# Common Template Reference

### Norman Walsh

$Id: common.html,v 1.1 2002/05/26 21:30:07 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

is.component — Tests if a given node is a component-level element

## Synopsis

    <xsl:template name="is.component">
    <xsl:param name="node" select="."/>
      ...
    </xsl:template>

This template returns '1' if the specified node is a component (Chapter, Appendix, etc.), and '0' otherwise.

Parameters

node

  The node which is to be tested.

Returns

This template returns '1' if the specified node is a component (Chapter, Appendix, etc.), and '0' otherwise.

## Name

is.section — Tests if a given node is a section-level element

## Synopsis

    <xsl:template name="is.section">
    <xsl:param name="node" select="."/>
      ...
    </xsl:template>

This template returns '1' if the specified node is a section (Section, Sect1, Sect2, etc.), and '0' otherwise.

Parameters

node

  The node which is to be tested.

Returns

This template returns '1' if the specified node is a section (Section, Sect1, Sect2, etc.), and '0' otherwise.

## Name

section.level — Returns the hierarchical level of a section.

## Synopsis

    <xsl:template name="section.level">
    <xsl:param name="node" select="."/>
      ...
    </xsl:template>

This template calculates the hierarchical level of a section. Hierarchically, components are “top level”, so a `sect1` is at level 2, `sect3` is at level 3, etc.

Recursive sections are calculated down to the sixth level.

Parameters

node

  The section node for which the level should be calculated. Defaults to the context node.

Returns

The section level, “2”, “3”, etc.

## Name

qanda.section.level — Returns the hierarchical level of a QandASet.

## Synopsis

    <xsl:template name="qanda.section.level"/>

This template calculates the hierarchical level of a QandASet.

Returns

The level, “1”, “2”, etc.

## Name

select.mediaobject — Selects an appropriate media object from a list

## Synopsis

    <xsl:template name="select.mediaobject">
    <xsl:param name="olist" select="imageobject|imageobjectco                      |videoobject|audioobject|textobject"/>
    <xsl:param name="count">1</xsl:param>
      ...
    </xsl:template>

This template examines a list of media objects (usually the children of a mediaobject or inlinemediaobject) and processes the "right" object.

This template relies on a template named "is.acceptable.mediaobject" to determine if a given object is an acceptable graphic. The semantics of media objects is that the first acceptable graphic should be used.

If no acceptable object is located, nothing happens.

Parameters

olist

  The node list of potential objects to examine.

Returns

Calls <xsl:apply-templates> on the selected object.

## Name

is.acceptable.mediaobject — Returns '1' if the specified media object is recognized.

## Synopsis

    <xsl:template name="is.acceptable.mediaobject">
    <xsl:param name="object"/>
      ...
    </xsl:template>

This template examines a media object and returns '1' if the object is recognized as a graphic.

Parameters

object

  The media object to consider.

Returns

0 or 1

## Name

check.id.unique — Warn users about references to non-unique IDs

## Synopsis

    <xsl:template name="check.id.unique">
    <xsl:param name="linkend"/>
      ...
    </xsl:template>

If passed an ID in `linkend`, `check.id.unique` prints a warning message to the user if either the ID does not exist or the ID is not unique.

## Name

check.idref.targets — Warn users about incorrectly typed references

## Synopsis

    <xsl:template name="check.idref.targets">
    <xsl:param name="linkend"/>
    <xsl:param name="element-list"/>
      ...
    </xsl:template>

If passed an ID in `linkend`, `check.idref.targets` makes sure that the element pointed to by the link is one of the elements listed in `element-list` and warns the user otherwise.

## Name

copyright.years — Print a set of years with collapsed ranges

## Synopsis

    <xsl:template name="copyright.years">
    <xsl:param name="years"/>
    <xsl:param name="print.ranges" select="1"/>
    <xsl:param name="single.year.ranges" select="0"/>
    <xsl:param name="firstyear" select="0"/>
    <xsl:param name="nextyear" select="0"/>
      ...
    </xsl:template>

This template prints a list of year elements with consecutive years printed as a range. In other words:

    <year>1992</year>
    <year>1993</year>
    <year>1994</year>

is printed “1992-1994”, whereas:

    <year>1992</year>
    <year>1994</year>

is printed “1992, 1994”.

This template assumes that all the year elements contain only decimal year numbers, that the elements are sorted in increasing numerical order, that there are no duplicates, and that all the years are expressed in full “century+year” (“1999” not “99”) notation.

Parameters

years

  The initial set of year elements.

print.ranges

  If non-zero, multi-year ranges are collapsed. If zero, all years are printed discretely.

single.year.ranges

  If non-zero, two consecutive years will be printed as a range, otherwise, they will be printed discretely. In other words, a single year range is “1991-1992” but discretely it's “1991, 1992”.

Returns

This template returns the formatted list of years.

## Name

find.path.params — Search in a table for the "best" match for the node

## Synopsis

    <xsl:template name="find.path.params">
    <xsl:param name="node" select="."/>
    <xsl:param name="table" select="''"/>
    <xsl:param name="location">
        <xsl:call-template name="xpath.location">
          <xsl:with-param name="node" select="$node"/>
        </xsl:call-template>
      </xsl:param>
      ...
    </xsl:template>

This template searches in a table for the value that most-closely (in the typical best-match sense of XSLT) matches the current (element) node location.