Name

<xsl:fallback> — Defines a template that should be used when an extension element can’t be found.

Category

Instruction

Required Attributes

None.

Optional Attributes

None.

Content

An XSLT template.

Appears in

<xsl:fallback> appears inside a template.

Defined in

XSLT section 15, Fallback.

Example

Here is a stylesheet that uses <xsl:fallback> to terminate the transformation if an extension element can’t be found:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" 
  xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
  xmlns:db="xalan://DatabaseExtension"
  extension-element-prefixes="db">

  <xsl:output method="html"/>

  <xsl:template match="/">
    <html>
      <head>
        <title><xsl:value-of select="report/title"/></title>
      </head>
      <body>
        <h1><xsl:value-of select="report/title"/></h1>
        <xsl:for-each select="report/section">
          <h2><xsl:value-of select="title"/></h2>
          <xsl:for-each select="dbaccess">
            <db:accessDatabase>
              <xsl:fallback>
                <xsl:message terminate="yes">
                  Database library not available!
                </xsl:message>
              </xsl:fallback> 
            </db:accessDatabase>
          </xsl:for-each>
        </xsl:for-each>
      </body>
    </html>
  </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

When we use this stylesheet to transform a document, the <xsl:fallback> element is processed if the extension element can’t be found:

Database library not available!

Processing terminated using xsl:message

In this case, the extension element is the Java class DatabaseExtension. If, for whatever reason, that class can’t be loaded, the <xsl:fallback> element is processed. Note that the <xsl:fallback> element ...

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