How do I Emit Escaped XML representation of a Node in my XSLT's HTML Output

Question

I\'m transforming XML to an HTML document. In this document I want to embed XML markup for a node that was just transformed (the HTML document is a technical spec).

Answer 1

The answer to this is more complex that you would at first think. Proper "double-escaping" of attribute values and text nodes must occur.

This XSLT 1.0 template does a correct (though not complete) printing of an XML node, including (an attempt to do) proper pretty-printing with configurable indentation:

When applied to this test XML:

  
    
      
        
Various bits & pieces
        

        
        

          text and <escaped-text />
        
      
  

The following output is produced (source code):

<node id="1">
    <!-- a comment -->
    <stuff type="fl&quot;'&#xD;&#x9;oatsam">
        <details>Various bits &amp; pieces</details>
        <details />
        <details attr="value">
            <childnode>text and &lt;escaped-text /&lt;</childnode>
        </details>
    </stuff>
</node>

and when viewed in the browser you see:

    
    
        
Various bits & pieces
        

        

            text and <escaped-text /<
        
    

Note that by "not complete" I mean that things like namespaces and processing instructions for example are currently unhandled. But its easy to make a template for them.