XslTransform and empty elements

[Geir Sørensen]

Hi,

When I transform an xml-file using XslTransform, I seem to get a
lot of elements of this form:

<a> </a>
<b> </b>

But I really would like to get written out like I do when
transforming with MSXML, where I get

<a/>
<b/>

I did come up with a kludge, thanks to
http://www.mcse.ms/archive111-2004-6-755648.html, by manipulating
the XmlDocument structure before saving the file. I think it's
most easily described as code:

public static XmlDocument FixEmptyElements(XmlDocument document)
{
FixEmptyNodeRecursively(document.DocumentElement);
return document;
}

private static void FixEmptyNodeRecursively(XmlElement element)
{
if (!element.HasChildNodes && !element.IsEmpty)
element.IsEmpty = true;
foreach (XmlNode node in element.ChildNodes)
{
XmlElement el = node as XmlElement;
if (el != null)
FixEmptyNodeRecursively(el);
}
}

I just recursively go through all elements and sets IsEmpty true
on those who have no child nodes.

Is there a more elegant way to achieve this? May there be an
attribute somewhere I may set to avoid XslTransform creating
empty elements with end tags? Also, I wonder if my code may harm
other parts of my xml document, I'm kind of a newbie at this.

By the way, I know that <a/> and <a> </a> should be equal, but
I'm using 3rd party components that chokes on the former. I think
I will take it up with my vendor, but I'm not a customer yet,
just evaluating their software ;-)

- Geir

[Derek Harmon]

"Geir Sørensen" <gs*@pvv.org> wrote in message news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...

When I transform an xml-file using XslTransform, I seem to get a
lot of elements of this form:

<a> </a> : : But I really would like to get written out like I do when : : <a/>

Try wrapping an XmlTextWriter around the output from the
XslTransform's Transform( ) method. This XmlTextWriter is
responsible for intercepting calls to the WriteFullEndElement( )
method, and substituting calls to WriteEndElement( ) that
produces the more compact empty element. Here's an
example:

- - - XmlTextWriterEE.cs (complete)
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;

/// <summary>
/// Wrapper that forces more compact empty element end
/// tags to be written whenever possible.
/// </summary>
public class XmlTextWriterEE : XmlTextWriter
{
public XmlTextWriterEE( TextWriter sink) : base( sink) {;}
public override void WriteFullEndElement() {
base.WriteEndElement();
}
}
- - -

Usage would work something like this,

xslDoc.Transform( xmlDoc.CreateNavigator( ),
null, new XmlTextWriterEE( Console.Out) );
Derek Harmon