Re: Using xsl:apply-templates with xsl:with-param

| How is xsl:with-param supposed to work from within an xsl:apply-templates
| element?  The recommendation doesn't seem to actually spell it out, other
| that saying it is allowed.  Consider the following:

I think what's happening here is that your:

    <xsl:template match="/">
        <root>
            <xsl:apply-templates>
                <xsl:with-param name="param">List</xsl:with-param>
            </xsl:apply-templates>
        </root>
    </xsl:template>

tells the XSLT processor to "apply templates" to all children
of the current node (in this case, the root "/"), passing
a parameter.

In your source document, the first child of the root
is the <doc> document element, which you don't have
a specific template to handle. So, this is getting
processed by the built-in template that matches child
elements. It's *this* template that gets the parameter
passed to it, but does nothing with it.

As an education example, try adding the template:

    <xsl:template match="doc">
      <xsl:param name="param">Unset</xsl:param>
      <doc param="{$param}">
        <xsl:apply-templates/>
      </doc>
    </xsl:template>

To you stylesheet, and you'll see that the resulting document
comes out as:

<root>
   <doc param="List">
      <chap title="The beginning" cat="Unset"/>
   </doc>
</root>

showing that the parameter *does* get successfully passed to
the "doc" template, but not recursively on down to the "chapter"
template. You could do one of two things, either change
your initial:

            <xsl:apply-templates>
                <xsl:with-param name="param">List</xsl:with-param>
            </xsl:apply-templates>

To specifically select chapters...

            <xsl:apply-templates select="doc/chapter">
                <xsl:with-param name="param">List</xsl:with-param>
            </xsl:apply-templates>

or, add the "doc" template above that passes the parameter "on down"
the line to the chapter template like this:

    <xsl:template match="doc">
      <xsl:param name="param">Unset</xsl:param>
       <xsl:apply-templates>
         <xsl:with-param name="param" select="$param"/>
       </xsl:apply-templates>
    </xsl:template>

______________________________________________________________
Steve Muench, Lead XML Evangelist & Consulting Product Manager
Business Components for Java & XSQL Servlet Development Teams
Oracle Rep to the W3C XSL Working Group



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