Fro on Using ColdFusion to transform XML with XSLT
Fro's post link: here
Working with XSLT to transform XML documents for a new project.
For this example I'll use the RSS 2.0 format. First we have to create the XML that we're going to transform. You could read in an XML file using any normal method (cffile, cfhttp, etc.). I'll just create my own using cfxml. I used the RSS 2.0 example from Wikipedia.
<cfxml variable="myRSS">
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Liftoff News</title>
<link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/</link>
<description>Liftoff to Space Exploration.</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jun 2003 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<lastBuildDate>Tue, 10 Jun 2003 09:41:01 GMT</lastBuildDate>
<docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
<generator>Weblog Editor 2.0</generator>
<managingEditor>editor@example.com</managingEditor>
<webMaster>webmaster@example.com</webMaster>
<item>
<title>Star City</title>
<link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-starcity.asp</link>
<description>How do Americans get ready to work with Russians aboard the International Space Station? They take a crash course in culture, language and protocol at Russia's Star City.</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 03 Jun 2003 09:39:21 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/06/03.html#item573<;/guid>
</item>
<item>
<title>Space Exploration</title>
<link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/</link>
<description>Sky watchers in Europe, Asia, and parts of Alaska and Canada will experience a partial eclipse of the Sun on Saturday, May 31st.</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2003 11:06:42 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/30.html#item572<;/guid>
</item>
<item>
<title>The Engine That Does More</title>
<link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-VASIMR.asp</link>
<description>Before man travels to Mars, NASA hopes to design new engines that will let us fly through the Solar System more quickly. The proposed VASIMR engine would do that.</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 27 May 2003 08:37:32 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/27.html#item571<;/guid>
</item>
<item>
<title>Astronauts' Dirty Laundry</title>
<link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-laundry.asp</link>
<description>Compared to earlier spacecraft, the International Space Station has many luxuries, but laundry facilities are not one of them. Instead, astronauts have other options.</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 20 May 2003 08:56:02 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/20.html#item570<;/guid>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
</cfxml>
Next we have to create the XSTL that will be used to transform the RSS feed. I used the XSLT reference guide from zvon.org as my main reference while putting together this XSTL. Check it out if you need help with XSLT. Like the XML above, you could read in the XSLT many different ways. I'll just create it via cfsavecontent. If you're running 7.0+ you can use cfxml. For some reason, it didn't work in 6.0. <rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Liftoff News</title>
<link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/</link>
<description>Liftoff to Space Exploration.</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jun 2003 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<lastBuildDate>Tue, 10 Jun 2003 09:41:01 GMT</lastBuildDate>
<docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
<generator>Weblog Editor 2.0</generator>
<managingEditor>editor@example.com</managingEditor>
<webMaster>webmaster@example.com</webMaster>
<item>
<title>Star City</title>
<link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-starcity.asp</link>
<description>How do Americans get ready to work with Russians aboard the International Space Station? They take a crash course in culture, language and protocol at Russia's Star City.</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 03 Jun 2003 09:39:21 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/06/03.html#item573<;/guid>
</item>
<item>
<title>Space Exploration</title>
<link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/</link>
<description>Sky watchers in Europe, Asia, and parts of Alaska and Canada will experience a partial eclipse of the Sun on Saturday, May 31st.</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2003 11:06:42 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/30.html#item572<;/guid>
</item>
<item>
<title>The Engine That Does More</title>
<link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-VASIMR.asp</link>
<description>Before man travels to Mars, NASA hopes to design new engines that will let us fly through the Solar System more quickly. The proposed VASIMR engine would do that.</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 27 May 2003 08:37:32 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/27.html#item571<;/guid>
</item>
<item>
<title>Astronauts' Dirty Laundry</title>
<link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-laundry.asp</link>
<description>Compared to earlier spacecraft, the International Space Station has many luxuries, but laundry facilities are not one of them. Instead, astronauts have other options.</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 20 May 2003 08:56:02 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/20.html#item570<;/guid>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
</cfxml>
<cfsavecontent variable="myXSL">
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="xhtml" indent="yes" omit-xml-declaration="yes" />
<xsl:template match="/rss/channel">
<xsl:element name="h1">
<xsl:element name="a">
<xsl:attribute name="href"><xsl:value-of select="link" /></xsl:attribute>
<xsl:value-of select="title" />
</xsl:element>
</xsl:element>
<xsl:for-each select="item">
<xsl:element name="h2">
<xsl:element name="a">
<xsl:attribute name="href"><xsl:value-of select="link" /></xsl:attribute>
<xsl:value-of select="title" />
</xsl:element>
</xsl:element>
<xsl:element name="p">
<xsl:value-of select="description" />
</xsl:element>
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
</cfsavecontent>
So we have the XML (RSS) and our XSLT. All we have to do now is use ColdFusion's XMLTransform() function and output our results. <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="xhtml" indent="yes" omit-xml-declaration="yes" />
<xsl:template match="/rss/channel">
<xsl:element name="h1">
<xsl:element name="a">
<xsl:attribute name="href"><xsl:value-of select="link" /></xsl:attribute>
<xsl:value-of select="title" />
</xsl:element>
</xsl:element>
<xsl:for-each select="item">
<xsl:element name="h2">
<xsl:element name="a">
<xsl:attribute name="href"><xsl:value-of select="link" /></xsl:attribute>
<xsl:value-of select="title" />
</xsl:element>
</xsl:element>
<xsl:element name="p">
<xsl:value-of select="description" />
</xsl:element>
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
</cfsavecontent>
<cfset myOutput = xmlTransform(myRSS, myXSL) />
<cfoutput>#myOutput#</cfoutput>
That's really all there is to it. Pretty easy, right. This is just a basic example. Just imagine what else you could do with it. <cfoutput>#myOutput#</cfoutput>
I want to end this by saying that you don't need CF to use XSL transformations. You can use XSL stylesheets directly in your XML documents. Check out some of these resources.
http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_xsl.asp
http://www.xmlfiles.com/xsl/
http://www.w3.org/Style/XSL/
Comments
Comments are not allowed for this entry.
