XPath Expressions

Understand how you can use XPath Expressions to navigate through elements in an XML document in Adobe FrameMaker.

In this topic

Introduction
XPath Examples
XPath toolbar
XPath Builder panel
XPath Auto-Suggest

Introduction

An XML document consists of a hierarchy of elements. An XPath expression is used to navigate through elements and attributes in an XML document.

XPath Examples

Given the following XML file:

<topic id="abc">
  <title>Using XPATH</title>
  <body>
    <p>Using XPATH is easy.</p>
    <fig>
      <image href="images/xpath.png"/>
    </fig>
    <section>
      <title>Examples</title>
      <p audience="novice">A simple example.</p>
      <p audience="expert">An advanced example.</p>
      <p audience="expert">Another advanced example.</p>
      <fig>
        <image href="images/xpath-axes.png">
          <alt>This screenshot shows the XPATH axes</alt>
        </image>
      </fig>
    </section>
    <p>The End.</p>
  </body>
</topic>

The following table contains a list of some XPath expressions for the XML example given above.

XPath Query	Locates
`/topic`	Returns the `<topic>` root element.
`//title`	Returns any `<title>` element.
`//section/title`	Returns only the `<title>` element that is a child of a `<section>` element.
`//p`	Returns any `<p>` element.
`//p[@audience='expert']`	Returns any `<p>` element where the `@audience` attribute is set to `expert`.
`//p[not(@audience)]`	Returns any `<p>` element where the `@audience` attribute is missing.
`//p[not(@audience='admin')]`	Returns any `<p>` element where the `@audience` attribute is not of value `admin` OR is missing.
`//p[text()='To start this process']`	Returns any `<p>` elements that start with the text string `To start this process`.
`//p[contains(.,'button')]`	Returns any `<p>` element that contain the text string `button` somewhere in the text.
`//image[not(alt)]`	Returns any `<image>` element that is missing the `<alt>` child element.

For more information on XPath, see http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath/

XPath Builder panel

Figure 2. XPath Builder panel

The Query Builder is also a convenient interface to build XPath expressions. In the Query Builder, you can create (using Auto-Suggest functionality) and run an XPath query.

You can also specify the Scope of the search:

Current File
All Open Files
Folder
DITA Map or Book. This option is available if you select a DITA Map or book in the Resource Manager

XPath Auto-Suggest

The Auto-Suggest feature provides suggested components that you can add to the XPath expression as you create the query.

For example, in the following XML:

<body> 
<p>The quick brown fox.</p> 
<p audience="admin">Jumped over the lazy dogs.</p> 
</body>

In the Query Builder field start with entering a forward slash (/).

As soon as you enter the forward slash, the following suggestions display:

Auto-Suggestions
Use the up and down arrow keys to select the option and press Enter to insert the component into the query.
To add another element to the query, enter a forward slash.

Alternatively, to add an attribute, enter an opening square bracket ([).

The Auto-Suggest list contains the following components of an XPath query:

Element (orange indicator)

Elements at the current position in the current document.

Attribute (blue indicator)

Attributes at the current position in the current document.

Axes (green indicator)

An axis is a node definition relative to the current node. For example, parent, child, ancestor.

Click the drop-down list to the right of the Enable Auto-Suggest option and un-check the Axes option to hide the available axes in the Auto-Suggest list.

Note: You can choose to disable the Auto-Suggest feature in the Query Builder.

Click the Save icon to save the current results of the XPath query.

XPath Expressions

Introduction

XPath Examples

XPath toolbar

XPath Builder panel

XPath Auto-Suggest