Dom4j selectNodes(arg) don't give list of nodes

Question

I am using DOM4j for XML work in java, my xml is like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" ?>
<abcd name="ab.catalog" xmlns="http://www.xyz.com/pqr" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.xyz.com/pqr ./abc.xyz.xsd">             
<efg>
......
</efg>
<efg>
.....
</efg>
</abcd>

then,

List<Node>list = document.selectNodes("/abcd/efg");

gets the size of list zero. I feel it's due to namespace specified in the xml. I tried a lot but cn't get success.

score 14 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 14 '13 at 13:18

14

Unprefixed element names in XPath expressions refer to elements that are not in a namespace - they do not take account of the "default" xmlns="..." namespace declared on the document. You need to declare a prefix for the namespace in the XPath engine and then use that prefix in the expression. Here is an example inspired by the DOM4J javadocs:

Map uris = new HashMap();
uris.put("pqr", "http://www.xyz.com/pqr");
XPath xpath = document.createXPath("/pqr:abcd/pqr:efg");
xpath.setNamespaceURIs(uris);
List<Node> nodes = xpath.selectNodes(document);

answered Jan 14 '13 at 13:18

Ian Roberts

120,891
16
170
183

@ Ian: thanxs, it works, but i have a query if i have to retrieve some more node or node value in the child to child node, then i tried as the same specified above like > for(Node node:nodes){ XPath xpath1 = document.createXPath("//edx:Name/value-"); xpath1.setNamespaceURIs(uris); Node nameNode = (Node) xpath1.selectSingleNode(node); } but it gives nameNode null. how to make it workable like dom4j. any input will be appreciable. – user1808932 Jan 14 '13 at 13:35
@user1808932 `//edx:Name/value-` is an _absolute_ path, which will start looking from the root node of the document that contains `node`. If you want `edx:Name` descendants of the current `node` then you need to use a relative path `.//edx:Name/value-` (with a leading dot). – Ian Roberts Jan 14 '13 at 14:29

score -5 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 14 '13 at 16:29

-5

Modify your code :

List<Node>list = document.selectNodes("//abcd/efg");

answered Nov 14 '13 at 16:29

Achyut

377
1
3
17

4

this is not true. the `//` syntax has nothing to do with namespaces – Martin Serrano May 21 '14 at 01:38
This answer is utterly wrong and should be deleted. – kjhughes Jul 19 '22 at 20:12

Dom4j selectNodes(arg) don't give list of nodes

2 Answers2

Linked