XMLNS issues with XSL transformation.

Domenic Denicola

OK, I've got my source document, right? And it uses two different namespaces, my custom one and the XHTML one. The contents of it are a mix of XHTML and my own markup. So the header on that looks like this:

Now, I've got my XSL stylesheet, right? And it's used to take the source document and transform it into pure XHTML. So I've figured out that I need to do this in my header, I think:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:MHC="/PageWriter/TemplateSchema.xsd">

<xsl:output	encoding="utf-8"
		indent="yes"
		doctype-public="-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
		doctype-system="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd" />

<xsl:template match="/">
	<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en-US" lang="en-US">

And thereafter all references in my <xsl:...> tags that refer to my own custom elements use the prefix MHC:, like so:

<title>MadHamster Creations - <xsl:value-of select="MHC:Page/MHC:Head/MHC:Title" /></title>

BUT! The problem is now that I have a few weird output issues. The first of all, and this one is really bad because it makes my documents not validate as XHTML, is that my <html> tag now looks like this:

Not like this, which is how it's supposed to look but doesn't:

The other weird thing occurs only when I call a template from inside my main template, like so:

<xsl:apply-templates select="MHC:Page/MHC:Body" />

The header for the other template is:

<xsl:template match="MHC:Page/MHC:Body" name="ProcessBody">

Inside the main template, everything works fine. But when I call this other template, all of my XHTML elements generated inside that template have this extra attribute in them. The attribute is xmlns="", which is needless to say redundant, although it doesn't make the document invalid. Why? How can I stop it? Anyone who wants more in-depth information can get my source files and a .NET utility to transform them, by e-mailing me.

Wictor Wilen

Heya, to get rid of the unnecessary XSL/XML info in your ouptut data then put the attribute 'exclude-result-prefixes' in the xsl:stylesheet node, like this: Just space-separate all the namespace prefixes you do not want in the result. I also set the 'omit-xml-declaration' to "yes" in the xsl:output element to get rid of the XML declaration. /WW

Domenic Denicola

Thanks a ton for the response! I was beginning to think nobody knew... Anyways, the exclude-result-prefixes works great to get rid of the extra xmlns:MHC="..." in my <html> tag. I need to keep the XML declaration for valid XHTML however, but thanks for the help anyways. So, any ideas on the empty xmlns="" attribute that pops up in those elements? Rather weird... Thanks again, it's really reat to have someone who knows this stuff!

-Domenic Denicola- [CPUA 0x1337] MadHamster Creations "I was born human. But this was an accident of fate - a condition merely of time and place. I believe it's something we have the power to change..."