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Re: XSLT and URI processing

• To: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>
• Subject: Re: XSLT and URI processing
• From: Uche Ogbuji <uche.ogbuji@f...>
• Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 15:58:22 -0600
• Cc: xml-dev@l...
• In-reply-to: Message from "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...> of "Thu, 18 Jul 2002 15:22:13 EDT." <r01050300-1015-AA4A318C9A8311D681C10003937A08C2@[192.168.124.21]>
• Sender: uche.ogbuji@f...

> However, XSLT and XPath appear to lack anything like an "absolutize"
> function.  I don't see any clear path forward for this in the context of
> XSLT 1.0 and XPath 1.0, nor do my preliminary explorations of the 2.0
> versions offer me much more hope on this issue.
> 
> Overall, I'm looking for a function that:
>   takes a URI as an argument
>   IF the URI is absolute, it returns the same URI
>   IF the URI is relative, it absolutizes it, based on:
>     a) xml:base if available or
>     b) the base URI of the document (or external entity) itself or
>     c) a provided base URI
>   
> (b) would be for archiving information more or less in-place, while (c)
> would be for archiving the information at a different location. (a), (b)
> and (c) might well be represented as separate functions.
> 
> EXSLT doesn't (yet) have such a function, though I understand that a
> pair of extension functions can make this work in 4XSLT.  Given the
> status of XML Base as a W3C Recommendation, I have to admit that this
> feels like a surprising omission from at least the latest of these
> specs.

Yes, 4XSLT has a f:resolve-url extension and a f:base-uri extension.  The 
combination of the two as so:

f:resolve-url($uri-in-question, f:base-uri(.))

Would meet Simon's need, using the current context node to supply the base 
URI.  Note: f:resolve-url resolves but does not retrieve.

I think both separate functions are useful enough that merging them doesn't 
make sense.

I certainly agree with Simon that this is something that should be added to 
the XPath core library or to EXSLT.  I think that if we had it in XPath, it 
would help remove the disgusting hack of two-argument document().


-- 
Uche Ogbuji                                    Fourthought, Inc.
http://uche.ogbuji.net    http://4Suite.org    http://fourthought.com
Track chair, XML/Web Services One Boston: http://www.xmlconference.com/
The many heads of XML modeling - http://adtmag.com/article.asp?id=6393
Will XML live up to its promise? - http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/li
brary/x-think11.html

• References:
  • XSLT and URI processing
    • From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>

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