As DC says, the first thing you need to do with this stylesheet is to get
rid of the d-o-e: using d-o-e is fighting against the language rather than
going with the grain.

It would also be a good idea to sort out these constructs:

<xsl:variable name="pagename">
	<xsl:value-of select="../page_info/@pagename"/>
</xsl:variable>

This should almost always be simplified to:

<xsl:variable name="pagename" select="../page_info/@pagename"/>

(This isn't just cosmetic: you are creating lots of copies of data where you
only need a reference to the original data).

Your stylesheet contains

<xsl:choose> 
   <xsl:if test="count(news_post) &lt; 3">

which the compiler should have thrown out: the only things allowed inside
xsl:choose are xsl:when and xsl:otherwise.

As for the substance of your question, I'm sorry, but I can't see the
relationship between the code you presented and the question you asked.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brian Phelps [mailto:bphelps@xxxxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: 26 February 2005 23:35
> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject:  how to get variable value outside scope
> 
> I have an application whose data resides in an Access database. The
> application bascially loops through a number of categories, 
> and for each
> item ("news_post") in each category, loops through and transforms the
> data into HTML. What I am trying to do is capture the value of the
> "category" variable and pass it outside the current scope so 
> I can link
> to another page with more content relevant to the specific category. 
> 
> I don't know how to either declare the variable in a scope that will
> achieve my purpose, or pass the value through. 
> 
> http://iisstage.pacific.edu/homepage/events/pacific-event-calendar.asp
> 
> Above is a link to the output and here's the code below. Any 
> help would
> be appreciated.
> 
> 
> 
> <?xml version="1.0"?>
> <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
> xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
> xmlns:ms="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt">
> 	<xsl:output method="html"/>
> 	<xsl:template match="/">
> 		<div>
> 			<xsl:apply-templates/>
> 		</div>
> 	</xsl:template>
> 	<xsl:template match="news_posts">
> 		<!-- check for empty node - no posts found - give error
> message if not -->
> 		<xsl:if test="not(node())">
> 			<tr>
> 				<xsl:text
> disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;td width="100%"
> valign="top"&gt;</xsl:text>
>    			No events are currently scheduled.
> 		 <xsl:text
> disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;/td&gt;</xsl:text>
> 			</tr>
> 		</xsl:if>
> 		<!-- display posts if found -->
> 		<xsl:variable name="pagename">
> 			<xsl:value-of select="../page_info/@pagename"/>
> 		</xsl:variable>
> 		<xsl:variable name="single">
> 			<xsl:value-of
> select="../page_info/@singlepost"/>
> 		</xsl:variable>
> 		<!-- output only first 2 posts -->
> 		<xsl:choose> 
> 		<xsl:if test="count(news_post) &lt; 3">
> 		<!-- end test count value -->
> 		<xsl:text>News post count 1A: </xsl:text>
> 		<xsl:value-of disable-output-escaping="yes"
> select="count(news_post)"></xsl:value-of><br />
> 		<xsl:for-each select="news_post">
> 			<xsl:sort order="ascending" select="."/>
> 			<xsl:attribute
> name="id"><xsl:text>zNews</xsl:text><xsl:value-of
> select="position()"/></xsl:attribute>
> 			<tr>
> 				<xsl:text
> disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;td valign="top" width="33%"
> class='zcontent'&gt;</xsl:text>
> 				<xsl:value-of select="short"
> disable-output-escaping="yes" />
> 				<xsl:text
> disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;/td&gt;</xsl:text>
> 				<xsl:text
> disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;td valign="top" width="66%"
> class='zcontent'&gt;</xsl:text>
> 					<div class="zheadline">
> 					 <a class="zheadtitleUnderline">
> 						<xsl:attribute
> name="href">
> 						
> <xsl:text>mainevents.asp?postid=</xsl:text>
> 						 <xsl:value-of
> select="@postid" />
> 						</xsl:attribute>
> 						 <xsl:value-of
> select="title" disable-output-escaping="yes" />
> 					 </a>
> 					 </div>
> 				<xsl:text
> disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;/td&gt;</xsl:text>
> 				<!-- check value -->
> 				<xsl:value-of select="news_post"
> disable-output-escaping="yes"/>
> 				<xsl:text
> disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;/tr&gt;</xsl:text>
> 				<!-- print test count value -->
> 				
> 				
> 				
> 			<xsl:text
> disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;/td&gt;</xsl:text>
> 		</tr>
> 			<!--</xsl:if>-->
> 		</xsl:for-each>
> 		<!-- end test for number of posts -->
> 		</xsl:if>
> 		<xsl:if test="$nPosts &gt; 1"> 
> 				 	<tr>
> 					<xsl:text
> disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;td colspan=2 valign ="top"
> width="100%" class='zcontent'&gt;</xsl:text>
> 						 <div align="right">
> 						 <xsl:text
> disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;a href='pacific-</xsl:text>
> 						 <xsl:value-of
> select="category" disable-output-escaping="yes" />
> 						 <!--<xsl:value-of
> select="$nCategory" disable-output-escaping="yes" />-->
> 						 <xsl:text
> disable-output-escaping="yes">-events.asp'&gt;more
> &gt;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</xsl:text>
> 						 </div>
> 					<xsl:text
> disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;/td&gt;</xsl:text>
> 					</tr>	 
> 				</xsl:if>
> 		
> 
> Brian Phelps
> 
> Web Manager
> Marketing and University Relations
> (209) 946-3273 PST
> 
> For current web site updates, stay informed:
> http://www.pacific.edu/developers/
> 
> AIM/Yahoo IM: btphelps
> icq: 221376
> 
> University of the Pacific
> Stockton, CA
> www.pacific.edu