Create xmlns attribute in the XML using XSLT Transformation

Question

I am trying to add the xmlns attribute to the resulting XML with a value passed by parameter during XSLT transformation using JDK Transformer (Oracle XML v2 Parser or JAXP) but it always defaults to http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/

My source XML

<test/>

My XSLT

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns="http://example.com">
    <xsl:param name="myNameSpace" select="'http://neilghosh.com'"/>
    <xsl:template match="/">
        <process>
            <xsl:attribute name="xmlns:neil">
                <xsl:value-of select="$myNameSpace"/>
            </xsl:attribute>
        </process>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

My Result

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<process xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/" xmlns:neil="neilghosh.com">
</process>

My Desired Result

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<process xmlns="http://example.com"  xmlns:neil="neilghosh.com">
</process>

Answer 1

Firstly, in the XSLT data model, you don't want to create an attribute node, you want to create a namespace node.

Namespace nodes are usually created automatically: if you create an element or attribute in a particular namespace, the requisite namespace node (and hence, when serialized, the namespace declaration) are added automatically by the processor.

If you want to create a namespace node that isn't necessary (because it's not used in the name of any element or attribute) then in XSLT 2.0 you can use xsl:namespace. If you're stuck with XSLT 1.0 then there's a workaround, that involves creating an element in the relevant namespace and then copying its namespace node:

<xsl:variable name="ns">
  <xsl:element name="neil:dummy" namespace="{$param}"/>
</xsl:variable>
<process>
  <xsl:copy-of select="$ns/*/namespace::neil"/>
</process>