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How to Create Hyperlinks in HTML Using XSLT

How to create hyperlinks in HTML using XSLT?

Create an XML document.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO8859-1"?> 
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="video.xsl"?> 
<VIDEOS> 
  <VIDEO> 
     <TITLE>Suzie</TITLE> 
     <DURATION type="second">30</DURATION> 
     <QUALITY>Quality level 3</QUALITY> 
     <BITRATE type="kbps">130</BITRATE> 
     <LINK VALUE="link1.htm">Link 1</LINK> 
  </VIDEO> 
  <VIDEO> 
     <TITLE>REX</TITLE> 
     <DURATION type="second">130</DURATION> 
     <QUALITY>Quality level 5</QUALITY> 
     <BITRATE type="kbps">500</BITRATE> 
     <LINK VALUE="link2.htm">Link 2</LINK> 
  </VIDEO> 
  <VIDEO> 
     <TITLE>Another Day in Paradise</TITLE> 
     <DURATION type="second">280</DURATION> 
     <QUALITY>Quality level 5</QUALITY> 
     <BITRATE type="kbps">1029</BITRATE> 
     <LINK VALUE="link3.htm">Link 3</LINK> 
  </VIDEO> 
</VIDEOS>

Create an XSL stylesheet.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO8859-1"?> 
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> 
<xsl:template match="/"> 
<html> 
<body> 
<table border="1"> 
  <tr> 
    <th>Title</th> 
    <th>Duration (sec)</th> 
    <th>Quality</th> 
    <th>Bitrate (kbps)</th> 
    <th>Link</th> 
  </tr> 
  <xsl:for-each select="VIDEOS/VIDEO"> 
   <tr> 
    <td align="left"><xsl:value-of select="TITLE"/></td> 
    <td align="right"><xsl:value-of select="DURATION"/></td> 
    <td align="right"><xsl:value-of select="QUALITY"/></td> 
    <td align="right"><xsl:value-of select="BITRATE"/></td> 
    <td>
       <a><xsl:attribute name="href">
       <xsl:value-of select="LINK/@VALUE"/></xsl:attribute> 
       <xsl:value-of select="LINK"/> 
       </a>
    </td> 
   </tr>  
  </xsl:for-each> 
</table> 
</body> 
</html> 
</xsl:template> 
</xsl:stylesheet>

For simplicity, these XML elements and attributes are the same as HTML. <link> is used for <a>, value="" for href="" and the text between <link value="link1.htm">Link 1</link> will produce <a href="link1.htm">Link 1</a>.

Open an <a> tag.

<xsl:attribute name="href">

This creates an attribute with the value specified in the "name" attribute.

<xsl:value-of select="LINK/@VALUE"/>

This places the value of the @VALUE attribute in the href attribute.

<xsl:value-of select="LINK"/>

This places anything contained in <LINK></LINK> element. The example uses text, but this is not always the case.

Close an </a> tag.

Related threads:
How to write a link into XML?

XML FAQ