XSLT <xsl:template> Element
An XSL style sheet consists of one or more set of rules that
are called templates.
A template contains rules to apply when a
specified node is matched.
The <xsl:template> Element
The <xsl:template> element is used to build templates.
The match attribute is used to associate a template with an XML
element. The match attribute can also be used to define a template for the
entire XML document. The value of the match attribute is an XPath expression (i.e. match="/" defines the whole document).
Ok, let's look at a simplified version of the XSL file from the previous chapter:
Example
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<body>
<h2>My CD Collection</h2>
<table border="1">
<tr bgcolor="#9acd32">
<th>Title</th>
<th>Artist</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>.</td>
<td>.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
|
Try it yourself »
|
Example Explained
Since an XSL style sheet is an XML document, it always begins with the XML
declaration: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>.
The next element, <xsl:stylesheet>, defines that this
document is an XSLT style sheet document (along with the version number and XSLT namespace attributes).
The <xsl:template> element defines a template.
The match="/" attribute associates the template with the root of the XML source document.
The content inside the <xsl:template> element defines some HTML to write to the output.
The last two lines define the end of the template and the end of the style sheet.
The result from this example was a little disappointing, because no data was copied from the XML document to the output. In the next chapter you will learn how to use the <xsl:value-of>
element to select values from the XML elements.
Need an easy way to get data into XML, or transform XML to another format?
MapForce lets you map XML data to/from any combination of XML, database, flat file, Excel 2007, XBRL, or Web services data.
Then it transforms data instantly or auto-generates royalty-free data integration code for recurrent conversions.
New features in Version 2010!
Download a free, fully functional 30-day trial to experience the following features:
- Easy-to-use, graphical data mapping interface
- Instant data transformation
- XSLT 1.0/2.0 and XQuery code generation
- Java, C#, and C++ code generation
- Advanced data processing functions
- Support for all major relational databases including SQL Server, IBM DB2, Oracle, and more
- Visual Studio & Eclipse integration
Download a fully-functional trial today!
|
|
|
| 
