XSLT Cookbook

Merging Documents with Unlike Schema

Problem

You have two or more dissimilar documents, and you would like to merge them into a single document.

Solution

The process of merging dissimilar data can vary from application to application. Therefore, this chapter cannot present a single generic solution. Instead, it anticipates common ways for two dissimilar documents to be brought together and provides solutions for each case.

Incorporate one document as a subpart of a parent document

Incorporating a document as a subpart is the most trivial interpretation of this type of merge. The basic idea is to use xsl:copy-of to copy one document or document part into the appropriate part of a second document. The following example merges two documents into a container document that uses element names in the container as indications of what files to merge:

<MyNoteBook> <friends> </friends> <coworkers> </coworkers> <projects> <project>Replalce mapML with XSLT engine using Xalan C++</project> <project>Figure out the meaning of life.</project> <project>Figure out where the dryer is hinding all those missing socks</project> </projects> </MyNoteBook> <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> <xsl:import href="copy.xslt"/> <xsl:output method="xml" version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" indent="yes"/> <xsl:strip-space elements="*"/> <xsl:template match="friends | coworkers"> <xsl:copy> <xsl:variable name="file" select="concat(local-name( ),'.xml')"/> <xsl:copy-of select="document($file)/*/*"/> ...