Re: Help with assignment question please! - XML / XSL Discussion Boards

I am a student and have been given the following question using XML. I have never used XML before. I have looked through tutorials and they confuse me! I would really appreciate it if any XML experts out there could help me, just to get me on the right track and so I understand what i'm doing. My assignment question is:

You are required to demonstrate your understanding of the XML technologies studied through the production (publishing) of two sets of static html pages using XSL techniques and multiple XML data source(s). Each set of static html pages must:

• provide a default opening page linking to other pages as relevant.
• provide a sample of online trading pages.
• comprise a minimum of four categories/sections, each comprising a minimum of four sub-categories/sub-sections.
• be produced using a suitable XSLT 2.0 compatible engine/utility/IDE.
• be based upon a common xml file denoting the category/sub-category structure called structure.xml.
• be based upon a common xml file denoting the product details called products.xml.
• be produced using an appropriate unique xml style sheet.

You may/should create categories and sub-categories for products of your own choosing. This will form the basis of the navigation through your published pages. Your selection should reflect a single overall theme. Sample product content is therefore left to the student as part of the exercise.

The production of both structure.xml and products.xml may involve the use of products such as MS Wordpad and MS Notepad. It is therefore necessary to provide suitable XML Schema files to ensure that the xml files used in the publishing are both well-formed and valid:

• Schema file for structure.xml provided in structure.xsd
• Schema file for products.xml provided in products.xsd

The implemented XSL stylesheet(s) will make use of multiple output files and multiple XML input sources.

PLEASE HELP ME!

Ross

R0ssini wrote:
I have never used XML before

R0ssini wrote:
demonstrate your understanding of the XML technologies studied

What's wrong with this picture ?

Your post sounds as if you have absolutely no idea how to do this. I'm sure this is not true. Which bits are you stuck on ? Can you create HTML ? Can you create a basic XML document ? I'm assuming that XSLT is at least part of the problem. If you google 'xslt reference' you will find some great links, the third one is a PDF you should download and keep, I still use it from time to time.

Beyond that, you need to explain just how basic a help you need, and if you need to know how to create an XML file, why you've been given this assignment Smile | :)

Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++

Thanks for the reply. Without meaning to sound completely dull, as I have said I have never used XML before. Looking through tutorials, there's examples of creating a web page using XML language, but, for instance, if I copy and paste the code into notepad, I then have no idea how to bring the code up as a web page. I did a small bit of HTML 3 years ago and I know XML is similar, but i've forgotton even the most basic things! So basically, imagine i'm a complete novice who has never used XML before. How do I set up a basic web page using XML language? Any help would be greatly appreciated Smile | :)

If you create a html page, you need to give it a .html extension, instead of .txt. Then, double click on the file, IE will open it.

Basically, creating a web page using XML just means you use XHTML, which in turn essentially means that the HTML needs to be XML. This is HTML, but not XML

one line another line

That is because the tag is never closed. To solve this, do this instead:

one line another line

this is another example:

this text has some bold and some italics

strong and em are the recommended tags, they replace b and i, from memory ( years since I used them ). This is not valid XML as the tags do not line up. To replace this, you'd need to work out a solution where the tags do not next. The following would not look the same, but illustrates the idea:

this text has some bold and some italics

So - all you need to do is create an HTML page that is entirely XML compiliant. An easy way to make sure is to download XML Spy Home Edition, it is a half decent XML editor. It will also help you with writing XSLTs, which are transformations on XML to produce a new document which may or may not be XML.

So, if you've not done XML for years, why are you doing an assignment on XML ?

Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++

Thanks for your help. I will have a go at it now and let you know how i'm doing. I'm taking a course called Computer Studies and there's 6 modules in the course. The course contains a mixture of everything, 1 module is database development, another is web design and so on. The module i'm doing at the moment is advanced internet development and this assignment happens to be on XML. My lecturer is useless and all he's said is to search for tutorials to help.

I have managed to get the XML text displayed in the browser so that's a start, at least i'm making progress! Now I can do that, i'll concentrate on writing some code to help me create a default opening page. I suppose i'll have to look through more tutorials to help me with that! Thanks for your help so far Smile | :)

No worries - sounds like you're on the right track. Ask again if you need help.

Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++

Thank you Christian, really appreciate it Smile | :)

Christian, I have found a good example of a CD catalog I may use to help me. The code is as follows:

-
- <catalog>
- <cd>
<title>Empire Burlesque
<artist>Bob Dylan
<country>USA
<company>Columbia
<price>10.90
<year>1985

- <cd>
<title>Hide your heart
<artist>Bonnie Tyler
<country>UK
<company>CBS Records
<price>9.90
<year>1988

- <cd>
<title>Greatest Hits
<artist>Dolly Parton
<country>USA
<company>RCA
<price>9.90
<year>1982

- <cd>
<title>Still got the blues
<artist>Gary Moore
<country>UK
<company>Virgin records
<price>10.20
<year>1990

- <cd>
<title>Eros
<artist>Eros Ramazzotti
<country>EU
<company>BMG
<price>9.90
<year>1997

- <cd>
<title>One night only
<artist>Bee Gees
<country>UK
<company>Polydor
<price>10.90
<year>1998

- <cd>
<title>Sylvias Mother
<artist>Dr.Hook
<country>UK
<company>CBS
<price>8.10
<year>1973

- <cd>
<title>Maggie May
<artist>Rod Stewart
<country>UK
<company>Pickwick
<price>8.50
<year>1990

- <cd>
<title>Romanza
<artist>Andrea Bocelli
<country>EU
<company>Polydor
<price>10.80
<year>1996

- <cd>
<title>When a man loves a woman
<artist>Percy Sledge
<country>USA
<company>Atlantic
<price>8.70
<year>1987

- <cd>
<title>Black angel
<artist>Savage Rose
<country>EU
<company>Mega
<price>10.90
<year>1995

- <cd>
<title>1999 Grammy Nominees
<artist>Many
<country>USA
<company>Grammy
<price>10.20
<year>1999

- <cd>
<title>For the good times
<artist>Kenny Rogers
<country>UK
<company>Mucik Master
<price>8.70
<year>1995

- <cd>
<title>Big Willie style
<artist>Will Smith
<country>USA
<company>Columbia
<price>9.90
<year>1997

- <cd>
<title>Tupelo Honey
<artist>Van Morrison
<country>UK
<company>Polydor
<price>8.20
<year>1971

- <cd>
<title>Soulsville
<artist>Jorn Hoel
<country>Norway
<company>WEA
<price>7.90
<year>1996

- <cd>
<title>The very best of
<artist>Cat Stevens
<country>UK
<company>Island
<price>8.90
<year>1990

- <cd>
<title>Stop
<artist>Sam Brown
<country>UK
<company>A and M
<price>8.90
<year>1988

- <cd>
<title>Bridge of Spies
<artist>T'Pau
<country>UK
<company>Siren
<price>7.90
<year>1987

- <cd>
<title>Private Dancer
<artist>Tina Turner
<country>UK
<company>Capitol
<price>8.90
<year>1983

- <cd>
<title>Midt om natten
<artist>Kim Larsen
<country>EU
<company>Medley
<price>7.80
<year>1983

- <cd>
<title>Pavarotti Gala Concert
<artist>Luciano Pavarotti
<country>UK
<company>DECCA
<price>9.90
<year>1991

- <cd>
<title>The dock of the bay
<artist>Otis Redding
<country>USA
<company>Atlantic
<price>7.90
<year>1987

- <cd>
<title>Picture book
<artist>Simply Red
<country>EU
<company>Elektra
<price>7.20
<year>1985

- <cd>
<title>Red
<artist>The Communards
<country>UK
<company>London
<price>7.80
<year>1987

- <cd>
<title>Unchain my heart
<artist>Joe Cocker
<country>USA
<company>EMI
<price>8.20
<year>1987

However, when I try loading this in IE, shouldn't IE be able to render these XML files? Shouldn't there be red + and - symbols which when clicked expand/collapse the contents? The code is found at the following link: www.w3schools.com/xml/cd_catalog.xml. But when I try copying it into notepad or wordpad the + and - symbols go missing Confused | :confused:

Help please!

Strange, the titles have gone missing. here it is again properly:

-
<catalog>
<cd>
<title>Empire Burlesque
<artist>Bob Dylan
<country>USA
<company>Columbia
<price>10.90
<year>1985

<cd>
<title>Hide your heart
<artist>Bonnie Tyler
<country>UK
<company>CBS Records
<price>9.90
<year>1988

<cd>
<title>Greatest Hits
<artist>Dolly Parton
<country>USA
<company>RCA
<price>9.90
<year>1982

<cd>
<title>Still got the blues
<artist>Gary Moore
<country>UK
<company>Virgin records
<price>10.20
<year>1990

<cd>
<title>Eros
<artist>Eros Ramazzotti
<country>EU
<company>BMG
<price>9.90
<year>1997

<cd>
<title>One night only
<artist>Bee Gees
<country>UK
<company>Polydor
<price>10.90
<year>1998

<cd>
<title>Sylvias Mother
<artist>Dr.Hook
<country>UK
<company>CBS
<price>8.10
<year>1973

<cd>
<title>Maggie May
<artist>Rod Stewart
<country>UK
<company>Pickwick
<price>8.50
<year>1990

<cd>
<title>Romanza
<artist>Andrea Bocelli
<country>EU
<company>Polydor
<price>10.80
<year>1996

<cd>
<title>When a man loves a woman
<artist>Percy Sledge
<country>USA
<company>Atlantic
<price>8.70
<year>1987

<cd>
<title>Black angel
<artist>Savage Rose
<country>EU
<company>Mega
<price>10.90
<year>1995

<cd>
<title>1999 Grammy Nominees
<artist>Many
<country>USA
<company>Grammy
<price>10.20
<year>1999

<cd>
<title>For the good times
<artist>Kenny Rogers
<country>UK
<company>Mucik Master
<price>8.70
<year>1995

<cd>
<title>Big Willie style
<artist>Will Smith
<country>USA
<company>Columbia
<price>9.90
<year>1997

<cd>
<title>Tupelo Honey
<artist>Van Morrison
<country>UK
<company>Polydor
<price>8.20
<year>1971

<cd>
<title>Soulsville
<artist>Jorn Hoel
<country>Norway
<company>WEA
<price>7.90
<year>1996

<cd>
<title>The very best of
<artist>Cat Stevens
<country>UK
<company>Island
<price>8.90
<year>1990

<cd>
<title>Stop
<artist>Sam Brown
<country>UK
<company>A and M
<price>8.90
<year>1988

<cd>
<title>Bridge of Spies
<artist>T'Pau
<country>UK
<company>Siren
<price>7.90
<year>1987

<cd>
<title>Private Dancer
<artist>Tina Turner
<country>UK
<company>Capitol
<price>8.90
<year>1983

<cd>
<title>Midt om natten
<artist>Kim Larsen
<country>EU
<company>Medley
<price>7.80
<year>1983

<cd>
<title>Pavarotti Gala Concert
<artist>Luciano Pavarotti
<country>UK
<company>DECCA
<price>9.90
<year>1991

<cd>
<title>The dock of the bay
<artist>Otis Redding
<country>USA
<company>Atlantic
<price>7.90
<year>1987

<cd>
<title>Picture book
<artist>Simply Red
<country>EU
<company>Elektra
<price>7.20
<year>1985

<cd>
<title>Red
<artist>The Communards
<country>UK
<company>London
<price>7.80
<year>1987

<cd>
<title>Unchain my heart
<artist>Joe Cocker
<country>USA
<company>EMI
<price>8.20
<year>1987

For some reason the <cd> titles etc aren't copying. If you could just type http://www.w3schools.com/xml/cd_catalog.xml into your browser you will see what code I am on about. I copy it into notepad, save it as a .html file, but when I try opening it up in IE, the XML files aren't rendered, there's no red + and - symbols like there should be?

Hi R0ssini,

Read the following article to get a good hand on your xml basics. This handbook is meant for novice xml programmers.

I am sure this will help you clear the basics to some extent. If you have any further queries, do email us. We shall get back to you with solution.

regards,
Itech

Itech Consulting
www.itechconsulting.co.in

Hi R0ssini,

Forgot to post you the link in our earlier mail. Its -

www.codeproject.com/useritems/XML_Basics.asp

regards,
Itech Consulting

Itech Consulting
www.itechconsulting.co.in

I have studied my own way to an advanced degree in computer science and taught a number of programming courses along the way. I would love to help...

Go to class on the days that it is taught, engage your professor during office hours and ask for assitance from him. Study the lecture material and ask for clarifications in class. Do your homework when it is assigned to the best of your ability. Don't take classes you have no business taking and hope you can beg your way to a good grade on the Internet.

CodeProject is not a site to come to to get professionals to do your school work for you.

There is a part of the assignment that you may want to reread: "YOU are required to demonstrate YOUR understanding." I'd do this for you, but I already passed all my classes.

-- modified at 20:59 Thursday 12th January, 2006

What's the point of this messageboard existing if you can't ask for help? Don't you have a go at me, I attend all the lectures and have read all the notes, looked at websites and have even taken a book from the library but i'm still struggling. Luckily a helpful guy above has assisted me and now i'm alright. If you're not posting to help me out, don't bother posting to me at all!

Hi Friends,
I am developing a web application using C#.net and using xml as a database.
I am using xml Schema for all my xml files.
NO I want to export data from those xml files to excel sheet to create reports.
For that I create xml stylesheets means .xslt files.
and Using XsltTransform I am exporting data from xml files to excel sheets.

Now the problem is if my xml files r bound with schemas this idea is not working.
I have to remove schema attribute from the root node of the xml file. and if I am doing this then there is no mean to using schema.
Is there any way to use xslt file with the xml file which is bound with xml schema?

If any one of u have any idea regarding this, plz let me know.

Thank u all in advance.

Chetan Ranpariya.

How can I do this? I simply want to add the "im" field (which is in the XML file) at the end of the path of the new Bitmap line of code, so that the correct jpg is shown. I've created filestreams and everything works fine for the the text fields. The images are located in the "Program Files\SmartDeviceApplication1" directory, as is the XML file. If I type in the actual name of an image, it works, but of course the image is shown for every entry. (So I know the directory path is correct) Right now I'm getting "cannot convert string to System.Drawing.Image"

In the simplest sense, I want to do this:
\\Program Files\\SmartDeviceApplication1\\<im>
so that it reads:
\\Program Files\\SmartDeviceApplication1\\kopf_ap.jpg

Any help is appreciated! Martina

Snippet XML file:

<im>>kopf_ap.jpg</im>

Snippet Code (C#)

<br />
<br />
picbox.DataBindings.Add("Image",dt,"im");<br />
<br />
Bitmap bmp= new Bitmap("\\Program Files\\SmartDeviceApplication1\\");<br />
<br />
this.picbox.Image = bmp +"im";

Maybe you need to do this?

picbox.DataBindings.Add("Image",dt,"im");
Bitmap bmp= new Bitmap("\\Program Files\\SmartDeviceApplication1\\" + im);
this.picbox.Image = bmp;

Thank you, I had tried that, but it didn't seem to work.

I ended up doing this:

string root = "\\Program Files\\SmartDeviceApplication1\\";<br />
DataRowView drv = (DataRowView)ca_id.SelectedItem;<br />
<br />
ca_bildurl.Image = new Bitmap(System.IO.Path.Combine(root,drv.Row["im"].ToString()));

I now have another problem - the SelectedItem doesn't seem to work, but at least the first image is being shown. Laugh | :laugh:

Thanks for your reply, though!

Hai,

I have grouped the paragraph styles of same type using the following method.

<xsl:template match="w:p" mode="insideBulletList">

<li><xsl:apply-templates /></li>


<xsl:apply-templates
select="following-sibling::*[1][self::w:p/w:pPr/w:pStyle[@w:val='BulletList']]"
mode="insideBulletList" />

</xsl:template>

My Wordml contains the following paragraph styles

w:p[w:pPr/w:pStyle[@w:val="para1"]
w:p[w:pPr/w:pStyle[@w:val="para2"]
w:p[w:pPr/w:pStyle[@w:val="para3"]

I want to group the above 3 different styles under one parent node like

<newnode>
<para1>38293</para1>
<para2>sdjfkj</para2>
<para3>eiruwio</para3>
</newnode>
I brought the above output using <xsl:for-each select="*" group-starting-with=""> method. But I want the above output using <xsl:template match> method so that it will maintain the position.

anybody help me!!!!!!!!!

Input XML:
---------
<artbody>
<section id="s1">
<heading1 level="1">INTRODUCTION</heading1>
<para>xxx xxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</para>

<subsect id="s1-1">
<heading2 level="2">Linkends</heading2>
<para>This paragraph contains fixed figure <fx1>, <fx2>, <fx3>.</para>
<para>This paragraph contains linkend type for Bibliography (numbered) (type=bib): [<link type="bib" linkend="">3</link>], [<link type="bib" linkend="">4, 7</link>], [<link type="bib" linkend="">7–12</link>], [<link type="bib" linkend="">14-18</link>], [<link type="bib" linkend="">3, 5, 7–12</link>] and [<link type="bib" linkend="">6, 8, 15-17</link>].</para></subsect1>

<subsect1 id="s1-5-1">
<heading3 level="3">Question and Answer</heading3>
<quest>What's you name?</quest>
<answer>Pradeep</answer>
<quest>How old are you?</quest>
<answer>62</answer>
<quest>So, what are you doing now?</quest>
<answer>Just chatting with an idiot</answer> </subsect>
</subsect>

<subsect1 id="s1-5-1">
<heading3 level="3">poem</heading3>
<stanza>What's you name?</stanza>
<stanza>Pradeep</stanza>
</subsect>

<para>xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</para>
<para>xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</para>
</section>
</artbody>

Style Sheet:
-----------

<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:w="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2003/wordml"
xmlns:aml="http://schemas.microsoft.com/aml/2001/core"
xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml"
xmlns:wx="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2003/auxHint"
xmlns Blush | :O

="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
exclude-result-prefixes="aml w wx o v">

<xsl:output method="xml"
indent="yes"
omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>

<xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>
<xsl:template match="*">
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="artbody">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:for-each-group select="child::node()" group-adjacent="self::quest or self::answer">
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="current-grouping-key()">
 <quanta>
<xsl:apply-templates select="current-group()"/>

</quanta>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:apply-templates select="current-group()"/>
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:for-each-group>
</xsl:copy>

</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Questions:
---------

1. I would like to group 'quest' & 'answer' under 'qanda'
2. I would like to group 'stanza' under 'poem'

I want to read each element dynamically and should group the orphan nodes such as quest & stanza under another parent element. But, with your suggestion, I could group one at a time. I couldn't do it in a loop. When I tried, I am getting duplicate of orphan nodes and all the attribute values are discarded.

If you could help us to design a xslt that groups "quest & answer" and "stanza" dynamically and retains all other elements untouched.

I sincerely appreciate your help in this regard. Confused | :confused:

Thanks & Regards,
-Rocxy

Sorry, very stupid question, but.... how do I specify paths in XML?

In other words, I want to specify a "root directory" for image files.

Thanks!

Could you use something like the base tag in XHTML?

Hi Friends,
In my application I am using XML as database and my application is web based applicaton.
I want the user to be able to export data in xml file to a excel sheet.
I tried with various codes and samples but no one worked.
If any one have some thing ragarding this problem plz let me know.

Thank u all in advance.

Chetan Ranpariya.

I have the following XML
-----------------------------------
<fname>aaaaa</fname>
<surname>xxxx</surname>
<fname>bbbbb</fname>
<surname>yyyyy</surname>
<fname>ccccc</fname>
<surname>zzzzz</surname>
-----------------------------------
I want the following output
-----------------------------------
<authorgrp>
<author>
<fname>aaaaa</fname>
<surname>xxxx</surname>
</author>
<author>
<fname>bbbbb</fname>
<surname>yyyyy</surname>
</author>
<author>
<fname>bbbbb</fname>
<surname>yyyyy</surname>
</author>
</authorgrp>
------------------------------
Anyone can help??????????????????
-- modified at 1:59 Thursday 29th December, 2005

Try this...

<xsl:template match="/">
    <authorgrp>
    <xsl:for-each select="fname">
        <author>
            <fname><xsl:value-of select="."/></fname>
            <surname><xsl:value-of select="../surname[position()]"/></surname>
        </author>
    </xsl:for-each>
    </authorgrp>
</xsl:template>

I haven't tested it, but it should get you close.

Michael Flanakin
Web Log

-- modified at 9:55 Thursday 29th December, 2005