Customizing the Built-In DITA XSLT Output

The built-in DITA XSLT stylesheet uses a common pattern for all elements, enabling simple customization using custom template modes.

html-tag-name

Use this mode to specify the HTML element name.

<xsl:template match="&topic;/&topic;//&topic;/&title;" mode="html-tag-name">
  <xsl:text>h4</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>

html-atts

Use this mode to specify additional attributes to be placed on the HTML element for the tag.

<xsl:template match="&note;" mode="html-atts">
  <xsl:attribute name="data-note-type" select="@type"/>
</xsl:template>

output-class

Use this mode to contribute tokens to the HTML @class attribute on the generated HTML element. It's generally a good idea to end such a template with <xsl:next-match/> to ensure all contributions to @class are processed.

<xsl:template match="&tm;" mode="output-class">
  <xsl:value-of select="@tmtype"/>
  <xsl:next-match/>
</xsl:template>

Note: By default, all element names in the specialization hierarchy are automatically included in the HTML @class attribute. For example, the @class attribute for <xmlelement>, which is specialized from <markupname> and <keyword>, is class="keyword markupname xmlelement". In addition, the @outputclass values also appended to the HTML @class.

gentext-before-outer

gentext-before-inner

gentext-after-inner

gentext-after-outer

These modes enable you to easily insert content before and/or after an element's content. The inner variants will place the generated code inside the wrapper element; the outer variations, outside the wrapping elements. When using this mode, it's best practice to end with <xsl:next-match/> to ensure that all generated text is processed.

<xsl:template match="&q;" mode="gentext-before-inner gentext-after-inner">
  <xsl:text>"</xsl:text>
  <xsl:next-match/>
</xsl:template>