Re: Embedding javascript code into the XSL

From: Greg Faron <gfaron@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re:  Embedding javascript code into the XSL
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 09:58:37 -0600

At 09:38 AM 4/30/2002, you wrote:

yes it is possible to embed javascript
simplest example using alert is as follows

<xsl:text disable-output-escaping="yes">
<![CDATA[
<script>
alert("hello")
</script>
]]>
</xsl:text>

This is not embedding JavaScript, just outputting text that will be interpreted as JavaScript by a browser after the XSL transformation. If you want to be able to use JavaScript DURING the transformation, you'll need to create an extension function. See the many examples at www.exslt.org. You'll also need (I think) to use the MSXSL XSLT engine. As a heads-up, I've noticed that these JavaScript functions cannot have side-effects (no global variables and no alerts, confirms, or prompts to name a few). Any functions that you write in this manner should depend wholly on the given input, do its thing, and return a result. A function that does not return anything is pretty much pointless in this regard.

Greg Faron
Integre Technical Publishing Co.

XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list