Re: How do you get Attributes in Processing Instructi

Hi Lori,

> I have the following processing instructions throughout my xml file:
> <?FRAME LABEL='Introduction to IADS' SHOWNO='N'?>
>
> I need to be able to get the value of the LABEL attribute
> (Introduction to IADS). I am using IE 6.0. I can match the
> processing instruction, but I can't seem to get the individual
> attribute values. I have tried <xsl:value-of select="@label"/>, but
> this doesn't seem to work.

The "attributes" in processing instructions aren't actually attributes
-- they just look like them. Noramally people refer to these kinds of
"attributes" as "pseudo-attributes" to emphasise that fact. As far as
the XPath data model is concerned, the only information you can get
about a processing instruction is its target (or name -- 'FRAME' in
this case), its value ("LABEL='Introduction to IADS' SHOWNO='N'") and
its location in the node tree.

Pulling the pseudo-attributes out of the processing instruction, then,
involves the same kind of code as you'd use to parse any structured
string. To get the value of the LABEL pseudo-attribute, for example,
you could use:

<xsl:template match="pi('FRAME')">
  <A name='{substring-before(
              substring-after(., "LABEL=&apos;"), "&apos;")}">
    <xsl:value-of select="." />
  </A>
</xsl:template>

(This assumes that you're using apostrophes rather than double-quotes
around the values of the pseudo-attribute.)

Cheers,

Jeni

---
Jeni Tennison
http://www.jenitennison.com/


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