How to create xml from another xml meta data?

Question

I am not sure whether the title clearly explains my problem, will try to include as much details I can.

I need to convert below xml to a properly formatted one using Xslt 1, so that I can deserialize it to a .net type.

Source XML

   <ax21:result type="test.ws.Result">
    <ax21:columnNames>fileName</ax21:columnNames>
    <ax21:columnNames>lockedState</ax21:columnNames>
    <ax21:columnNames>currentLockOwner</ax21:columnNames>
    <ax21:columnNames>UUID</ax21:columnNames>
    <ax21:resultData>Test1.doc</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>true</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>analyst</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>f48f0450-9ecc-4a44-b063-898d9d72d112</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>Test2.doc</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>false</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData/>
    <ax21:resultData>f48f0450-9ecc-4a44-b063-898d9d72d112</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>Test3.doc</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>true</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>analyst</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>f48f0450-9ecc-4a44-b063-898d9d72d112</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>Test4.doc</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>false</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData/>
    <ax21:resultData>f48f0450-9ecc-4a44-b063-898d9d72d112</ax21:resultData>
   </ax21:result>

Target XML

<result>
    <item>
     <fileName>Test1.doc</fileName>
     <lockedState>true</lockedState>
     <currentLockOwner>analyst</currentLockOwner>
     <UUID>f48f0450-9ecc-4a44-b063-898d9d72d112</UUID>
    </item>
    <item>
     <fileName>Test2.doc</fileName>
     <lockedState>true</lockedState>
     <currentLockOwner>analyst</currentLockOwner>
     <UUID>f48f0450-9ecc-4a44-b063-898d9d72d112</UUID>
    </item>
    <item>
     <fileName>Test2.doc</fileName>
     <lockedState>true</lockedState>
     <currentLockOwner>analyst</currentLockOwner>
     <UUID>f48f0450-9ecc-4a44-b063-898d9d72d112</UUID>
    </item>
</result>

Can this be done using xslt? If yes, pls post a link or a sample xslt for me to try.

I am using .net 2.0, c#, XSLT 1.0

Answer 1

That's going to be really tough, if not impossible, to get done properly and reliably.

The trouble is: there's no indication of an index or type on the many and nodes as to what their type / position is - you have to more or less guess...

It would be a different story if the at least had an additional attribute, something like and and so forth - that way one might be able to somehow associate those together.

Is there any chance at all you could "massage" the original data a bit?? Otherwise, I'd probably say you'll have to load it in C# and parse it and do a lot of manual processing to get what you want.

Marc

Answer 2

This is one fairly short and easy solution:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
 xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
 xmlns:ax21="my:ax21" exclude-result-prefixes="ax21"
 >
 <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>

  <xsl:variable name="vCols" select="/*/ax21:columnNames"/>
  <xsl:variable name="vNumCols" select="count($vCols)"/>

    <xsl:template match="ax21:result">
     <result>
       <xsl:apply-templates select=
        "ax21:resultData[position() mod $vNumCols = 1]"
        />
     </result>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="ax21:resultData">
      <item>
        <xsl:apply-templates mode="create" select=
         "(.|following-sibling::ax21:resultData)
                               [not(position() > $vNumCols) ]
         "/>
      </item>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="ax21:resultData" mode="create">
      <xsl:variable name="vPos" select="position()"/>
    <xsl:element name="{$vCols[$vPos]}">
       <xsl:value-of select="."/>
       <xsl:if test="not(text())">
         <xsl:value-of select=
          "(.| preceding-sibling::ax21:resultData)
                      [position() mod $vNumCols = $vPos]
                         [text()]
                               [last()]
          "/>
       </xsl:if>
    </xsl:element>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

When this transformation is applied on the following XML document:

<ax21:result type="test.ws.Result"
 xmlns:ax21="my:ax21"
>
    <ax21:columnNames>fileName</ax21:columnNames>
    <ax21:columnNames>lockedState</ax21:columnNames>
    <ax21:columnNames>currentLockOwner</ax21:columnNames>
    <ax21:columnNames>UUID</ax21:columnNames>
    <ax21:resultData>Test1.doc</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>true</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>analyst</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>f48f0450-9ecc-4a44-b063-898d9d72d112</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>Test2.doc</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>false</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData/>
    <ax21:resultData>f48f0450-9ecc-4a44-b063-898d9d72d112</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>Test3.doc</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>true</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>analyst</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>f48f0450-9ecc-4a44-b063-898d9d72d112</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>Test4.doc</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData>false</ax21:resultData>
    <ax21:resultData/>
    <ax21:resultData>f48f0450-9ecc-4a44-b063-898d9d72d112</ax21:resultData>
</ax21:result>

the wanted result is produced:

<result>
   <item>
      <fileName>Test1.doc</fileName>
      <lockedState>true</lockedState>
      <currentLockOwner>analyst</currentLockOwner>
      <UUID>f48f0450-9ecc-4a44-b063-898d9d72d112</UUID>
   </item>
   <item>
      <fileName>Test2.doc</fileName>
      <lockedState>false</lockedState>
      <currentLockOwner>analyst</currentLockOwner>
      <UUID>f48f0450-9ecc-4a44-b063-898d9d72d112</UUID>
   </item>
   <item>
      <fileName>Test3.doc</fileName>
      <lockedState>true</lockedState>
      <currentLockOwner>analyst</currentLockOwner>
      <UUID>f48f0450-9ecc-4a44-b063-898d9d72d112</UUID>
   </item>
   <item>
      <fileName>Test4.doc</fileName>
      <lockedState>false</lockedState>
      <currentLockOwner>analyst</currentLockOwner>
      <UUID>f48f0450-9ecc-4a44-b063-898d9d72d112</UUID>
   </item>
</result>

Explanation:

1. For convenience the column names and their number are collected in the global variables $vCols and $vNumCols.

2. We are applying templates to every N-th ax21:resultData element, where N mod $vNumCols = 1 . Every such element starts a new item.

3. Every ax21:resultData element that will be the first in an item is matched by a template in "no-mode". THis simply creates the wrapping item element and applies to all current $vNumCols ax21:resultData elements another template -- in "create" mode.

4. The template in "create" mode simply creates an element, whose name is the value of the n-th element in $vCols, where n is the position() of the current() node to which the template is being applied.

5. Finally, if it happens that no value was supplied, we get (in backwards order) the latest non-emptyvalue for the same type of element.