How do I ADD an Attribute to the Root Element in XML using XSLT?

Question

I want to match a root Element “FOO” and perform the transformation (add a version attribute) to it leaving the rest as it is. The Transformation I have so far looks like this:

<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0"
 xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns="http://schemas.foo.com/fooNameSpace">

<xsl:template match="//FOO">
    <xsl:choose>
      <xsl:when test="@version">
        <xsl:apply-templates select="node()|@*" />
      </xsl:when>
      <xsl:otherwise>
        <FOO>
         <xsl:attribute name="version">1</xsl:attribute>
         <xsl:apply-templates select="node()|@*" />
        </FOO>
      </xsl:otherwise>
    </xsl:choose>
 </xsl:template>

However this does not perform any transformation. It doesn't even detect the element. So I need to do add the namespace in order to make it work:

<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0"
 xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:fd="http://schemas.foo.com/fooNameSpace">

 <xsl:template match="//fd:FOO">
 …

But this attaches a namespace attribute to the FOO element as well as other elements:

<FOO xmlns:fd="http://schemas.foo.com/fooNameSpace" version="1" id="fooid">
<BAR xmlns="http://schemas.foo.com/fooNameSpace" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

Is there a way to say that the element is using the default namespace?
Can we match and add elements in the default name space?

Here is the original XML:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <FOO xmlns="http://schemas.foo.com/fooNameSpace" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
      <BAR>
        <Attribute name="HEIGHT">2067</Attribute>
      </BAR>
  </FOO>

Good Question (+1). See my answer for a complete solution. :) — Dimitre Novatchev
– Dimitre Novatchev, Commented Apr 29, 2010 at 4:58

markusk · Accepted Answer · 2010-04-29 08:19:24Z

1

You can specify the default namespace for XPath expressions by adding the attribute xpath-default-namespace, as described in the section 5.2 Unprefixed QNames in Expressions and Patterns of the XSLT 2.0 standard.

Example:

<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0" 
  xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" 
  xpath-default-namespace="http://schemas.foo.com/fooNameSpace"> 

    <xsl:template match="FOO[not(@version)]">
        <xsl:copy>
            <xsl:attribute name="version">1</xsl:attribute> 
            <xsl:apply-templates select="node()|@*" /> 
        </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>

    <!-- Identity template for copying everything else -->
    <xsl:template match="node()|@*">
        <xsl:copy>
            <xsl:apply-templates select="node()|@*" /> 
        </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

answered Apr 29, 2010 at 8:19

markusk

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Comments

Brett Kail · Accepted Answer · 2010-04-29 04:56:19Z

This works for me using xsltproc/libxslt:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:ns="http://schemas.foo.com/fooNameSpace">
  <xsl:template match="/ns:FOO">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:if test="not(@version)">
        <xsl:attribute name="version">1</xsl:attribute>
      </xsl:if>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="node() | @*"/>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>

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

It produces:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<FOO xmlns="http://schemas.foo.com/fooNameSpace" version="1">
    <BAR>
        <Attribute>2067</Attribute>
    </BAR>
</FOO>

Dimitre Novatchev · Accepted Answer · 2010-04-29 04:56:42Z

Here is one solution truly in the spirit of XSLT:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
    xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
    xmlns:fd="http://schemas.foo.com/fooNameSpace"
    >
    <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>
    <xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>

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

 <xsl:template match="/*[self::fd:FOO and not(@version)]">
  <xsl:copy>
    <xsl:attribute name="version">1</xsl:attribute>

    <xsl:call-template name="identity"/>
  </xsl:copy>
 </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

When this transformation is applied on the provided XML document, the wanted, correct result is produced:

<FOO xmlns="http://schemas.foo.com/fooNameSpace"
 xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
 version="1">
   <FOO>
      <BAR>
         <Attribute name="HEIGHT">2067</Attribute>
      </BAR>
   </FOO>
</FOO>

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