Embed xsl into an XML file

Question

I'm trying to embed an xsl into a XML file. The reason for doing this is to create a single file that could be moved to different computers, this would prevent the need to move the xsl file.

The xsl file is creating a table and grabbing a test step from the xml and whether it passed or failed, pretty simple.
The issue I'm having, I think, is that the xsl has javascript and its being displayed when the xml is loaded in IE.

When I load the xml file with IE, the javascript is displayed above the table and below the table the xml is displayed.

Here is how my document is laid-out :

<!DOCTYPE doc [
<!ATTLIST xsl:stylesheet
  id    ID  #REQUIRED>
]>

<doc>    

<xsl:stylesheet id="4.1.0" 
    version="1.0"
    xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" 
    xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt" 
    xmlns:user="http://www.ni.com/TestStand" 
    xmlns:vb_user="http://www.ni.com/TestStand/" >

<xsl:template match="xsl:stylesheet" />
     <xsl:text disable-output-escaping="yes">

    <msxsl:script language="vbscript" implements-prefix="vb_user">
        option explicit
        'This function will return the localized decimal point for a decimal number
        Function GetLocalizedDecimalPoint ()
            dim lDecPoint
            lDecPoint = Mid(CStr(1.1),2,1)
            GetLocalizedDecimalPoint = lDecPoint
        End Function
    </msxsl:script>
    <msxsl:script language="javascript" implements-prefix="user"><![CDATA[
        // This style sheet will not show tables instead of graphs for arrays of values if 
        // 1. TSGraph control is not installed on the machine
        // 2. Using the stylesheet in windows XP SP2. Security settings prevent stylesheets from creatign the GraphControl using scripting. 
        //     Refer to the TestStand Readme for more information.

//more javascript functions
//code to build table and insert data from the xml

</xsl:stylesheet>

<Reports>
<Report Type='UUT' Title='UUT Report' Link='-1-2008-12-3-10-46-52-713' UUTResult='Failed' StepCount='51'>

// rest of xml

</Report>

</Reports>
</doc>

Dimitre Novatchev Dimitre Novatchev · Accepted Answer · 2008-12-11T22:28:25

Although the W3C XSLT Spec supports embedding an XSLT stylesheet into an XML document, it seems that IE and Firefox do not support this.

UPDATE: As per the comment by Robert Niestroj, years later, in Oct. 2014, this works in FireFox 33.

However, there is a good alternative: embed the XML document into the XSLT stylesheet.

Below is an example.

An XSLT stylesheet containing an embedded XML document:

<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="myEmbedded.xml"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
 xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
 <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>
    <xsl:variable name="vEmbDoc">
        <doc>
            <head></head>
            <body>
                <para id="foo">Hello I am foo</para>
            </body>
        </doc>
    </xsl:variable>
    <xsl:template match="para">
      <h1><xsl:value-of select="."/></h1>
    </xsl:template>
    <xsl:template match="xsl:template"/>
</xsl:stylesheet>

When tis file is opened in IE, the wanted result is displayed by the browser:

Hello I am foo

Do note, that it is necessary to include templates that ignore most of the XSLT instructions (in this case we are ignoring any <xsl:template> by simply having no template body.

Embed xsl into an XML file

3 Answers

Hello I am foo