web service call: curl output to xsltproc input

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

I need to invoke a web service and extract what I need from the response using a combination of curl and xsltproc. However, any file-based parameters that must be supplied to both these programs must be from stdin and not actual files.

At least with curl, it seems to think that I am supplying a file with the "--data @" parameter, while what I am actually doing is supplying the contents of the expected file via standard input (by placing a hyphen next to the @ symbol). With xsltproc, it is a little more tricky because the syntax is...

xsltproc stylesheet xml-file

If I used the same trick to supply the XML-file contents to xsltproc via stdin, that works (see below):

xsltproc remove-soap-envelope.xslt - <<EOF
... // XML response
EOF

...but I don't know how to specify the stylesheet via stdin.

Below are all the relevant details.

The following Bash script sends a SOAP request via curl.
holidayrequest.sh

ENDPOINT="http://server/webservices/operations-ws"
startDate="2011-06-30"
duration=3
curl --silent --user-agent "" --data @- --header "Content-Type: text/xml; charset=UTF-8" ${ENDPOINT} <<EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:sch="http://server.com/webservices/operations/schema">
   <soapenv:Header/>
   <soapenv:Body>
      <sch:HolidayRequest>
         <sch:Duration>${duration}</sch:Duration>
         <sch:StartDate>${startDate}</sch:StartDate>
      </sch:HolidayRequest>
   </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>
EOF

The following [sample] SOAP response is received by stdout (formatted for clarity):

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns2="http://server/webservices/operations/schema">
   <soapenv:Header />
   <soapenv:Body>
      <ns2:HolidayResponse>
         <ns2:Status>Approved</ns2:Status>
      </ns2:HolidayResponse>
   </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

(I saved the above response to output.xml and transformed it using an XSLT stylesheet remove-soap-envelope.xslt and xsltproc; "Approved" prints to stdout.)

remove-soap-envelope.xslt

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
   <xsl:output method="text" />
   <xsl:template match='//Status'>
      <xsl:value-of select="." />
   </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

A push in the right direction will be much appreciated!

Thanks.

Ashwin

2

Why can you not hardcode in the name of the stylesheet?

Oh, and by the way, your stylesheet is incorrect. Compare the output of your stylesheet and the following stylesheet

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
                              xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
                              xmlns:ns2="http://server/webservices/operations/schema">

   <xsl:output method="text" />

   <xsl:template match='soapenv:Envelope'>
       <xsl:apply-templates select="soapenv:Body"/>
   </xsl:template>

   <xsl:template match='soapenv:Body'>
       <xsl:apply-templates select="ns2:HolidayResponse"/>
   </xsl:template>

   <xsl:template match='ns2:HolidayResponse'>
       <xsl:apply-templates select="ns2:Status"/>
   </xsl:template>

   <xsl:template match='ns2:Status'>
      <xsl:value-of select="." />
   </xsl:template>


</xsl:stylesheet>
3

I don't want to maintain a separate file for the stylesheet, if I can help it. And the stylesheet I posted works -- this is straight from working code.

Thanks.

4

Yes it works - but only by accident. Your stylesheet ignores namespaces. Have you compared the output from each?