xslt transforming xml to text by skipping some elements

Question

I want to transform an XML file to text but I want also some elements not to be transformed.

e.g Input:

  <parent> Some parent text
     <child1>child text</child>
       more parent text
  </parent>

expected output:

  Some parent text <child1>child text</child> more parent text

my current XSLT:

  <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"  xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt">
   <xsl:output method="text" indent="no"/>

      <xsl:template match="node()">
        <xsl:copy>
           <xsl:apply-templates select="node()"/>
        </xsl:copy>
      </xsl:template> 

      <xsl:template match="child1">
         <xsl:element name="child1">
             <xsl:apply-templates select="node()"/>
         </xsl:element>
      </xsl:template>

  </xsl:stylesheet>

But what what I get is:

Some parent text child text more parent text

is there anyway I can fix this to include some child elements?

If you want XML output then why are you using method="text"? — Ian Roberts
I can try that but as you can see the expected output xml elements are in the middle of texts. — asahun
Is it the case that you don't want the parent element to appear in the output, but everything else stays the same? — Tim C
not exactly other child elements will be transformed but yes only text part of parent node will be included. — asahun

kjhughes kjhughes · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-21T16:50:19

This XSLT:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
                xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
  <xsl:output method="xml" indent="no" omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>

  <xsl:template match="node()">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="node()"/>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template> 

  <xsl:template match="parent">
    <xsl:apply-templates select="node()"/>
  </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

Applied to this XML input document:

<parent> Some parent text
     <child1>child text</child1>
       more parent text
</parent>

Will yield the requested (not well-formed XML) output document:

 Some parent text
     <child1>child text</child1>
       more parent text

Of course you can also match child1 elements:

  <xsl:template match="child1">
    <xsl:element name="child1_NEW">
      <xsl:apply-templates select="node()"/>
    </xsl:element>
  </xsl:template>

And handle them differently:

 Some parent text
     <child1_NEW>child text</child1_NEW>
       more parent text

xslt transforming xml to text by skipping some elements

1 Answers