CODEWITHSUNDEEP
xmlxpath
praving5
praving5

Reputation: 87

local-name() not working in XPath

My XML is like below:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<web-app version="3.0" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee 
                             http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_0.xsd">
    <mime-mapping>
        <extension>123</extension>
        <mime-type>application/vnd.lotus-1-2-3</mime-type>
    </mime-mapping>
    <mime-mapping>
        <extension>3dml</extension>
        <mime-type>text/vnd.in3d.3dml</mime-type>
    </mime-mapping>
</web-app>

As you see, it has namespace so default xpath such as /web-app/mime-mapping/mime-type will not work.

Based on my reading on various threads, I tried:

/*[local-name()='web-app']/*[local-name()='mime-mapping']/*[local-name()='mime-type']

AND

/*[name()='web-app']/*[name()='mime-mapping']/*[name()='mime-type']

AND

/*[name()='web-app' and namespace-uri()='http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee']/*[name()='mime-mapping' and namespace-uri()='http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee']/*[name()='mime-type' and namespace-uri()='http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee']

But none seem to work. I am testing in http://www.freeformatter.com/xpath-tester.html. Also, I am testing in my tool which requires XPath 1.0 and it does not recognize any of the above either.

Any pointers?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2939

Answers (1)

kjhughes
kjhughes

Reputation: 111571

Your XPath is fine.

It is your tool (http://www.freeformatter.com/xpath-tester.html) that is the problem.

Do not use http://www.freeformatter.com/xpath-tester.html with XML that has a default namespace. It is noncompliant. You can see this in the error message that they post for your XML:

The default (no prefix) Namespace URI for XPath queries is always '' and it cannot be redefined to 'http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee'.

Compliant XPath processors will return

<mime-type xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee">application/vnd.lotus-1-2-3</mime-type>
<mime-type xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee">text/vnd.in3d.3dml</mime-type>

for your XPath, as expected.

Alternatively, and preferably, follow best practices and define a namespace prefix for the default namespace:

j="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"

and use it in the XPath rather than local-name():

/j:web-app/j:mime-mapping/j:mime-type

to get the same result properly without skirting namespaces.

Unfortunately, you cannot define a namespace prefix on the Freeformatter site, but you can on http://www.xpathtester.com/xpath as well as with most XPath libraries.

Upvotes: 2

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