# Library Template Reference

### Norman Walsh

$Id: lib.html,v 1.1 2002/05/26 21:30:08 msevigny Exp $

Copyright © 19992000 by Norman Walsh. No Warranty.

## Introduction

This is technical reference documentation for the DocBook XSL Stylesheets; it documents (some of) the parameters, templates, and other elements of the stylesheets.

This is not intended to be “user” documentation. It is provided for developers writing customization layers for the stylesheets, and for anyone who's interested in “how it works”.

Although I am trying to be thorough, this documentation is known to be incomplete. Don't forget to read the source, too :-)

## Name

string.subst — Substitute one text string for another in a string

## Synopsis

    <xsl:template name="string.subst">
    <xsl:param name="string"/>
    <xsl:param name="target"/>
    <xsl:param name="replacement"/>
      ...
    </xsl:template>

The `string.subst` template replaces all occurances of `target` in `string` with `replacement` and returns the result.

## Name

xpointer.idref — Extract IDREF from an XPointer

## Synopsis

    <xsl:template name="xpointer.idref">
    <xsl:param name="xpointer">http://...</xsl:param>
      ...
    </xsl:template>

The `xpointer.idref` template returns the ID portion of an XPointer which is a pointer to an ID within the current document, or the empty string if it is not.

In other words, `xpointer.idref` returns “foo” when passed either `#foo` or `#xpointer(id('foo'))`, otherwise it returns the empty string.

## Name

length-magnitude — Return the unqualified dimension from a length specification

## Synopsis

    <xsl:template name="length-magnitude">
    <xsl:param name="length" select="'0pt'"/>
      ...
    </xsl:template>

The `length-magnitude` template returns the unqualified length ("20" for "20pt") from a dimension.

## Name

length-units — Return the units from a length specification

## Synopsis

    <xsl:template name="length-units">
    <xsl:param name="length" select="'0pt'"/>
    <xsl:param name="default.units" select="'pt'"/>
      ...
    </xsl:template>

The `length-units` template returns the units ("pt" for "20pt") from a length. If no units are supplied on the length, the `defauilt.units` are returned.

## Name

length-spec — Return a fully qualified length specification

## Synopsis

    <xsl:template name="length-spec">
    <xsl:param name="length" select="'0pt'"/>
    <xsl:param name="default.units" select="'pt'"/>
      ...
    </xsl:template>

The `length-spec` template returns the qualified length from a dimension. If an unqualified length is given, the `default.units` will be added to it.

## Name

pi-attribute — Extract a pseudo-attribute from a PI

## Synopsis

    <xsl:template name="pi-attribute">
    <xsl:param name="pis" select="processing-instruction('')"/>
    <xsl:param name="attribute">filename</xsl:param>
    <xsl:param name="count">1</xsl:param>
      ...
    </xsl:template>

The `pi-attribute` template extracts a pseudo-attribute from a processing instruction. For example, given the PI “`<?foo bar="1" baz='red'?>`”,

    <xsl:call-template name="pi-attribute">
      <xsl:with-param name="pis" select="processing-instruction('foo')"/>
      <xsl:with-param name="attribute" select="'baz'"/>
    </xsl:call-template>

will return “red”. This template returns the first matching attribute that it finds. Presented with processing instructions that contain badly formed pseudo-attributes (missing or unbalanced quotes, for example), the template may silently return erroneous results.

## Name

lookup.key — Retrieve the value associated with a particular key in a table

## Synopsis

    <xsl:template name="lookup.key">
    <xsl:param name="key" select="''"/>
    <xsl:param name="table" select="''"/>
      ...
    </xsl:template>

Given a table of space-delimited key/value pairs, the `lookup.key` template extracts the value associated with a particular key.

## Name

xpath.location — Calculate the XPath child-sequence to the current node

## Synopsis

    <xsl:template name="xpath.location">
    <xsl:param name="node" select="."/>
    <xsl:param name="path" select="''"/>
      ...
    </xsl:template>

The `xpath.location` template calculates the absolute path from the root of the tree to the current element node.