Is it possible to pass a parameter to XSLT through a URL when using a browser to transform XML?
When using a browser to transform XML (Google Chrome or IE7) is it possible to pass a parameter to the XSLT stylesheet through the URL?
example:
data.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="sample.xsl"?>
<root>
<document type="resume">
<author>John Doe</author>
</document>
<document type="novella">
<author>Jane Doe</author>
</document>
</root>
sample.xsl
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet
version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">
<xsl:output method="html" />
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:param name="doctype" />
<html>
<head>
<title>List of <xsl:value-of select="$doctype" /></title>
</head>
<body>
<xsl:for-each select="//document[@type = $doctype]">
<p><xsl:value-of select="author" /></p>
</xsl:for-each>
</body>
</html>
</<xsl:stylesheet>
Answer
Unfortunately, no - you can't pass through parameters to the XSLT on the client-side only. The web-browser takes the processing instructions from the XML; and directly transforms it with the XSLT.
It is possible to pass values via the querystring URL and then read them dynamically using JavaScript. However these wouldn't be available to use in the XSLT (XPath expressions) - as the browser has already transformed the XML/XSLT. They could only be used in the rendered HTML output.