Python & XML

MSXML3.0 Support for XSLT

MSXML3.0 provides support for XSL transformations without any additional software. The parser features a transformNode method that usually accepts a stylesheet as a parameter (in DOM form) and returns the result of processing the current document with the supplied stylesheet. For example:

objXML = win32com.client.Dispatch("MSXML2.DOMDocument.3.0")
objXSL = win32com.client.Dispatch("MSXML2.DOMDocument.3.0")
strTransformedXML = objXML.transformNode(objXSL)

In the simplest case, as shown in the preceding code, two DOM instances are created. One DOM instance is needed to hold the source document, the other contains the stylesheet. To get the result of the transformation, call transformNode on the source DOM, providing the stylesheet DOM as a parameter.

Source XML

Example E-4 shows 1999temps.xml, a document containing monthly average temperatures for Woodinville, Washington. This is a simple XML document with a flat structure.

Example E-4. 1999 temps.xml

<CalendarYear value="1999" data="Average Monthly Highs">
  <Month name="January">45.0</Month>
  <Month name="February">49.5</Month>
  <Month name="March">52.7</Month>
  <Month name="April">57.2</Month>
  <Month name="May">63.9</Month>
  <Month name="June">69.9</Month>
  <Month name="July">75.2</Month>
  <Month name="August">75.2</Month>
  <Month name="September">69.3</Month>
  <Month name="October">59.7</Month>
  <Month name="November">50.5</Month>
  <Month name="December">45.1</Month>
</CalendarYear>

There are attributes indicating the ...