XSLT Can't Read an Excel XML File? - excel

Question

I'm using XSLT / XPath to browse some of the XML files you get when you unzip an Excel file. I found a "relationships" file workbook.xml.rels that I don't seem to be able to read, using code similar to that which successfully read the workbook.xml file.
Here's some of the workbook.xml file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<workbook xmlns="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main"
...
<sheets>
<sheet name="Sheet1"
sheetId="2"
r:id="rId1"/>
<sheet name="Test Sheet"
sheetId="1"
r:id="rId2"/>
</sheets>
...
</workbook>
Here's the workbook.xml.rels file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<Relationships xmlns="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/package/2006/relationships">
<Relationship Id="rId3"
Type="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/theme"
Target="theme/theme1.xml"/>
<Relationship Id="rId2"
Type="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/worksheet"
Target="worksheets/sheet2.xml"/>
<Relationship Id="rId1"
Type="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/worksheet"
Target="worksheets/sheet1.xml"/>
<Relationship Id="rId5"
Type="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/sharedStrings"
Target="sharedStrings.xml"/>
<Relationship Id="rId4"
Type="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/styles"
Target="styles.xml"/>
</Relationships>
Here's some of the XSLT:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- greeting.xsl -->
<xsl:stylesheet
...
<xsl:output method="text"/>
<xsl:variable name="baseDir" select="replace(document-uri(.), '(.*[\\/]xl).*', '$1/')"/>
<xsl:variable name="workbook" select="concat($baseDir, 'workbook.xml')"/>
<xsl:variable name="theSheetId" select="doc($workbook)/workbook/sheets/sheet[matches(#name, 'Test Sheet')]/#r:id"/>
<xsl:variable name="workbook_rels" select="concat($baseDir, '_rels/workbook.xml.rels')"/>
<!-- code to read workbook.xml.rels -->
<xsl:variable name="theSheet" select="doc($workbook_rels)/Relationships/Relationship[matches(#Id, $theSheetId)]/#Target"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:text>
baseDir = </xsl:text><xsl:value-of select="$baseDir"/>
<xsl:text>
workbook = </xsl:text><xsl:value-of select="$workbook"/>
<xsl:text>
workbook_rels = </xsl:text><xsl:value-of select="$workbook_rels"/>
<xsl:text>
theSheetId = </xsl:text><xsl:value-of select="$theSheetId"/>
<xsl:text>
theSheet = </xsl:text><xsl:value-of select="$theSheet"/>
<xsl:text>
end</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
And the output:
baseDir = file:/C:/Training/sandbox/conv_/xl/
workbook = file:/C:/Training/sandbox/conv_/xl/workbook.xml
workbook_rels = file:/C:/Training/sandbox/conv_/xl/_rels/workbook.xml.rels
theSheetId = rId2
theSheet = **<I get nothing here>**
end
You can see that 'theSheetID' variable is correctly set when reading workbook.xml. But when I use that variable to get the corresponding Target value into 'theSheet' variable from workbook.xml.rels, I get nothing. I tried replacing the matches expression with just a number but I still get nothing. Is there a problem from reading this type of file?
Suggestions? Thanks!

Answer 1

The use of matches and replace suggests you are using an XSLT 2 or 3 processor and that way XSLT 2 or 3 where you can certainly declare xpath-default-namespace, you just have to understand you have to change that in the sections that deal with elements from a different namespace e.g. <xsl:variable name="theSheet" select="doc($workbook_rels)/Relationships/Relationship[matches(#Id, $theSheetId)]/#Target" xpath-default-namespace="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/package/2006/relationships"/>.
Given the samples I would rather use a key <xsl:key name="rel" match="Relationships/Relationship" use="#Id" xpath-default-namespace="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/package/2006/relationships"/> and then use <xsl:variable name="theSheet" select="key('rel,$theSheetId, doc($workbook_rels))/#Target"/> but the use of xpath-default-namespace to declare the relevant namespace when selecting elements from a particular document is probably what is missing in your XSLT.