[xsl] Using DOM with XSLT/XPATH (might be dangerous ?)

["Schramm, Oliver" <schramm at sony dot de>]

Hey guys,

I just found some code which I think might be quite dangerous.

assume the following transformation stylesheet:

  <xsl:transform>
>     ...
>     <xsl:variable name="foo" value="java:invoke(@method)"/>
>     <xsl:variable name="foo2"select="$foo\'xpath expression'"/>
>     ...
  </xsl:transform>

Here a method of a java object is invoked which returns an DOM
object. In the second variable assignment a 'xpath expression' is
applied to the the result (a dom tree). Well I was told that it works
but my personal view is that this is quite dangerous, for the following 
reasons:

a) It is assumed that the XSLT processor understands the DOM
    returned by the invoked java method.
b) It is assumed that the internal realization of the XPath is DOM 
    based.

Personally I wouldn't rely on such code. Am I a pessimist or what
is the opinion of other XSLT programmers ?

thanks for any feedback

regards

Oliver Schramm


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