Change namespace in XSLT with unknown prefix

Question

I would like to change namespace in XML file with XSLT based only on namespace-uri without knowing what prefix this namespace has defined. Is it possible?

I get some solution but they work only with small files when I know the input and can setup xsl file kinda manualy.

What I would like to achieve:

INPUT XML:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <re:rootElement xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" 
xmlns:re="http://something.com/root"
xmlns:ns1="http://something.com/some/schema"
xmlns:cs2="http://something.com/another/schema"
xmlns:ns3="http://something.com/different/schema"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" >
<xsd:import namespace="http://something.com/another/schema" schemaLocation="/schema/location"/>

(multiple nodes below)

XSLT that takes 2 parameters:

<xsl:param name="old_namespace" select="'http://something.com/another/schema'"/>
<xsl:param name="new_namespace" select="'http://something.com/another/schemaNEW'"/>

And output as xml:

    <re:rootElement xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" 
xmlns:re="http://something.com/root"
xmlns:ns1="http://something.com/some/schema"
xmlns:cs2="http://something.com/another/schemaNEW"
xmlns:ns3="http://something.com/different/schema"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" >
 <xsd:import namespace="http://something.com/another/schemaNEW" schemaLocation="/schema/location"/>
(multiple nodes below)

1. How important is to parametrize the namespaces? Couldn't they be hard-coded in the XSLT stylesheet? -- 2. Does your processor support XSLT 2.0? — michael.hor257k
– michael.hor257k, Commented May 30, 2019 at 19:44
1. It is importat but for now as a quick solution I think I would appreciate hardcoded version in xslt 2. Yes Im using Saxon 9 — Tomasz
– Tomasz, Commented May 30, 2019 at 19:47
Do note that your input is not well-formed XML, because the prefix reis not bound to a namespace. — michael.hor257k
– michael.hor257k, Commented May 30, 2019 at 19:51
It is easy to match and change nodes in a certain namespace. Doing the same with element or attribute value would require the use of schema-aware XSLT. Or how do you expect the XSLT processor to know that the namespace attribute contains a namespace to change? Do you know the structure of the input XML, the possible attributes to change? — Martin Honnen
– Martin Honnen, Commented May 30, 2019 at 20:05

Michael Kay · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-31 17:00:34Z

1

It's not difficult to change the namespace URI used in namespace nodes and in the names of elements and attributes. In a schema-aware stylesheet, it's also possible (but perhaps harder) to change the namespace URI used in values of type QName. It's rather harder, I suspect, to change namespace URIs that appear:

directly in attributes such as xsi:schemaLocation or xs:import (unless you enumerate such attributes)
in the names of NOTATIONs
in content with a micro-syntax, e.g. consider

<xsl:if test="namespace-uri() = 'http://old-namespace.com/'>

If it's just namespaces used in element and attributes that you're after, then you can use

<xsl:template match="*[namespace-uri()=$old-namespace]">
  <xsl:element name="{name()}" namespace="{$new-namespace}">
    <xsl:apply-templates select="@*, node()"/>
  </xsl:element>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="@*[namespace-uri()='$old-namespace']">
  <xsl:attribute name="{name()}" namespace="{$new-namespace}" select="."/>
</xsl:template>

along with the identity template (or in 3.0, <xsl:mode on-no-match="shallow-copy"/>) to make sure that other elements and attributes are copied unchanged.

(This is XSLT 2.0 but could easily be rewritten in 1.0).

edited May 31, 2019 at 17:00

answered May 30, 2019 at 23:03

Michael Kay

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5 Comments

Martin Honnen Over a year ago

namespace-uri()='$old-namespace' should be namespace-uri()=$old-namespace. And the select="{.}" simply select=".".

Tomasz Over a year ago

Thank you. It looks fine and simple but when running with saxon xsl deletes all tags in output xml document. I use it like this: gist.github.com/Tomasz9248/7e31d5f0c2d800e5dc558797d944f3ae

Martin Honnen Over a year ago

@Tomasz, you will need to use the identity transformation as a starting point e.g. by declaring <xsl:mode on-no-match="shallow-copy"/> in XSLT 3 or by including the template <xsl:template match="@* | node()"><xsl:copy><xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()"/></xsl:copy></xsl:template> in XSLT 2 or 1.

Tomasz Over a year ago

I did but still cant change namespace uri in root element.

Michael Kay Over a year ago

Then you need to tell us exactly what you are doing and exactly how it is failing. Probably best to start a new question.

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