xsl:apply-templates

Selects source nodes for processing.

Format

<xsl:apply-templates [select="pattern"][mode="qname"]> 
  [<xsl:sort/>] 
  [<xsl:with-param/> 
</xsl:apply-templates> 

Description

If you specify the select attribute, specify a pattern that resolves to a set of source nodes. For each source node in this set, the XSLT processor searches for a template that matches the node. When it finds a matching template, it instantiates it and uses the node as the context node. For example:

<xsl:apply-templates select="/bookstore/book"> 

When the XSLT processor executes this instruction, it constructs a list of all nodes that match the pattern in the select attribute. For each node in the list, the XSLT processor searches for the template whose match pattern best matches that node.

If you do not specify the select attribute, the XSLT processor uses the default pattern, "node()", which selects all child nodes of the current node.

If you specify the mode attribute, the selected nodes are matched only by templates with a matching mode attribute. The value of mode must be a qualified name or an asterisk (*). If you specify an asterisk, it means continue the current mode, if any, of the current template.

If you do not specify a mode attribute, the selected nodes are matched only by templates that do not specify a mode attribute.

By default, the new list of source nodes is processed in document order. However, you can use the xsl:sort instruction to specify that the selected nodes are to be processed in a different order. See xsl:sort.

Example

In the previous example, the XSLT processor searches for a template that matches /bookstore/book. The following template is a match:

<xsl:template match="book"> 
  <tr> 
   <td><xsl:value-of select="title"/></td> 
   <td><xsl:value-of select="author"/><td> 
   <td><xsl:value-of select="price"/><td> 
  </tr> 
</xsl:template> 

The XSLT processor instantiates this template for each book element.

 
Free Stylus Studio XML Training:
W3C Member