What does " " mean and how is it used?

Question

I'm working on (my first) DITA project using Oxygen, and invoking FOP to generate PDF output. Trying to figure out what everything along the chain does, where the chain is: document -> element -> class -> class template definition in .xsl -> attribute settings in attr.xsl

I'm doing fine with all except the class template definition, which invariably seems to involve the line: <xsl:call-template name="commonattributes"/>

Where is that template stored and how is it configured?

(I found a lot of questions that show the correct syntax for invoking this template, or others, but not what doing this actually means.)

The expression calls the template with name commonattributes — Madeyedexter, Feb 01 '17 at 17:37
"*Where is that template stored ...*" It's stored either in the same stylesheet that calls it or in another stylesheet that your stylesheet includes or imports. -- "*... and how is it configured?*" We don't see it, so we have no way of telling. — michael.hor257k, Feb 01 '17 at 17:42
Thank you! From this I finally figured out what to search for. Mischief managed. — M. Rivera, Feb 01 '17 at 18:05
@M.Rivera: If you have found a solution to you own problem, let SO participate by posting an answer to you own question. — zx485, Feb 01 '17 at 18:50
I can't explain it well enough to compose an answer! But the answer below is great. — M. Rivera, Feb 01 '17 at 19:38

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 02 '17 at 03:31

I assume you are using the DITA Open Toolkit (OT). In version 2.2.4 of the OT this named template is in the following file:

DITA-OT/plugins/org.dita.pdf2/xsl/fo/commons.xsl

This template applies other templates to some common attributes like @id. I doubt that you will need to "configure" it, and it does not have any parameters. Here it is:

<!-- Process common attributes -->
<xsl:template name="commonattributes">
  <xsl:apply-templates select="@id"/>
  <xsl:apply-templates select="*[contains(@class,' ditaot-d/ditaval-startprop ')] |
                               *[contains(@class,' ditaot-d/ditaval-endprop ')]" mode="flag-attributes"/>
</xsl:template>

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 01 '17 at 19:22

XSLT templates can be matched against the input document when written with a @match attribute or called procedurally when written with a @name attribute.

You've encountered a procedural call of a template named commonattributes, which would be defined directly within your XSLT file or indirectly via xsl:include or xsl:import.

Without seeing the definition of commonattributes we can easily guess that its purpose is to consolidate the definition of a common set of attributes to a single location so that they be centrally managed and applied via xsl:call-template to multiple elements generated by your XSLT. This is a common pattern in XSLT.

What does " " mean and how is it used?

2 Answers2