xsltproc vs XPath evaluate() method

[A. W. Dunstan]

I'm trying to figure out how XPath expressions work, and how I can use them
to extract data into a particular format. I can extract the data I want
using an XPath expression, but not with an XSLT stylesheet. Here's the
Java/XPath I'm using:


import java.io.*;
import javax.xml.parse rs.*;
import org.w3c.dom.*;
import org.xml.sax.SAX Exception;
import javax.xml.xpath .*;

public class XpathEval
{
public static void main(String []args)
{
try {
XpathEval loader = new XpathEval("src. xml");
loader.evaluate Xpath();
}
catch(Exception e) {
System.out.prin tln(e);
}
}


public XpathEval(Strin g filename)
throws javax.xml.parse rs.ParserConfig urationExceptio n,
SAXException,
IOException
{
DocumentBuilder Factory dbf = DocumentBuilder Factory.newInst ance();
DocumentBuilder db = dbf.newDocument Builder();
m_doc = db.parse(new File(filename)) ;
}

public void evaluateXpath(S tring xpathExpr)
throws XPathExpression Exception
{
XPathFactory f = XPathFactory.ne wInstance();
XPath p = f.newXPath("/nuc2/Exer/ExerciseNicknam e");
NodeList nl = (NodeList)p.eva luate(xpathExpr , m_doc,
XPathConstants. NODESET);
for (int i = 0; i < nl.getLength(); i++)
System.out.prin tln(nl.item(i). getNodeName() + " -" +
nl.item(i).getT extContent());
}

private Document m_doc;
}


However, if I try to extract & format the data via xsltproc it doesn't
extract the data. Here's the command I use:

xsltproc xsltStyleSheet. xsl src.xml

with the following for xsltStyleSheet. xsl:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<xsl:styleshe et xmlns:xsl="http ://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
version="1.0">

<xsl:template match="/">
EXER/<xsl:value-of
select="/nuc2/Exer/ExerciseNicknam e"/>/NICK:<xsl:value-of
select="/nuc2/Exer/ExerciseAdditio nalIdentifier"/>//
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>



Instead of printing out what I expect (the odd format is a requirement for
what I'm trying to convert it to):

EXER/pushups/NICK:whatever//

it prints this:

EXER//NICK://

If I change the XPath expression in my XSLT stylesheet to
select="//ExerciseNicknam e" then it works. But in the full XML file there
are places where that won't work - there's /a/b/fieldname
and /x/y/fieldname and I want exactly one of them. I suppose I could make
that work, but I'd like to know what I'm doing wrong.

The XML source (src.xml, above) is:

<ns2:nuc2 xsi:schemaLocat ion="nuc2.xsd" xmlns:ns1="Exer _Sets"
xmlns:xsi="http ://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:ns2="nuc2 ">

<ns1:Exer SetSequence="1" SetDescription= "Exercise Identification" >
<ExerciseNickna me>pushups</ExerciseNicknam e>
<ExerciseAdditi onalIdentifier> whatever</ExerciseAdditio nalIdentifier>
</ns1:Exer>

</ns2:nuc2>


I'm giving it the same XPath expression in both cases
("/nuc2/Exer/ExerciseNicknam e") - one finds what I'm looking for, the other
doesn't. I'm using Java 1.6.0_05 on Fedora 8. xsltproc comes from the
libxslt package, version 1.1.24.

Any clues?

thanks!

--
Al Dunstan, Software Engineer
OptiMetrics, Inc.
3115 Professional Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-5131

[Martin Honnen]

Re: xsltproc vs XPath evaluate() method

A. W. Dunstan wrote:

DocumentBuilder Factory dbf = DocumentBuilder Factory.newInst ance();

For XPath stuff you should always use a namespace aware factory/document
builder so make sure you call the method to enable that.

The XML source (src.xml, above) is:
>
<ns2:nuc2 xsi:schemaLocat ion="nuc2.xsd" xmlns:ns1="Exer _Sets"
xmlns:xsi="http ://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:ns2="nuc2 ">
>
<ns1:Exer SetSequence="1" SetDescription= "Exercise Identification" >
<ExerciseNickna me>pushups</ExerciseNicknam e>
<ExerciseAdditi onalIdentifier> whatever</ExerciseAdditio nalIdentifier>
</ns1:Exer>
>
</ns2:nuc2>

So your XML uses namespaces, to cater for that the XSLT stylesheet needs
to bind prefixes to the namespaces used:
<xsl:styleshe et
xmlns:xsl="http ://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
version="1.0"
xmlns:ns2="nuc2 "
xmlns:ns1="Exer _Sets"
exclude-result-prefixes="ns1 ns2">
then you need to use those prefixes in your XPath expressions and in
your XSLT match patterns:

<xsl:value-of select="/ns2:nuc2/ns1:Exer/ExerciseNicknam e"/>

You just got lucky with your Java program as you used a not namespace
aware DOM I think, if you use a namespace aware DOM then you need
prefixes in your XPath expressions too and need to manage them in your
Java program too.


--

Martin Honnen

http://JavaScript.FAQTs.com/

[A. W. Dunstan]

Re: xsltproc vs XPath evaluate() method

Martin Honnen wrote:

A. W. Dunstan wrote:
>

> DocumentBuilder Factory dbf =
> DocumentBuilder Factory.newInst ance();

>
For XPath stuff you should always use a namespace aware factory/document
builder so make sure you call the method to enable that.
>

>The XML source (src.xml, above) is:
>>
><ns2:nuc2 xsi:schemaLocat ion="nuc2.xsd" xmlns:ns1="Exer _Sets"
> xmlns:xsi="http ://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
> xmlns:ns2="nuc2 ">
>>
> <ns1:Exer SetSequence="1" SetDescription= "Exercise Identification" >
> <ExerciseNickna me>pushups</ExerciseNicknam e>
> <ExerciseAdditi onalIdentifier> whatever</ExerciseAdditio nalIdentifier>
> </ns1:Exer>
>>
></ns2:nuc2>

>
So your XML uses namespaces, to cater for that the XSLT stylesheet needs
to bind prefixes to the namespaces used:
<xsl:styleshe et
xmlns:xsl="http ://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
version="1.0"
xmlns:ns2="nuc2 "
xmlns:ns1="Exer _Sets"
exclude-result-prefixes="ns1 ns2">
then you need to use those prefixes in your XPath expressions and in
your XSLT match patterns:
>
<xsl:value-of select="/ns2:nuc2/ns1:Exer/ExerciseNicknam e"/>
>
You just got lucky with your Java program as you used a not namespace
aware DOM I think, if you use a namespace aware DOM then you need
prefixes in your XPath expressions too and need to manage them in your
Java program too.

It works! Much thanks. I'll go read up on namespaces.

--
Al Dunstan, Software Engineer
OptiMetrics, Inc.
3115 Professional Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-5131