Trying to use XSLT 2.0 to embed CSS that contains '>' child selector in HTML <style> element

Question

My file base.css contains:

ol > li { color: red; }

I try to read it and render it into my HTML output using XSLT 2.0 unparsed-text (Saxon 9.1.0.2J) like this :

<style>
  <xsl:sequence select="unparsed-text(fn:iri-to-uri($CSS-BASE-FILE))"/>
</style>

However, the unparsed-text() function is converting the '>' to '>' in the HTML, like this:

<style>
ol &gt; li { color: red; }
</style>

...Which doesn't behave as "ol > li" does.

How can I use XSLT to render the '>' character into my element? I've tried using replace(..., '>', '>'), but that still renders '>' into the HTML.

Alternatively, is there another way I can specify the CSS child selector without having to embed a literal '>' character into my HTML?

I think the problem is xsl:sequence. Why do you want to render the value of the unparsed text as a sequence instead of a literal string? — Jim Garrison
– Jim Garrison, Commented Nov 21, 2013 at 0:53
Using xxl:value yields the same result. Ah, but your comment leads me to the doorstep of disable-output-escaping, documented at saxonica.com. — Cary Millsap
– Cary Millsap, Commented Nov 21, 2013 at 6:07
The magic I needed is <xsl:value-of select="unparsed-text(fn:iri-to-uri($CSS-BASE-FILE))" disable-output-escaping="yes"/>. — Cary Millsap
– Cary Millsap, Commented Nov 21, 2013 at 6:41

Michael Kay · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-21 08:33:43Z

2

Are you using output method XML, XHTML, or HTML?

The (3.0) specification says this:

The HTML output method MUST NOT perform escaping for any text node descendant, nor for any attribute of an element node descendant, of a script or style element.

So my suspicion is that you are not using the HTML output method.

answered Nov 21, 2013 at 8:33

Michael Kay

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4 Comments

Cary Millsap Over a year ago

Hi, Mike. I'm using method="xhtml".

Michael Kay Over a year ago

That explains it then. The XHTML output method generally follows the XML rules except for a few special situations where it does things differently. Generally I'm not sure there's much point generating XHTML for the browser: it understands HTML better, and if you have a need for an XML representation then you can generate that alongside the HTML.

Cary Millsap Over a year ago

So, Mike, to be clear on what you're saying: if I use <xsl:output method='html'>, then I won't need to use the disable-output-escaping attribute on the <xsl:value of> element (which does seem to work fine for me). Is that correct? Thank you.

Michael Kay Over a year ago

I checked the W3C 3.0 spec, I didn't check the Saxon 9.1 implementation, but in principle yes, with method="html" it should work.

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