If you have a default namespace in your source XML and in the XSLT transformation you need to do, you want to add only one element to this namespace, how would you do all this?
Do you declare a namespace the same as the default namespace in XSLT? Or do you use a prefix in XSLT and inside XSLT you put all the elements in this namespace?
I created 5 options, of which one of the options is wrong, and all the other 4 give me the correct result, but I just wanted to know which way should go better or even if there is a better way?
I use the following XML as input for all examples:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <data xmlns="http://example.org/uri/"> <element attr="test"> <one>This is an example</one> <two>Pretty nice</two> </element> </data>
Option 1, 2, and 3
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <xsl:stylesheet version="2.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:pref="http://example.org/uri/" exclude-result-prefixes="pref"> <xsl:output method="xml" version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" indent="yes"/> <xsl:template match="@*|node()"> <xsl:copy> <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()" /> </xsl:copy> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="pref:element"> <xsl:copy> <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()" /> </xsl:copy> <added>Option 1</added> <xsl:element name="added" namespace="http://example.org/uri/">Option 2</xsl:element> <added xmlns="http://example.org/uri/">Option 3</added> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet>
What will produce:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <data xmlns="http://example.org/uri/"> <element attr="test"> <one>This is an example</one> <two>Pretty nice</two> </element> <added xmlns="">Option 1</added> <added>Option 2</added> <added>Option 3</added> </data>
The correct output will not be generated from the above option 1, because the default namespace is not declared anywhere. Options 2 and 3 will produce the correct output, but if I added a few elements, XSLT does not look beautiful because I need to add a namespace for all elements.
Looking above, you will say: I will add a default namespace in XSLT, as in version 4.
Option 4
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <xsl:stylesheet version="2.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns="http://example.org/uri/" xmlns:pref="http://example.org/uri/" exclude-result-prefixes="pref"> <xsl:output method="xml" version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" indent="yes"/> <xsl:template match="@*|node()"> <xsl:copy> <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()" /> </xsl:copy> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="pref:element"> <xsl:copy> <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()" /> </xsl:copy> <added>Option 4</added> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet>
This will give:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <data xmlns="http://example.org/uri/"> <element attr="test"> <one>This is an example</one> <two>Pretty nice</two> </element> <added>Option 4</added> </data>
XSLT looks better because I don’t need to declare a namespace for every element added to XML. I don’t know why this is why I should or should not do it like that? Maybe I ran into problems when the input XML could have 2 different default namespaces? Therefore, sometimes we get it with the namespace xmlns="http://example.org/uri/" and sometimes in the namespace xmlns="http://example.org/uriSecond/" .
Option 5
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <xsl:stylesheet version="2.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:pref="http://example.org/uri/" exclude-result-prefixes="pref"> <xsl:output method="xml" version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" indent="yes"/> <xsl:template match="@*|node()"> <xsl:copy> <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()" /> </xsl:copy> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="pref:*"> <xsl:element name="pref:{local-name()}"> <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()" /> </xsl:element> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="pref:element"> <xsl:element name="pref:{local-name()}"> <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()" /> </xsl:element> <pref:added>Option 5</pref:added> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet>
Will produce:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <pref:data xmlns:pref="http://example.org/uri/"> <pref:element attr="test"> <pref:one>This is an example</pref:one> <pref:two>Pretty nice</pref:two> </pref:element><pref:added>Option 5</pref:added> </pref:data>
Also the correct result, and all elements are copied to the prefix namespace. XSLT also does not declare a default namespace. If I now got the second input with a different default namespace, I could also declare this and copy all the pref: templates with this prefix.
So, I am really looking for the best solution so as not to run into any problems later. Or all working solutions are suitable, but depending on the question, choose your path?