How to use XSL to create HTML attributes?

Question

Why is using XML data to style HTML tags illegal? For example:

<li style="width:<xsl:value-of select="width"/>px">  

Why can't I do this? Are there any alternative methods out there?

Answer 1

Why can't I do this?

<li style="width:<xsl:value-of select="width"/>px"> 

Because XSL is XML itself. And this is anything… but not XML.

You mean an Attribute Value Template:

<li style="width:{width}px"> 

or the explicit form, for more complex expressions:

<li>   <xsl:attribute name="style">     <xsl:choose>       <xsl:when test="some[condition = 'is met']">thisValue</xsl:when>       <xsl:otherwise>thatValue</xsl:otherwise>     </xsl:choose>   </xsl:attribute> </li> 

or dynamic attribute names (note that attribute value template in the name):

<li>   <xsl:attribute name="{$attrName}">someValue</xsl:attribute> </li> 

Additional note: Attributes must be created before all other child nodes. In other words, keep <xsl:attribute> at the top.

Answer 2

Your original xsl is not well formed as you can't have the xsl tag inside another node.

I think you need to use xsl:attribute as follows:

<li>   <xsl:attribute name="style">      width:<xsl:value-of select="width"/>px;   </xsl:attribute> </li>