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XPath Problems - why can't I match elements?

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XPath Problems - why can't I match elements?
April 30, 2011 - 08:33
kolotyluk
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Joined: 2007-01-02
Points: 0

Here is some XML code:

<CxF xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://colorexchangeformat.com/CxF3-core" xsi:schemaLocation="http://colorexchangeformat.com/CxF3-core CxF3_Core.xsd">
    <FileInformation>
        <Creator>X-Rite - RFW</Creator>
        <CreationDate>2009-08-18T12:15:33-05:00</CreationDate>
        <Description>Example CXF3 file</Description>
    </FileInformation>
    <Resources>
        <ObjectCollection>

and some Java code
    XPath xpath = xPathFactory.newXPath();
    XPathExpression expr = xpath.compile("*");
    Object result = expr.evaluate(documentElement, XPathConstants.NODESET);
    NodeList nodes = (NodeList) result;
    if (nodes.getLength() < 1)
    {
        getLogger().error("not found");
    }
    for (int i = 0; i < nodes.getLength(); i++) {
        getLogger().info(" node name = " + nodes.item(i).getNodeName());
    }

which produces
[2011-04-30 08:18:15,845]  INFO    95[main] -  node name = FileInformation
[2011-04-30 08:18:15,845]  INFO    95[main] -  node name = Resources
[2011-04-30 08:18:15,845]  INFO    95[main] -  node name = CustomResources

Now, if I change
    XPathExpression expr = xpath.compile("*");

to
    XPathExpression expr = xpath.compile("FileInformation");
    XPathExpression expr = xpath.compile("//FileInformation");
    XPathExpression expr = xpath.compile("/CxF/FileInformation");
    XPathExpression expr = xpath.compile("/*/FileInformation");

or any number of permutations that should work, I always get
[2011-04-30 08:28:48,739] ERROR    97[main] - not found

I've been playing around with this for hours, and as far as I can tell, it is impossible to match any element names. Is there some configuration problems I am missing somewhere?

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Re: XPath Problems - why can't I match elements?
May 2, 2011 - 00:59
#1
mcnepp
Offline
Joined: 2005-06-22
Points: 0

The problem is that your XML document defines an XML namespace identified by the URL "http://colorexchangeformat.com/CxF3-core"
(In fact, it is a default namespace, since it uses no prefix.)
Thus, there is actually no root node "CxF", but rather a root node "someUndefinedNamespacePrefix:CxF".
You need to do the following things in order to make your XPath expression work:
1. Make sure your document was parsed with namespace-awareness switched on (See download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/javax/xml/parsers/DocumentBuilderFactory.html#setNamespaceAware(boolean)).
2. Implement the interface download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/javax/xml/namespace/NamespaceContext.html and map the namespace URL to an arbitrary prefix.
3. Tell the XPath about your namespace context, using download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/javax/xml/xpath/XPath.html#setNamespaceContext(javax.xml.namespace.NamespaceContext)