How to show XML links in web page?

[Steve100]

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

<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 &amp; 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 &amp; 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

<?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 
// 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

[tripy]

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

<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}"

[Steve100]

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

<?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>

[tripy]

So, is it working now ?

[Steve100]

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

[tripy]

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

<?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>

[Steve100]

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"
xmlnssl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

<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?

[tripy]

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() &lt; 4]"

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

<?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 &amp; 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 &amp; 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):

<?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() &lt; 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.