How to store superscript in XML attribute and read using XSL? - html

Question

I have a requirement where I need create an XML document dynamically. Some of the attributes of the nodes of this XML contain superscript Reg etc. My question is how should I store such superscript characters in XML and then read it using XSL to render as HTML. A sample XML is shown below:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<node name="Some text <sup>®</sup>"/>
I know this cannot be stored under sup tag inside attribute as it breaks XML. I tried using <sup> also in place of opening and closing tag. But then they are rendered as <sup> on HTML instead of actually making it superscript.
Please let me know the solution for this problem. I have control over generation of XML. I can write it the correct way, If I know what is the right way to store superscripts.

Answer 1

Since you're using XSL to transform the input into HTML, I would suggest using a different method to encode the fact that some things need to be superscripts. Make up your own simple markup, for example
<node name="Some text [[®]]"/>
The markup can be anything that you can uniquely identify later and doesn't occur naturally in your data. Then in your XSL process the attribute values that can contain this markup with a custom template that converts the special markup to <sup> and </sup>. This allows you to keep the document structure (i.e. not move these string values to text nodes) and still achieve your goal.

Answer 2

Please let me know the solution for this problem. I have control over
generation of XML. I can write it the correct way, If I know what is
the right way to store superscripts.
Because attributes can only contain values (no nodes), the solution is to store markup (nodes) inside elements:
<node>
<name>Some text <sup>®</sup></name>
</node>

Answer 3

If it's only single characters like ® that need to be made superscript, then you can leave the XML without crooks like <sup>, i.e. like
<node name="Some text ®"/>
and look for the to-be-superscripted characters during processing. A template like this might help:
<xsl:template match="node/#name">
<xsl:param name="nameString" select="string()"/>
<!-- We're stepping through the string character by character -->
<xsl:variable name="firstChar" select="substring($nameString,1,1)"/>
<xsl:choose>
<!-- '®' can be extended to be a longer string of single characters
that are meant to be turned into superscript -->
<xsl:when test="contains('®',$firstChar)">
<sup><xsl:value-of select="$firstChar"/></sup>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:value-of select="$firstChar"/>
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
<!-- If we we didn't yet step through the whole string,
chop off the first character and recurse. -->
<xsl:if test="$firstChar!=''">
<xsl:apply-templates select=".">
<xsl:with-param name="nameString" select="substring($nameString,2)"/>
</xsl:apply-templates>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>
This approach is however not very efficient, especially if you have lots of name attributes and/or very long name attributes. If your application is performance critical, then better do some testing whether the impact on processing times is justifiable.