xslt example for cloning / manipulating XML structure parts / content / namespaces

["David RR Webber \(XML\)" <david@drrw.info>]

In the past I've seen requests for how to handle UBL in plain old XML v1.0 systems that cannot handle namespaces and other nuances of regular UBL.

Other folks may need to extract out just part of a UBL transaction, or refactor an incoming message before relaying it on.

All of this is possible using xslt of course - but a handy example of excluding parts / namespaces and manipulating the structure tree - is hard to come by.

I'm sharing here a utility that can perform various manipulations on xslt.  You can easily add in other re-factoring - such as correcting date formats, removing empty elements, and so on.

It's setup to work with any sample Waybill - such as the one here:
 http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.0/xml/UBL-Waybill-2.0-Example-International.xml

You can experiment by changing the selection XPath in the code below - see comments in-line in the code.  By default is pulls out the Shipment details and strips the namespaces off that content.

Enjoy, DW

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"; 
xmlns:cac="urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:schema:xsd:CommonAggregateComponents-2" 
xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/";
exclude-result-prefixes="cac env" 
version="1.0">

<!-- NOTE: only declare the namespace needed for selection XPath - otherwise the others may be output -->
  
  <xsl:attribute-set name="unitCodes">
      <xsl:attribute name="unitCode"><xsl:value-of select="./@unitCode"/></xsl:attribute>
  </xsl:attribute-set>
  
 <xsl:template match="*">
     <done><!-- this tag is just a place holder in case you need well formed result -->
         <xsl:for-each select="//cac:Shipment/*"><!-- put your selection target here; if you put "/" will get everything -->
        <xsl:call-template name="doIt">
            <xsl:with-param name="this" select="."/>
        </xsl:call-template> 
     </xsl:for-each>
         </done>
 </xsl:template>
    
 <xsl:template name="doIt">
    <xsl:param name="this"/>
     <xsl:element name="{local-name($this/.)}">
         <xsl:if test="count($this/attribute::*) &gt; 0">
             <xsl:call-template name="putAttribs">
                 <xsl:with-param name="attribs" select="$this/attribute::*"/>
             </xsl:call-template>
         </xsl:if>
         <xsl:if test="count($this/descendant::*) = 0">
             <xsl:value-of select="$this/node()"/>
         </xsl:if>
         <xsl:if test="count($this/descendant::*) &gt; 0">
           <xsl:for-each select="$this/child::*">
             <xsl:call-template name="doIt">
               <xsl:with-param name="this" select="."/>
             </xsl:call-template>
           </xsl:for-each>     
         </xsl:if>
     </xsl:element>
 </xsl:template>
 <xsl:template name="putAttribs">
     <xsl:param name="attribs"/>
     <xsl:for-each select="$attribs">
         <xsl:attribute name="{local-name()}"><xsl:value-of select="."/></xsl:attribute>
     </xsl:for-each>
 </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
<!-- Provided "as is"
 License: Creative Commons - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ 
 Author: David RR Webber, February, 2008
-->