Output entire XML as an attribute

Question

I'm fairly new to XML and XSL Stylesheets, and I've been tasked with creating a stylesheet for one of our clients. I have already created a stylesheet that outputs an XML in the following format:

<Trip TripType="Normal">
    <Plan BeginTime="2011-08-13T10:00:00" UserDefinedTripID="777" UserDefinedRouteID="777">
        <PlanStop ArrivalTime="2011-08-13T15:30:00" ArrivalLock="true" SiteID="1" PassThru1="test1" PassThru2="test2" PassThru3="test3" PassThru4="test4">
            <PlanNote Line1="Freeform Text" Line2="Line2" Line3="Line3" />
            <PlanCargo Duration="60" BillID="" Weight="100" Units="100.0" XUnitTypeID="10" Action="Pick" />
            <PlanNote Line1="Freeform Text" Line2="Line2" Line3="Line3" />
            <PlanCargo Duration="60" BillID="" Weight="100" Units="100.0" XUnitTypeID="12" Action="Pick" />
        </PlanStop>
    </Plan>
</Trip>

I need to take the output and insert the contents into an attribute within the Trip element to look like this:

<Trip TripID="-1" CurrentRevisionNumber="1" IsDispatch="1" IsActive="0" 
IsComplete="0" OrganizationID="4"
TripData="&lt;Trip TripType=&quot;Normal&quot;&gt;
  &lt;Plan BeginTime=&quot;2011-08-13T10:00:00&quot; UserDefinedTripID=&quot;777&quot;
  UserDefinedRouteID=&quot;777&quot;&gt;
    &lt;PlanStop ArrivalTime=&quot;2011-08-13T10:00:00&quot; ArrivalLock=&    quot;true&quot; SiteID=&quot;1&quot; PassThru1=&quot;test1&quot; PassThru2=&    quot;test2&quot; PassThru3=&quot;test3&quot; PassThru4=&quot;test4&quot;&gt;
    &lt;PlanCargo Duration=&quot;45&quot; BillID=&quot;&quot; Weight=&    quot;100&quot; Units=&quot;100.0&quot; XUnitTypeID=&quot;9&quot; Action=&quot;Pick&quot;     /&gt;
    &lt;/PlanStop&gt; />

So in other words, I need to take an existing XML output and put it in an attribute while performing some character transformations.

Yes, it is extremely ugly, but this is how they want it. I was thinking of making another XSL that will copy over the XML output from the original XSL transformation and place it in an attribute while converting <, >, ", etc into < , > , " , etc (not sure what they're called).

I've scoured the internet for solutions, but I can't seem to find any that are quite like this (I'd imagine that's because this is a ridiculous request). I can provide my original XSL if necessary, but I'd rather not change it, if possible.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I would save myself time, effort and depression from others' stupidity and will implement this with a tiny transformation that uses a tiny extension function.

Here is example using the .NET XslCompiledTransform XSLT processor:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
 xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
 xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"
 xmlns:my="my:my" exclude-result-prefixes="msxsl my">
 <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>

 <xsl:template match="/*">
  <t stupid="{my:stringize(.)}"/>
 </xsl:template>

 <msxsl:script language="c#" implements-prefix="my">
  public string stringize(XPathNavigator doc)
  {
   return doc.InnerXml;
  }
 </msxsl:script>
</xsl:stylesheet>

When applied on any XML document, it produces the top element with a stupid attribute that contains the escaped representation of the body of the top element.

For example, when the transformation is applied on this XML document:

<t>
  <a>
    <b x="y">
      <!--  Comment here -->
      <?aPI ?>
    </b>
  </a>
</t>

the wanted result is produced:

<t stupid="&#xD;&#xA;  &lt;a&gt;&#xD;&#xA;    &lt;b x=&quot;y&quot;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;      &lt;!--  Comment here --&gt;&#xD;&#xA;      &lt;?aPI?&gt;&#xD;&#xA;    &lt;/b&gt;&#xD;&#xA;  &lt;/a&gt;&#xD;&#xA;" />

A transformation implementing the same idea most probably can be written for almost every XSLT processor with an extension function that itself can be written in variety of programming languages.