Help exporting using XSLT

[Mark Bowen]

Hi there,

First of all can I apologise if I am doing the wrong thing in posting here. I have already posted at http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/168856/ but wasn't too sure if that was the right place to post as there have been views but no replies. So I apologise if I am doing wrong, I don't mean to I just could really do with a hand if someone has the time to lend.

Thanks!

Mark Bowen

I am very new to all the transformation of XML to HTML using XSLT but was wondering if someone could take a stab at leading me in the right direction.

I have been trying for the past 12 hours to create something which I am sure must be able to be done with utter ease but it is just eluding me as to how to do it.

My problem is this :

I work for a commercial production company as the Senior Producer where we create radio adverts. With each advert we have to supply the details of any music tracks used for PRS details.

Basically in the simplest form I have a table in the database called Music Details which stores the ad title, music publisher, music catalogue, cd number, track number, composer and duration.

What I have to do each month is to export this data into a format that can be emailed to the PRS company.

Unfortunately they require this in Word (.doc) format. I know that there is no way that I am going to be able to learn enough to be able to do this using XSLT from Filemaker so I noticed that Word can open up and display HTML files quite well and as the format that they are asking for the data to be supplied in is fairly simple this is what I thought I would do! - INSERT HEADACHE!!

SIDENOTE : I have been using a sort of Mail Merge from within Word at the moment as that is the only way in which I can get this all to work but as I have to submit the details for over 35 stations this is starting to get a little long winded and so I am trying to find a much easier way of doing all of this and automating it as much as possible

What I need to do would be able to be done with the Export as HTML Table in the export dialogue of Filemaker if it wasn't for the fact that unfortunately the PRS company need to have a header part to the document with various parts filled in. INSERT ANOTHER HEADACHE!!

Basically what I need to create is shown here at :

http://www.soundlogic.co.uk/userDownloads/headerTrial.html

This is a very simple, non styled version but will give the general idea I hope.

Where in the table at the bottom there are all the columns such as number of commercials, commercial title and so on I have this data as seperate fields in the database. What I need to do is to spit out these details in rows underneath the headings mentioned just now.

I would like to do this using XML export and an XSLT stylesheet but for the life of me can't figure it out!

All the examples I could find to do with Filemaker and XML-XSLT were all done using a 'for-each' style syntax and I think that what I really need to do is to say (in simple terms as at the moment I feel a bit simple!!)

place this field in this table cell then place this field in this table cell and so on and so forth.

The only other thing I would need to do is to place the station name into the document header in the relevant place and also the month.

I have tried with about 15 different ways now and none of them will even get as far as spitting out a file for me as I keep on getting errors in Filemaker.

If anyone could possibly take a look at this and give me a helping hand then I would be exceptionally greatful as this is starting to give me a headache and I will probably have to otherwise admit defeat and go back to submitting these details in a very long and laborious fashion.

Thankyou in advance for any help with this matter.

Regards,

Mark Bowen