[xslt] xsl:element namespace query

["Richard Jinks" <cyberthymia yahoo co uk>]

Hi

Whilst playing with my XSLT test files, I came across another odd example
which falls into one of the fuzzy "implementation specific" parts of the
XSLT spec. The following example concerns the way libxslt outputs namespaces
with <xsl:element ... namespace="..."/>.

--
Stylesheet - "54-namespaces.xsl"
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl='http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform'
version="1.0">
<xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>

<xsl:template match="/">
  <AAA>
    <xsl:element name="BBB"
namespace="http://zvon.org/xslt";>111</xsl:element>
    <xsl:element name="{//el}" namespace="{//ns}">
      <xsl:value-of select="//val"/>
    </xsl:element>
    <xsl:element name="qqq:{//el}" namespace="{//ns}">
      <xsl:value-of select="//val"/>
    </xsl:element>
  </AAA>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

--
XML File - "54-namespaces.xml"
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<AAA author="nicmila@idoox.com">
     <ns>http://zvon.org/xslt</ns>
     <el>XXX</el>
     <attr>ww:eee</attr>
     <val>555</val>
</AAA>

--
xsltproc results:
C:\libxml\libxslt-1.0.17.win32\util> xsltproc 54-namespaces.xsl
54-namespaces.xml
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<AAA xmlns:ns1="http://zvon.org/xslt";>
  <ns1:BBB>111</ns1:BBB>
  <ns1:XXX>555</ns1:XXX>
  <ns1:XXX>555</ns1:XXX>
</AAA>

--
Saxon 6.5.1 results
C:\libxml\libxslt-1.0.17.win32\util>saxon 54-namespaces.xml
54-namespaces.xsl
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<AAA>
   <BBB xmlns="http://zvon.org/xslt";>111</BBB>
   <XXX xmlns="http://zvon.org/xslt";>555</XXX>
   <qqq:XXX xmlns:qqq="http://zvon.org/xslt";>555</qqq:XXX>
</AAA>

--
MSXSL4 results
C:\libxml\libxslt-1.0.17.win32\util>msxsl 54-namespaces.xml
54-namespaces.xsl
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?>
<AAA>
<BBB xmlns="http://zvon.org/xslt";>111</BBB>
<XXX xmlns="http://zvon.org/xslt";>555</XXX>
<qqq:XXX xmlns:qqq="http://zvon.org/xslt";>555</qqq:XXX>
</AAA>


My query stems from not expecting libxslt to be this clever and merge the
namespaces together into one namespace declaration on the parent AAA
element. I was expecting the more literal "simple" output (as with Saxon and
MSXSL) with the namespace declaration sat on the elements they were declared
with in the stylesheet.

Now I know that what libxslt outputs isn't wrong in that the children
elements of AAA are in the correct namespace, and it is still working inside
the XSLT spec - it just isn't what I'd expected. I'm a touch concerned that
it is losing some information by overriding the prefix "qqq:" specified for
the third element, but as the XSLT spec says that the XSLT processor is
allowed to do this, I don't have much cause to complain.

Is there an easy way of making libxslt handle outputting namespace nodes in
the same manner as the other processors, or would I need to modify lots of
code to make it work?

On a related node, if I did have to modify the code would you be interested
in reflecting the change back into libxslt, or are you happy with the way it
works / have a reason for preferring things as they are?

Thanks,
Richard


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