Hi Michael,
Only have time for a quick response. Like Jonathan Rochkind said,
there's not really a built in way into XSL to refer to these things
like some other languages. The reason is typically the XSL processor
is used by some other language/system to transform a stylesheet, not
connected directly to the web server. The cgi example works because
you have mod_perl or something similar to set the variables. In this
case tomcat and the underlying java programs are going to be a layer
between the web server and the actual XSL sheets. (There's another
model where you send both the xml and the xsl to the client and the
client transforms it, but that's been problematic iin the past).
That being said, XSL does support parameters that can be passed into
the stylesheet. I know I've used java-type environments that used XSL
that made sure to pass on any "environmental" and http-based variables
in the stylesheet. At this point perhaps tomcat and saxon (I'd guess
it's using saxon, maybe xalan) might be more tightly intergrated.
Given the application I would suspect you're using though, I wouldn't
count on those types of variables being passed in. If they are, they
might not be documentted. If you poke around the xsl files and they
are, you might see something like xsl:param name="myils:server" or
something.. The trick I've seen with a lot of these that you'll have
to explicitly state the parameter at the top in order to use it.
Various parsers might have a way to have the processor dump out what
parameters were passed into it, but I can't think of any off hand.
Many processors have system-properties, and in fact I think they all
are supposed to implement ...system-property('xsl:vendor'). I seem to
remember some processor extending this function to include some other
properties.
You might also want to look at
http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list/processor-version.xsl (view
source) for some ideas on how to get a better grip on what XSLT
processor is being used.
(The XSL FAQ is long and a little confusing, but has gret nuggets of
information).
http://www.dpawson.co.uk/xsl/sect2/sect21.html
Sorry I can't be of more help.
Jon Gorman
