How to show XML links in web page?

Hi I wonder if anyone can help. I have an RSS XML file with 2 items:

Code:

<rss version="2.0"> <channel> <title>Skills for OU Study</title> <link>http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy</link> <language>en-us</language> <description>Helps you develop the study skills you need for your OU course, and get the confidence you need to succeed.</description> <item> <title>Mobile stats tool</title> <link>http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/using-maths-and-statistics.php</link> <description> Get to grips with averages and graph types with the <a href="test.php">mobile</a> stats tool for your mobile phone.</description> <pubDate>Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <author>ss-ldt@open.ac.uk (Learning Design & Technology)</author> <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/using-maths-and-statistics.php</guid> <category>Using maths and statistics</category> </item> <item> <title>Keep to schedule</title> <link>http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/helpful-time-management-tips.php</link> <description>Learn how to keep a grip on time and keep to schedule.</description> <pubDate>Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <author>ss-ldt@open.ac.uk (Learning Design & Technology)</author> <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/helpful-time-management-tips.php</guid> <category>Develop effective study strategies</category> </item> </channel> </rss>

This works fine but I want it to appear in a web page so I used this XSL file

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> <xsl:template match="channel"> <ul><xsl:apply-templates select="item" /></ul> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="item"> <li><xsl:value-of select="description"/></li> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet>

And this code on the home page:

PHP Code:

<?php // Load the XML source $xml = new DOMDocument; $xml->load('rss.xml'); $xsl = new DOMDocument; $xsl->load('rss.xsl'); // Configure the transformer $proc = new XSLTProcessor; $proc->importStyleSheet($xsl); // attach the xsl rules echo $proc->transformToXML($xml); ?>

This works OK and both item descriptions are shown as list items on the home page. However I really want to show links in the description (list items) but when I put them in to the RSS file they are ignored. Is there anyway I can do this?

Thanks
Steven

what did you do to test it, because it should work:

Code:

<xsl:template match="item"> <li> <a href="{link}" alt="{description}" title="{description}"> <xsl:value-of select="description"/> </a> </li> </xsl:template>

Maybe you did not know it, but when you want to fetch the value of a node into an attribute of another, you replace the "<xsl:value-of />" with "{node}"

Thanks for the tip. I didn't want to make the whole description a link, so I made the title a link instead:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> <xsl:template match="channel"> <ul><xsl:apply-templates select="item" /></ul> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="item"> <li> <xsl:apply-templates select="title" /> <br /> <xsl:apply-templates select="description" /> <br /> </li> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="title"> <a> <xsl:attribute name="href"><xsl:value-of select="../link"/></xsl:attribute> <xsl:value-of select="."/> </a> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="description"> <xsl:value-of select="."/> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet>

So, is it working now ?

Yeah - its working well - but what i'd really like to do is just have the first 3 links on the home page and the rest on an archive page - know how to do this?

Steven

rather than using xsl:aply-templates, use an xsl:for, and limit it to the 3 first elements.
For that, you will need to convert your <xsl:template match=""> to <xsl:template name="">

And no need to overuse the <xsl apply-templates>, for something as simple as this

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> <xsl:template match="channel"> <xsl:for-each select="item[position() < 4]"> <xsl:call-template name="item"/> </xsl:for-each> </xsl:template> <xsl:template name="item"> <li> <a> <xsl:attribute name="href"><xsl:value-of select="link"/></xsl:attribute> <xsl:value-of select="title"/> </a> <xsl:value-of select="description"/> </li> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet>

Hi, great idea but I can't get it to work. This is what I have got:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

Code:

<xsl:template match="channel"> <ul> <xsl:for-each select="item[position() < 4]"> <xsl:call-template name="item"/> </xsl:for-each> </ul> </xsl:template> <xsl:template name="item"> <li> <xsl:apply-templates select="title" /> <br /> <xsl:apply-templates select="description" /> <br /> </li> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="title"> <a> <xsl:attribute name="href"><xsl:value-of select="../link"/></xsl:attribute> <xsl:value-of select="."/> </a> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="description"> <xsl:value-of select="."/> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet>

Any ideas?

Ok, my bad, it's what you get when you don't test...
1) The root element of the xml is not <channel>, but <rss>
2) select="item[position() < 4]" is bound to fail, because of "<". the correct syntax is select="channel/item[position() < 4]"

That being changed, I now have:
rss's xml:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0"?> <?xml-stylesheet href="1.xsl" type="text/xsl"?> <rss version="2.0"> <channel> <title>Skills for OU Study</title> <link>http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy</link> <language>en-us</language> <description>Helps you develop the study skills you need for your OU course, and get the confidence you need to succeed.</description> <item> <title>Mobile stats tool</title> <link>http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/using-maths-and-statistics.php</link> <description> Get to grips with averages and graph types with the <a href="test.php">mobile</a> stats tool for your mobile phone.</description> <pubDate>Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <author>ss-ldt@open.ac.uk (Learning Design & Technology)</author> <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/using-maths-and-statistics.php</guid> <category>Using maths and statistics</category> </item> <item> <title>Keep to schedule</title> <link>http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/helpful-time-management-tips.php</link> <description>Learn how to keep a grip on time and keep to schedule.</description> <pubDate>Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <author>ss-ldt@open.ac.uk (Learning Design & Technology)</author> <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/helpful-time-management-tips.php</guid> <category>Develop effective study strategies</category> </item> </channel> </rss>

and as xsl (saved under 1.xsl, in the same directory than the xml):

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> <xsl:template match="/rss"> <xsl:for-each select="channel/item[position() < 4]"> <html><body> <ul> <xsl:call-template name="item"/> </ul> </body></html> </xsl:for-each> </xsl:template> <xsl:template name="item"> <li> <a> <xsl:attribute name="href"><xsl:value-of select="link"/></xsl:attribute> <xsl:value-of select="title"/> </a> <xsl:value-of select="description"/> </li> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet>

and it displays ok in both IE and firefox when I drop the xml file on the browser window.