Creating a threaded comment generator with XSL
I got an email from a friend of mine who is building a BBS app that he wants to have threaded comments. Basically:
- This is the top post
- This is the reply to the top
- This is the reply to the reply
He's using classic ASP, and was looking for a way to avoid having to do a recursive query to get the information. At first I was thinking of some SQL strategies to help avoid it but then thought that XML might be a good answer to it.
XML Document:
XSL Document:
Output:
- This is the top post
- This is the reply to the top
- This is the reply to the reply
He's using classic ASP, and was looking for a way to avoid having to do a recursive query to get the information. At first I was thinking of some SQL strategies to help avoid it but then thought that XML might be a good answer to it.
XML Document:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<threads>
<thread id="45" parent="">
<title>Top Level Thread</title>
<message>I'm a top level thread</message>
</thread>
<thread id="49" parent="">
<title>Top Level Thread2</title>
<message>I'm a top level2 thread</message>
</thread>
<thread id="46" parent="45">
<title>Mid Level Thread</title>
<message>I'm a mid level thread</message>
</thread>
<thread id="47" parent="45">
<title>Mid Level Thread</title>
<message>I'm a mid level thread</message>
</thread>
<thread id="48" parent="46">
<title>Mid Level Thread</title>
<message>I'm a mid level thread</message>
</thread>
<thread id="50" parent="49">
<title>Mid Level Thread</title>
<message>I'm a mid level thread</message>
</thread>
<thread id="54" parent="">
<title>Top Level Thread3</title>
<message>I'm a top level3 thread</message>
</thread>
</threads>
XSL Document:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<head>
<title>Cool BBS</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Here is some cool BBS type stuff:</h1>
<xsl:apply-templates select="threads"/>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="threads">
<ul>
<xsl:for-each select="thread[@parent = '']">
<li><xsl:value-of select="title"/></li>
<xsl:call-template name="thread">
<xsl:with-param name="parentid"><xsl:value-of select="@id"/></xsl:with-param>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:for-each>
</ul>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="thread">
<xsl:param name="parentid"/>
<ul>
<xsl:for-each select="/threads/thread[@parent=$parentid]">
<li><xsl:value-of select="title"/></li>
<xsl:call-template name="thread">
<xsl:with-param name="parentid"><xsl:value-of select="@id"/></xsl:with-param>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:for-each>
</ul>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Output:
<ul>
<li>I'm a top level thread</li>
<ul>
<li>Mid Level Thread</li>
<ul>
<li>Mid Level Thread</li>
</ul>
<li>Mid Level Thread</li>
</ul>
</ul>
posted by Cory Foy at
10:19 PM
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