OK, I was able to solve this. My problem being that I forgot the varialbe_keywords.ditamap was not always *being processed* --- so it was an external file located in the temp output dir during processing. So, the solution is, set a path to the file:

<xsl:param name="PATH2PROJ">

<xsl:apply-templates select="/processing-instruction('path2project-uri')[1]" mode="get-path2project"/>

</xsl:param>

<xsl:param name="WORKDIR">

<xsl:apply-templates select="/processing-instruction('workdir-uri')[1]" mode="get-work-dir"/>

</xsl:param>

<xsl:variable name="VAR-FILE" select="concat($WORKDIR,$PATH2PROJ,'variable_keywords.ditamap')"/>

Then use the doc() function to point to this external file:

<xsl:comment>

<xsl:value-of select="doc($VAR-FILE)/map/keydef[@keys='var_release_version']/topicmeta/keywords/keyword"/>

</xsl:comment>

If anyone knows a more elegant solution, feel free to post it back.

Mary

On Fri, Dec 5, 2014 at 8:12 AM, Mary Anthony <mary@platfora.com> wrote:

Hi,

I am adding a comment to each file that contains a release number. The release number is one of many variables defined in a variable_keywords.ditamap file. This file is a child of my main ditamap.

Using the XPath Builder, I tested and found this path located the node I needed. (Below is a pic showing the path succeeding.) When I encode this path in the dita2webhelp.xsl file, the transformation succeeds but the node's RELEASE_VERSION content is not output:

<xsl:comment>
<xsl:value-of select="/map/keydef[@keys='var_release_version']/topicmeta/keywords/keyword"/>
</xsl:comment>

What am I doing wrong?

PICTURE SHOWING THE PATH