Stylesheet that worked in FM11 throwing up issues with FM2015

The code you have supplied should be doing the following:

1. Take a length parameter
2. Separate it into variables named number and units
3. Use those variables to set a lenght-in-mm variable
4. Format the length-in-mm with two decimal places.

The error message you are getting is "Arithmetic operator is not defined for arguments of types (xs:string, xs:decimal)". This is because you are passing a string to an arithmetic operator, but the operator is expecting a number. I suspect the statements where the number variable is used to set the length-in-mm variable. for example:

        <!-- Output the length, translated into mm -->
        <xsl:variable name="length-in-mm">
            <xsl:choose>
                <xsl:when test="$units='cm'">
                    <xsl:value-of select="$number * 10"/>

If $number is a string, it would generate the error you are seeing

This is the code that sets the number variable

       <xsl:variable name="number" select="normalize-space(translate($length, '+-0123456789 abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', '0123456789'))"/>

It incorrectly does the following:

• translates a + character to a 0 (zero)
• translates a - character to a 1 (one)
• translates the digits 0-7 to the digits 2-9 respectively (i.e. adds 2)
• discards any 8, 9, space, or lowercase a-z

An alternative version of this line is commented out:

        <!--xsl:variable name="number" select="normalize-space(translate($length, '+-0123456789.abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', '+-0123456789.'))"/-->

This strips any lowercase a-z and is more likely to be correct.

I'd suggest backing up your current version, and then trying the following change at the start:

<xsl:template name="Get-size">
        <xsl:param name="length"/>
        <!-- Get the number part by blanking out the units part and discarding white space. -->
        <xsl:variable name="number" select="normalize-space(translate($length, ' abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', ''))"/>
        <!-- Get the units part by blanking out the number part and discarding white space. -->
        <xsl:variable name="units" select="normalize-space(translate($length, ' +-0123456789.', ''))"/>
        <!-- Output the length, translated into mm -->

It does essentially the same, but is easier to understand and maintain.

Hi stevet93033604,

I don't know an exact answer, but I do know that Adobe changed the default XML/XSLT processor in FM2015 (first patch) from Xalan to Saxon. This was apparently done to support XSLT 2.0. Maybe this is the source of the problem... Saxon doesn't like your stylesheet. Here was the announcement:

FrameMaker (2015 release) – Update 1 released – TechComm Central by Adobe

Fortunately, they put the option to use either processor in maker.ini. Are you familiar with working in that file? I would recommend you go to the following area and put the XALAN line first, in order to make it the default:

[XSLTProcessors]

I would try this before messing with the stylesheet.

Russ