Xml indents vs tabs in InDesign: whitespaces & linebreaks

Question

Hi hello!
My name is Steven and I have an issue concerning working with XML for use in InDesign.
I've made a valid .xml document structured with tags, so I can use the tags for rendering the lay-out (using InDesign styles).
The mapping works well, but the hangups are whitespaces and line breaks.
Now, what's a bit confusing is the fact that when I import the XML file into my InDesign document, it renders aswell the used tabs of my XML file.
Basically InDesign seems to pick up whatever whitespace and linebreaks are found in the XML files.
But these are meaningless to XML and HTML, so why does InDesign treat and XML file as if it's a formatted document?
I found some whitespace handlings such as <?whitespace-handling use-characters?> but they don't work for me...
Perhaps it's something I'm doing wrong? I just want InDesign to keep the linebreaks I'm using in my XML file, but not to use the tabs i'm using in XML as they just are necessary to keep the overview (legibiltiy) of my structured XML file.
If someone wants so snif in my project it's possible by using the following link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/oaqk31yr1aykf5y/xml-sip.zip
I appreciate your comments!
Othere related/simular issues: http://www.justskins.com/forums/xml-import-whitespace-and-78216.html

Answer 1

Six_Steven,
The past three and some hours I've been struggling with the exact same issue. I want *some* of the white space imported (at the end of tags that translate to paragraphs) but not *all* (i.e., in my source about every major XML element ends with a hard return).
This post
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/510602
gave me the crucial hint. Here is what I did: uncheck "Import white-space only elements". That way, you get everything on the same line. That's what I wanted  because I also have a simple XSLT file that basically says
<xsl:template match="title"><title><xsl:apply-templates /><xsl:text>
</xsl:text></title></xsl:template>
for each of the elements where I do want a hard return at the end. Note the <xsl:text>..</xsl:text>, which contains only a single Return. This is "the" trick; all redundant white space is removed, and this one command inserts it where needed.
(Edit) oh wait ... I needed "only one more thing" with this. And, naturally, this trick works three times but I cannot get it to work a fourth time.
(Edit #2) Solved, after another 2 hours or so of teeth-grinding and hair-pulling.
The trick seems to be:
1. Do not use InDesign's own 'ignore whitespace'. It's worthless, in the sense it's an all-or-nothing option -- and you don't want either.
2. Using XSLT, remove all whitespace inside all elements using
<xsl:template match="text()"><xsl:value-of select="normalize-space()"/></xsl:template>
3. .. and selectively maintain whitespace where you want it using
<xsl:template match="saveInside//text()"><xsl:value-of select="."/></xsl:template>
where saveInside is the name of the main XML tag in which you do want the original whitespace to remain.