XPath Syntax

XPath uses path expressions to select nodes or node-sets in an XML document. The node is selected by following a path or steps.

Selecting Node

XPath uses path expressions to select nodes in an XML document. The node is selected by following a path or steps. The must useful path expressions are listed below

Expression	Description
nodename	Selects all nodes with the name "nodename"
/	Selects from the root node
//	Selects nodes in the document from the current node that match the selection no matter where they are
.	Selects the current node
..	Selects the parent of the current node
@	Selects attributes

Path Expression

In the table below we have listed some path expressions and the result of the expressions:

Path Expression	Result
doc	Selects all nodes with the name "doc"
/doc	Selects the root element doc If the path starts with a slash ( / ) it always represents an absolute path to an element!
doc/connectorSpecific/field	Selects all field elements that are children of connectorSpecific
//field	Selects all field elements no matter where they are in the document
doc/connectorSpecific//field	Selects all field elements that are descendant of the connectorSpecific element, no matter where they are under the connectorSpecific element
//@name	Selects all attributes that are named name

Predicates

Predicates are used to find a specific node or a node that contains a specific value.

Predicates are always embedded in square brackets.

In the table below we have listed some path expressions with predicates and the result of the expressions:

Path Expression	Result
doc/connectorSpecific/field[1]	Selects the first field element that is the child of the connectorSpecific element.
doc/connectorSpecific/field[@name]	Selects all the field elements that have an attribute named name
doc/connectorSpecific/field[@name='id']	Selects all the field elements that have a "name" attribute with a value of "id"

How to use AXPath

Simple Java example

AXPath myXPath = AXPathFactory.newInstance("components/component/config/agency"); 
String agency = myXPath.getString(someDOMElementOrAspireObject);

Using AXPath in a Groovy Script

This is a simple groovy script that you can use in a workflow to retrieve data from your doc.

import com.searchtechnologies.aspire.framework.AXPathFactory;
import com.searchtechnologies.aspire.services.AXPath;

AXPath xPathId = AXPathFactory.newInstance("doc/connectorSpecific/field[@name='id']");
String id = xPathId.getString(doc);

AXPath xPathDisplayName = AXPathFactory.newInstance("doc/connectorSpecific/field[@name='displayName']");
String displayName = xPathDisplayName.getString(doc);
 
println(id + " - " + displauyName);

Remember to import the AXPathFactory and the AXPath clases in your groovy script

Example doc

This is a regular doc file, that you can access from your workflow

<doc>
  <id>c:\dev\Custom-theme.css</id>
  <fetchUrl>file:/c:/dev/Custom-theme.css</fetchUrl>
  <url>file://c:/dev/Custom-theme.css</url>
  <displayUrl>c:\dev\Custom-theme.css</displayUrl>
  <lastModified>2016-04-22T19:57:35Z</lastModified>
  <dataSize>20132</dataSize>
  <acls/>
  <action>add</action>
  <connectorSpecific type="filesystem">
    <field name="id">2568545</field>
    <field name="displayName">Custom-theme.css</field>
    <field name="isContainer">false</field>
  </connectorSpecific>
  <docType>item</docType>
  <sourceName>File System Source2</sourceName>
  <sourceId>File_System_Source2</sourceId>
  <repItemType>aspire/file</repItemType>
  <hierarchy>
    <item id="ED49128EDF0AFC48229B2DE7696F573B" level="3" name="Custom-theme.css" url="file://c:/dev/Custom-theme.css">
      <ancestors>
        <ancestor id="BEEC3D649254F4E80658B633C58680C7" level="2" name="dev" parent="true" url="c:\dev"/>
        <ancestor id="B039D5CCDC96EE3CA35D2105DE66E182" level="1" url="c:\"/>
      </ancestors>
    </item>
  </hierarchy>
  <protocol source="FetchURL/protocol">file</protocol>
  <mimeType source="FetchURL/mimeType">content/unknown</mimeType>
  <extension source="FetchURL">
    <field name="modificationDate">2016-04-22T19:57:35Z</field>
    <field name="content-length">20132</field>
    <field name="last-modified">Fri, 22 Apr 2016 19:57:35 GMT</field>
    <field name="content-type">content/unknown</field>
  </extension>
  <contentType source="ExtractTextStage/Content-Type">text/plain; charset=windows-1252</contentType>
  <extension source="ExtractTextStage">
    <field name="X-Parsed-By">org.apache.tika.parser.DefaultParser</field>
    <field name="Content-Encoding">windows-1252</field>
    <field name="resourceName">file://c:/dev/Custom-theme.css</field>
  </extension>
  <content source="ExtractTextStage"><![CDATA[

::-webkit-input-placeholder {
    color: #979797 !important;
}

:-moz-placeholder { /* Firefox 18- */
    color: #979797 !important;;
}

::-moz-placeholder {  /* Firefox 19+ */
    color: #979797 !important;;
}

:-ms-input-placeholder {
    color: #979797 !important;;
}
.
.
.
]]></content>
</doc>

Page tree

AspireObject XPath