Re: Using the id() function with SAX input

[Scott_Boag]

Xalan just looks at the incoming attributes and watches for those of type
ID.  A validating parser should set the right type if it has access to the
DTD.  If you are manufacturing input, just set the right type when you
create the attribute.  Xalan does very little -- nothing for you purposes,
with the DTDHandler.

-scott




                                                                                       
                            
                    Paul Winder                                                        
                            
                    <pwinder@arbo        To:     [EMAIL PROTECTED]              
                            
                    rtext.com>           cc:     (bcc: Scott Boag/CAM/Lotus)           
                            
                                         Subject:     Using the id() function with SAX 
input                       
                    06/19/2001                                                         
                            
                    04:10 PM                                                           
                            
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Hi all,

We are using Xalan 2.1.0 with SAX input from our SGML/XML editor.  So far,
it's working great, but I found a possible limitation today that worries
me.

In our editor we can apply links and link targets to an XML Docbook
document, as <link> tags with href attributes and anchor tags with id
attributes, respectively.  We are processing the document using Norm
Walsh's XSLDocbook10 (version 1.4) stylesheet.  Norm uses the id() function

to locate the target node for a link.

The problem is that the id() function relies on an ID attribute designated
in the DTD.  Since we are using SAX input, Xalan does not have the DTD, and

therefore does not have a designated ID attribute, so the id() function
always comes up with no matches.

Is there any other way to designate the ID attribute to Xalan aside from
the DTD?

Failing that, is there a way to give Xalan the DTD for the document when
the input is through SAX?  I looked at the LexicalHandler interface, and
there is mention of sending the "external DTD subset" in a startEntity()
event using the special name "[dtd]", but it isn't clear to me if this
would do what I need or how to do it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Paul Winder
Arbortext