Extract HTML elements with XSLT

Question

I would like to extract everything between the <head> tag elements in an html page. Including link tags and script tags.

Assume the source code below is a snippet which would be part of a full html document.

The source:

...
<head>
 <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css"
    type="text/css" media="handheld" />

 <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css"
    type="text/css" media="handheld" />

 <script type="text/javascript" src="main.js"></script>
 <script type="text/javascript" src="second.js"></script>
</head>
...

XSLT:

<xsl:output method="xml" encoding="utf-8" indent="no"/>

<xsl:template match="/">
    <xsl:copy-of select="link"/>
</xsl:template>

This works fine if there is only one tag I'm trying to get. Is there a way I can process everything and only everything between the "head" tags.

The output I expect would be:

 <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css"
    type="text/css" media="handheld" />

 <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css"
    type="text/css" media="handheld" />

 <script type="text/javascript" src="main.js"></script>
 <script type="text/javascript" src="second.js"></script>

Can you provide a fuller example of your source document, and an example of your expected output? — user1760725
– user1760725, Commented May 7, 2013 at 17:38
In general, you can use XSL only on XML-compliant data, such as XHTML. If your input is not XHTML you will probably get parse exceptions at some point. — Jim Garrison
– Jim Garrison, Commented May 7, 2013 at 22:53

Jim Garrison · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-07 22:56:52Z

2

You need to use an XSL identity transform

<xsl:template match="@*|node()">
  <xsl:copy>
    <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
  </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>

along with a template that prevents output of everything you don't want.

<xsl:template match="/">
  <xsl:apply-templates select="html/head"/>
</xsl:template>

The second template, being more specific, will match the root and then apply the stylesheet to the contents of the <head> tag. The identity transform will output the desired tags.

answered May 7, 2013 at 22:56

Jim Garrison

87k20 gold badges162 silver badges197 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

ABach Over a year ago

+1 for a much more elegant answer than relying on <xsl:for-each>.

AContractor · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-07 17:59:22Z

0

You need to use the 'xsl:for-each' statement

<xsl:template match="/">
      <xsl:for-each select="head/*">
        <xsl:copy-of select="."/>
      </xsl:for-each>
    </xsl:template>

answered May 7, 2013 at 17:59

AContractor

1761 silver badge7 bronze badges

Comments

Jayant · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-07 18:00:15Z

0

I guess you can use <xsl:for-each> element to select every XML element of a specified node-set.

Just loop through all the elements inside head tag and then use xsl-current() function to get the value of each element in a way like this; <xsl:value-of select="current()"/>

answered May 7, 2013 at 18:00

Jayant

1529 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Extract HTML elements with XSLT

3 Answers 3

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related