Disable output escaping in transformations

This article shows how to disable output escaping in transformations.

Original product version:   Microsoft XML
Original KB number:   315717

This step-by-step article describes how to disable output escaping of characters such as < and > in an XML style sheet transformation.

To guarantee that any XSL transformation output is a well-formed document, the angle bracket characters (< and >) are transformed by default into < and > character sequences. However, sometimes this behavior is not desirable, such as when you want to generate a Document Type Declaration (DTD) in the output document:

<!DOCTYPE StaffMember [
 <!ELEMENT StaffMember (#PCDATA)>
]>

The following list outlines the recommended hardware, software, network infrastructure, and service packs that are required:

• Microsoft XML version 3.0 or later

  This article assumes that you are familiar with the following topics:

• XML and XSL transformations and the MSXML component

• Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript)

• XML Document Object Model (DOM)

1. Open a text editor such as Notepad, and then paste the following XML in a document:

   <?xml version="1.0"?>
   <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="Transform.xsl"?>
   <Employee>
       <Name>Chris</Name>
   </Employee>
   

2. Save this file as Source.xml.

3. Create a new file in your text editor, and then paste the following XSL style sheet in the file.

   Note

   The disable-output-escaping="yes" attribute in the first xsl:value-of tag:

   <?xml version="1.0"?>
   <xsl:stylesheet 
    version="1.0" 
    xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
   
   <xsl:output method="xml" omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>
       <xsl:template match="Employee">
           <xsl:value-of 
            disable-output-escaping="yes"
            select="concat('&lt;!DOCTYPE StaffMember [',
            '&lt;!ELEMENT StaffMember (#PCDATA)&gt;',
            ']&gt;')" />
           <StaffMember>
               <xsl:value-of select="Name"/>
           </StaffMember>
       </xsl:template>
   </xsl:stylesheet>
   

4. Save this file as Transform.xsl in the same folder as the XML document that you created.

1. Create a new file in your text editor, and then paste the following script in the file: Option Explicit

   Dim objSource
   Dim objTransform
   Dim sResult
   
   Set objSource = CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument")
   objSource.async = False
   objSource.load "Source.xml"
   
   Set objTransform = CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument")
   objTransform.async = False
   objTransform.load "Transform.xsl"
   
   sResult = objSource.TransformNode(objTransform.documentElement)
   
   WScript.Echo sResult
   

2. Save this file as Xform.vbs in the same folder as the XML document and the XSL style sheet that you created.

1. Open a command prompt, and then locate the folder that contains your three files.

2. Type cscript xform.vbs at the command prompt.

3. The output from the transformation is displayed as follows on the screen:

   <!DOCTYPE StaffMember [<!ELEMENT StaffMember (#PCDATA)>]>
   <StaffMember>Chris</StaffMember>
   

Be careful when you use the disable-output-escaping attribute. If the generated < and > characters do not match up, the output document will not be well-formed XML. The transformNodeToObject method requires the result to be well formed, so the method might not complete if disable-output-escaping is used.