MSBuild 4 XslTransformation Task - how to pass parameter

Question

Just getting some stuff ported to MSBuild4 and needing to pass xsl:param to a stylesheet. I see that the Parameters attribute is a string but not sure how to use it? I have two parameters.

Answer 1

Hi Kelly,

 

Thanks for your post.

As far as I know, both xsl:variable and xsl:param are allowed as top-level elements. A top-level variable-binding element declares a global variable that is visible everywhere. A top-level xsl:param element declares a parameter to the stylesheet; XSLT does not define the mechanism by which parameters are passed to the stylesheet. It is an error if a stylesheet contains more than one binding of a top-level variable with the same name and same import precedence. 

For more information, please check:

http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt

And here is an example from MSDN Library:

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="paramelem.xsl"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
      xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
      xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">

<xsl:template match="ol/li">
   <br/>
   <xsl:call-template name="numbered-block"/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="ol//ol/li">
   <br/>&#xA0;&#xA0;&#xA0;
   <xsl:call-template name="numbered-block">
      <xsl:with-param name="format">a. </xsl:with-param>
   </xsl:call-template>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template name="numbered-block">
   <xsl:param name="format">1. </xsl:param>
   <fo:block>
      <xsl:number format="{$format}"/>
      <xsl:apply-templates/>
   </fo:block>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

 

Best Regards,

Ziwei Chen

MSDN Subscriber Support in Forum
If you have any feedback on our support, please contact msdnmg @ microsoft.com

Answer 2

Thanks for your reply Ziwei. My question was actually how to pass a parameter to an xslt transformation. I just found the solution. Given a parameter (xsl:param) named 'rootPath' in my stylesheet:

        <XslTransformation XslInputPath="preprocessAndFilter.xslt" XmlInputPaths="$(ChangesFileName)" OutputPaths="out_preprocessAndFilter.xml" Parameters="&lt;Parameter Name='rootPath' Value='$(RootPath)'/&gt;"/>

I found a tool called Reflector that could reflect on the msbuild tasks dll and saw that the code takes the string value in that attribute and concatenates and beginning and an ending xml tag to create an xml dom where the <Parameter> elements can be iterated.

---

Kelly

Answer 3

Hi Kelly,

 

Glad to know it is resolved.

Best Regards,

Ziwei Chen

MSDN Subscriber Support in Forum
If you have any feedback on our support, please contact msdnmg @ microsoft.com