Get Node value from a XML using xmllint

Question

I have a xml called Det.xml like this :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <S:Envelope xmlns:S="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
        <S:Body>
            <ns4:grtHgetRed xmlns:ns2="http://object" xmlns:ns3="http://object" xmlns:ns4="http://object">
                <RequestId>lol</RequestId>
                <MessageDateTime>54.009</MessageDateTime>
                <SenderId>UH</SenderId>
                <ReceiverId>GER</ReceiverId>
                <TrackingNumber>45</TrackingNumber>
                <ServerName>trewds</ServerName>
                <ResponseType>success</ResponseType>
                <StatusInfo>
                <Status>success</Status>
                <SystemMessage>Hagert</SystemMessage>
                <UserMessage>Hgert</UserMessage>
                <Origination>htref</Origination>
                </StatusInfo>
            </ns4:grtHgetRed>
        </S:Body>
    </S:Envelope>

I am trying to get the ResponseType node value success from it using xmllint in Unix shell script and so i tried the following :

echo "cat //*[local-name()='S:Envelope'/*[local-name()='S:Body']/*[local-name()='ns4:grtHgetRed']/*[local-name()='ResponseType']" | xmllint --shell Det
.xml | sed '/^\/ >/d' | sed 's/<[^>]*.//g'

But it's not working . Also i don't have xpath in my unix environment . Can any one tell me what am i doing wrong here ?

Possible duplicate of [Native shell command set to extract node value from XML](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16959908/native-shell-command-set-to-extract-node-value-from-xml) — Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com, Oct 07 '15 at 11:00

Ian Roberts · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-24T13:28:22.783

3

The local-name() is just the bit after the colon, so instead of e.g. local-name()='S:Envelope' try just local-name()='Envelope'.

/*[local-name()='Envelope']/*[local-name()='Body']/*[local-name()='grtHgetRed']/*[local-name()='ResponseType']

Or you may want to consider an alternative tool such as xmlstarlet which has better support for this kind of thing.

edited Sep 24 '13 at 13:28

answered Sep 24 '13 at 12:58

Ian Roberts

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I tried this one `statusMSG=="$(echo "cat /Envelope/Body/grtHgetRed/ResponseType/text()" | xmllint --nocdata --shell response.xml | sed '1d;$d')"` Then when i do `echo "$statusMSG"`, i find the echo to be empty . – The Dark Knight Sep 24 '13 at 13:02
@TheDarkKnight `/Envelope/...` definitely won't work because that would be looking for an element with no namespace, and your XML has it in the `http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/` namespace. – Ian Roberts Sep 24 '13 at 13:13

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 06 '13 at 00:26

If there is only ever a single ResponseType element in the XML, use the following to simplify things:

echo 'cat //ResponseType/text()' | xmllint --shell det.xml

The // is XPath syntax for "find this element anywhere in the document".

The text() function returns the contents of the element, meaning you do not need the further massage the result with sed et. al.

This worked for me on both a Solaris and Linux box for which xmllint does not have the --xpath option available.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 24 '13 at 12:56

0

I don't know what you are doing wrong... If using XMLlint is not mandatory, you can use JDom, works like a charm for requirements like yours... Just a suggestion...

answered Sep 24 '13 at 12:56

TheLostMind

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Get Node value from a XML using xmllint

3 Answers3