Transforming XML with XSL using Sablotron - Page 2

by: Justin Grant

October 24, 2000

The basic Sablotron extension module functions available to PHP4 are listed and briefly explained below :

PHP4 Sablotron extension module v0.21 functions

$processor = xslt_create_processor();

Creates and returns an instance of the Sablotron XSLT Processor

xslt_destroy_processor($processor);

Destroys the specified instance of the Sablotron XSLT Processor ($processor)

$strResult = xslt_process($processor,$sheetURI, $inputURI, $resultURI, $arrayParams, $arrayArguments, $bResultString,[[$errorcode],[$errormsg]]);

Using an instance of the processor($processor) this function processes an XML document($inputURI) against an XSL document($sheetURI). A resulting document can be specified ($resultURI) or NULL can be substituted if no output document is required to be written. XSL parameters ($arrayParams) and XSL arguments ($arrayArguments) can be passed if required or NULL must be specified. A boolean ($bResultString) indicates wether or not the result must be returned as a string. Optional error code ($errorcode) and error message ($errormsg) variables can be specified.

$strResult = xslt_process_strings($processor,$strStyleSheet,$strInput,[[$errorcode],[$errormsg]]);

Wraps the xslt_process() function except that the XSL stylesheet and XML document are passed as strings to the processor.

$strResult = xslt_process_files($processor,$StyleSheetfile,$Inputfile,$Outputfile,[[$errorcode],[$errormsg]]);

Wraps the xslt_process() function except that the XSL stylesheet and XML document are passed as file paths to the processor.

$strResult = xslt_process_stringswithbase($processor,$strStyleSheet,$strInput,$strHardBase,
[[$errorcode],[$errormsg]]);

The same as xslt_process_strings() except that the base encoding ($strHardBase) can be specified.

$strErrorMsg = xslt_get_error_msg($processor);

Returns the error message generated by the XSLT Processor ($processor)

$bOK = xslt_openlog($processor,$logfilename,[$loglevel]);

Opens a log file ($logfilename) with the optional parameter for specifiying the log level ($loglevel) to log the progress of the processor ($processor). Returns a boolean ($bOK) indicating if the call was successful.

$bOK = xslt_closelog($processor);

Closes the log file in use by the processor ($processor). Returns a boolean ($bOK) indicating if the call was successful.

This table is provided as a reference so that later the implementation of the example class that wraps these functions can be better understood. You will notice later on that I only use four of these functions in my class, namely xslt_create_processor(), xslt_destroy_processor(), xslt_process_files() and xslt_get_error_msg().

Let's look at a sample XML document that Slashdot publishes on their site and that I will transform using XSLT:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<backslash xmlns:backslash="http://slashdot.org/backslash.dtd">

 <story>
         <title>Free Stripped-Down 3D Studio Max</title>
         <url>http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/07/30/2056209</url>
         <time>2000-07-30 20:54:56</time>
         <author>timothy</author>
         <department>introduce-me-to-some-models-please</department>
         <topic>games</topic>
         <comments>105</comments>
         <section>articles</section>
         <image>topicgames.jpg</image>
 </story>

 <story>
         <title>Preliminary Ethereal User's Guide</title>
         <url>http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/07/30/168207</url>
         <time>2000-07-30 17:06:57</time>
         <author>CmdrTaco</author>
         <department>docs-for-cool-software</department>
         <topic>news</topic>
         <comments>157</comments>
         <section>articles</section>
         <image>topicnews.gif</image>
 </story>

</backslash>

This is quite a self-explanatory XML document. It obviously contains story data that you might find on the Slashdot web site. The <story> element contains child elements (<title>, <url>, <time>, <author>, <department>, <topic>, <comment>, <section> and <image>) that contain data we can format how ever we like using the power of XSL.

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