDate="2010-10-08T17:54:15" nodeName="Blog Post 109"
            writerName="Administrator" creatorName="Administrator"
            path="-1,1049,1078,1080,1085,1185" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
            </BlogPost>
        </Room>
        <Room id="1086" parentID="1080" level="4" writerID="0" creatorID="0" nodeType="1077" template="1089" sortOrder="3" createDate="2010-09-27T14:12:55" updateDate="2010-10-07T14:50:39" nodeName="Room 3" writerName="Administrator" creatorName="Administrator" path="-1,1049,1078,1080,1086" isDoc="">
            <BlogPost id="1186" parentID="1086" level="5" writerID="0"
            createDate="2010-10-08T17:54:28"
            creatorID="0" nodeType="1087" template="1089" sortOrder="1"
            updateDate="2010-10-08T17:54:51"
            nodeName="Blog Post 123" writerName="Administrator"
            creatorName="Administrator"
            path="-1,1049,1078,1080,1086,1186" isDoc="">
                <topicTitle>Lorem Ipsum</topicTitle>
            </BlogPost>
        </Room>
    </BlogCentre>
</Blog>

produces the wanted, correct result:

<ul>
   <li>
      <h3>2010</h3>
      <ul>
         <li>October (7)</li>
         <li>September (2)</li>
         <li>August (3)</li>
         <li>July (1)</li>
         <li>June (3)</li>
         <li>May (1)</li>
         <li>April (1)</li>
         <li>March (1)</li>
         <li>February (1)</li>
         <li>January (1)</li>
      </ul>
   </li>
   <li>
      <h3>2009</h3>
      <ul>
         <li>December (1)</li>
         <li>November (1)</li>
         <li>October (1)</li>
      </ul>
   </li>
</ul>

Do note:

Muenchian Grouping is used -- both for determining the different years and for determining the different months for each year.
The date is chosen between the createDate attribute and the archiveUnder child using the expression:

concat(archiveUnder, @createDate[not(archiveUnder)])

This concatenation only picks @createDate if archiveUnder is missing or empty.

.3. The transformation will produce the correct result even if the dates of the elements are unsorted.

Dimitre Novatchev 2010-10-11 23:04:20

@Dimitre: +1 I've missed to order the results.

Alejandro 2010-10-14 19:57:24

@Alejandro: Thanks. You must update your answer, adding the missing sorting. There are still 7 days until the end of the bounty period.

Dimitre Novatchev 2010-10-14 20:24:20

Hi @Dimitre, I've deleted all my comments to ease things up a bit. I've just tried your code but it throws an error `Error parsing XSLT file: \xslt\blogArchive.xslt".` Usually umbraco does specify what the error is but in this case it doesn't. After inspecting the code, I noticed you're not using $currentPage anywhere. That's the source of the XML as mentioned above and it contains a nodeset starting from `<Blog>`.

Marko 2010-10-14 20:32:13

I tried replacing this line `*/*/BlogPost` with `currentPage/descendant::BlogPost` but I get an error `For security reasons DTD is prohibited in this XML document. To enable DTD processing set the DtdProcessing property on XmlReaderSettings to Parse and pass the settings into XmlReader.Create method.` I found this article on the forums http://our.umbraco.org/forum/developers/xslt/3008-Namespaces-in-xslt and have tried replacing `xmlns:m="my:months"` with `xmlns:m="urn:months"` but to no avail. At this point I seriously don't know what to do. :/

Marko 2010-10-14 20:33:47

@Marko-Ivanovski: Yes, I have changed the code slightly and now the nodes are accessed off the `$currentPage` `<xsl:param>`. Please, try the updated solution.

Dimitre Novatchev 2010-10-15 01:06:14

@Dimitre, we're so close! I think the @CreateDate isn't being picked up because only the nodes that have `archiveUnder` are being grouped. The ones that don't sit as uncategorized, with the number of posts showing `(10)`. Is there an alternative way of doing `(@createDate|archiveUnder)`?

Marko 2010-10-17 22:15:36

@Marko-Ivanovski: [only the nodes that have archiveUnder are being grouped] -- This is not true. There are a total of 24 `BlogPost` elements in the provided XML document. The sum of the counts in the output is exactly 24. Also, not all of the `BlogPost` elements have a `archiveUnder` child.

Dimitre Novatchev 2010-10-17 23:04:22

@Marko-Ivanovski: You are probably applying the transformation on some XML document that doesn't have the properties, stated in the question. For example, if there is a `BlogPost` element that doesnt have a `createDate` attribute *and* also doesn't have an `archiveUnder` child, this `BlogPost` element will not be represented in the result. Other problems could arise, if the date format is different than the one shown in the question.

Dimitre Novatchev 2010-10-17 23:08:32

Hi @Dimitre, I've just had another look at the file and the nodes that don't have an archive date have an empty node `<archiveUnder />`. I've checked the date formats and they're definitely the same. Further to that, all nodes have a `@CreateDate` :)

Marko 2010-10-17 23:24:18

@Marko-Ivanovski: I see. The question is phrased in such a way that one believes that `archiveUnder` is present only in some `BlogPost` nodes. This is something new. Try replacing all occurencies of `(@createDate|archiveUnder)[last()]` with `concat(@createDate,archiveUnder)` . If this produces the wanted results, I will update my answer. It would also be good if you could update your question to state explicitly, that every `Blogpost` element has an `archiveUnder` child anf whenever this `archiveUnder` child is empty, the date should be taken from the `CreateDate` attribute.

Dimitre Novatchev 2010-10-18 00:43:38

@Marko-Ivanovski: I updated the XML document and the solution to work with the new document structure you described in your last comment. Please, try.

Dimitre Novatchev 2010-10-18 01:00:53

@Dimitre, when you reply to my comments use just @Marko, it doesn't seems to notify me when you're using a dash (-) inside my name. Anyway I tried the `concat(@createDate,archiveUnder)` which didn't actually work but `concat(archiveUnder,@createDate)` does seem to? I'm just running some tests, but I presume that since we're using substring, it will always match the first date even if there were 2 concatenated together? Could this really be the end of my problem? :)

Marko 2010-10-18 01:04:50

@Marko: Look at the updated solution. You should use: `concat(archiveUnder, @createDate[not(archiveUnder)])`

Dimitre Novatchev 2010-10-18 01:07:07

@Dimitre, congratulations. I believe you've nailed it! I will award you your well deserved bounty now, and if there are any further problems I'll start a new thread. Thanks a million dude!

Marko 2010-10-18 01:15:46

@Marko: I am glad the solution is finally providing the expected results. This has been a nice experience working on a real-world problem. Thank you very much for providing this problem, Marko.

Dimitre Novatchev 2010-10-18 01:25:48

@Dimitre, it definitely has been. I'm starting to like XSLT more and more. I've just added in one final condition in each match="BlogPost" and inside the `<match-templates />` that only selects nodes that the user has access to using `[umbraco.library:HasAccess(@id, @path) = 'true']`. It works like a charm and it's actually really fast! Gonna cache the results for at least a day anyway, so that's problem solved :) Thanks again!!

Marko 2010-10-18 01:44:37

@MArko: Ypu are welcome. And yes, XSLT is a fascinating language.

Dimitre Novatchev 2010-10-18 01:51:22

Oops! I've missed the last comments. But I think that `(@createDate|archiveUnder[node()])[last()]` could also work.

Alejandro 2010-10-18 22:52:54

@Alejandro: No, because in XSLT 1.0 `<xsl:value-of>` always selects only the first node of a node-set.

Dimitre Novatchev 2010-10-19 01:31:03

Answer 3

+2 A:

This stylesheet:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
 xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
 xmlns:m="month"
 exclude-result-prefixes="m">
    <xsl:param name="currentPage" select="/Blog"/>
    <xsl:key name="kBlogPostByYear" match="BlogPost"
             use="substring((@createDate|archiveUnder)[last()],1,4)"/>
    <xsl:key name="kBlogPostByYearMonth" match="BlogPost"
             use="substring((@createDate|archiveUnder)[last()],1,7)"/>
    <m:month>January</m:month>
    <m:month>February</m:month>
    <m:month>March</m:month>
    <m:month>April</m:month>
    <m:month>May</m:month>
    <m:month>June</m:month>
    <m:month>July</m:month>
    <m:month>August</m:month>
    <m:month>September</m:month>
    <m:month>October</m:month>
    <m:month>November</m:month>
    <m:month>December</m:month>
    <xsl:variable name="vMonth" select="document('')/*/m:*"/>
    <xsl:template match="/">
        <ul>
            <xsl:apply-templates
                 select="$currentPage/*/*/BlogPost
                                 [count(.|key('kBlogPostByYear',
                                              substring((@createDate|
                                                         archiveUnder)
                                                         [last()],
                                                        1,
                                                        4))[1])=1]">
                <xsl:sort select="substring((@createDate|archiveUnder)
                                            [last()],
                                            1,4)" order="descending"/>
            </xsl:apply-templates>
        </ul>
    </xsl:template>
    <xsl:template match="BlogPost">
        <xsl:variable name="vYear" select="substring((@createDate|
                                                      archiveUnder)[last()],
                                                      1,
                                                      4)"/>
        <ul>
            <h3>
                <xsl:value-of select="$vYear"/>
            </h3>
            <ul>
                <xsl:apply-templates
                     select="$currentPage/*/*/BlogPost
                                         [generate-id() =
                                          generate-id(
                                             key('kBlogPostByYearMonth',
                                                 concat($vYear,'-',
                                                        substring(
                                                           (@createDate|
                                                            archiveUnder)
                                                                 [last()],
                                                           6,
                                                           2))))]"
                                     mode="month">
                    <xsl:sort select="substring((@createDate|archiveUnder)
                                                [last()],
                                                6,2)" order="descending"/>
                </xsl:apply-templates>
            </ul>
        </ul>
    </xsl:template>
        <xsl:template match="BlogPost" mode="month">
        <xsl:variable name="vDate"
                      select="(@createDate|archiveUnder)[last()]"/>
        <li>
            <xsl:value-of select="concat($vMonth
                                            [number(
                                               substring($vDate,
                                                         6,
                                                         2))],
                                         ' (',
                                         count(key('kBlogPostByYearMonth',
                                                   substring($vDate,1,7))),
                                         ')')"/>
        </li>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Output:

<ul>
    <ul>
        <h3>2010</h3>
        <ul>
            <li>October (7)</li>
            <li>September (2)</li>
            <li>August (3)</li>
            <li>July (1)</li>
            <li>June (3)</li>
            <li>May (1)</li>
            <li>April (1)</li>
            <li>March (1)</li>
            <li>February (1)</li>
            <li>January (1)</li>
        </ul>
    </ul>
    <ul>
        <h3>2009</h3>
        <ul>
            <li>December (1)</li>
            <li>November (1)</li>
            <li>October (1)</li>
        </ul>
    </ul>
</ul>

Edit 3: Sorry, I've missed the sorting. Now added. Also, minor refactor with a $currentPage param.

Alejandro 2010-10-11 23:10:48

@Alejandro - does this take into consideration the year as well? Also I don't need the second part that lists the content, just the `<ul></ul>` section.

Marko 2010-10-11 23:29:35

@Marko Ivanovski: You wrote: *does this take into consideration the year as well?* **Yes**, the grouping key is year-month (first 7 digits of date). You wrote: *Also I don't need the second part*. Well, it's for showing you the use of keys for selecting.

Alejandro 2010-10-12 12:33:39

@Alejandro, appologies for the confusion, please see my updated question, hopefully it makes more sense.

Marko 2010-10-12 20:47:15

ansaurus

tags:

views:

answers:

Grouping XML nodes by Month and Year in XSLT

related questions