How to handle HTML entity nbsp in XSLT. Without changing the input file

Question

I am trying to convert an HTML file into XML file using XSLT (Using Oxygen 9.0 for transformation).

When I configure and run the XSLT transformation with the HTML file then Oxygen outputs

The entity 'nbsp' was referenced,but not declared.

My input html file is:

<div><span>&nbsp;some text</span></div>

Note: I want to know how handle that entity only using the XSLT, I don't want to make any changes to the input file.

Answer 1

You could use XML Entities to create an XML file that defines the nbsp entity, and includes the (broken) XML fragment.

For example, assume that your fragment is saved as a file called: "invalid.xml"

<div><span>&nbsp;some text</span></div>

Create an XML file like this:

<!DOCTYPE wrapper [
   <!ENTITY nbsp "&#160;">
   <!ENTITY invalid-xml-document SYSTEM "./invalid.xml">
]><wrapper>
&invalid-xml-document;</wrapper>

When it that file gets parsed, it will have defined the nbsp entity, include the content from the "invalid.xml", and resolve the nbsp entity properly. The result is this:

<wrapper>
  <div>
    <span> some text</span> 
  </div>
</wrapper>

Then, just adjust your XSLT to accomodate the new document element (in this example the element <wrapper>).