Re: [xml] Xpath namespaces

[Daniel Veillard <veillard redhat com>]

On Tue, Aug 21, 2007 at 04:16:33PM -0400, Glenn MacGregor wrote:
>    I  an  using xmlXPathRegisterNS to register the soap namespace, but in
>    the  getUIDResponse  the default namespace is changed. I assume I have
>    to   register  that  ([6]http://www.hidden.com/Servicecs/1.0)  as  the
>    default at some point.
>
>    Is this possible, how would I do this action?

  Not as the default, normally, and use the prefix in teh XPath query.
  This is XML namespace FAQ #1, covered here dozens of times and zillions
on any XML fora. The answer is the following:

   - 'foo' in XPath *cannot* match a namespaced element or attribute name
     whatever the default namespace or context information for the XPath
     query.
   - you must use a prefix, bound to the namespace name used for the default
     namespace in the query
     'prefix:foo' and define 'prefix' accordingly

This behaviour is actually a good thing even if newbies tends to not
understand it, following example provided to help understand the real
problem:

 <doc>
   <sub xmlns="ns1">
     <foo/>
   </sub>
   <sub>
     <foo/>
   </sub>
   <sub xmlns="ns2">
     <foo/>
   </sub>
 </doc>

it is *good* that "//foo" returns only one node on that document!
for the same reason that "//ns1:foo" with a namespace context {ns1:"ns1"}
also returns only one node.

Daniel

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